Do new religious movements, or "cults" as they are often known, harm those who join them, or are they a form of alternative therapy? This objective analysis examines the phenomenon of cults from a variety of perspectives: psychological, sociological, legal and theological, and deals with some of the major problems which confront those dealing with issues raised by these movements.

Perspectives New Religious Movements

Saliba, John A.

UNKNO

Social Science and the Cults: An Annotated Bibliography (Routledge Library Editions: Sociology of Religion)

Religion & Spirituality

Routledge

This book, first published in 1990, brings together descriptive, comparative, and theoretical materials on cults and sects in Western culture, focusing on literature published since 1970. A historical section links the rise of the new movements to similar past phenomena in Western culture. Other sections examine the methodology of studying religious movements and the various theories which have been brought to explain them, current studies on traditional sects that are sometimes compared to the new religions, and many studies of individual contemporary cults.

Understanding New Religious Movements

Discussions of any religion can easily raise passions. But arguments tend to become even more heated when the religion under discussion is characterized as new. Divisions around the study of new religious movements (NRMs), or cults, or nontraditional or alternative or emergent religions are so acute that there is even controversy over what to call them. John Saliba strives to bring balance to these discussions by offering perspectives on new religions from different academic perspectives: history, psychology, sociology, law, theology, and counseling. This approach provides rich descriptions of a broad range of movements while demonstrating how the differing aims of the disciplines can create much of the controversy around NRMs. The new second edition has been updated and revised throughout and includes a new foreword by noted historian of religion, J. Gordon Melton. For classes in religion or the social sciences, or for interested individuals, Understanding New Religious Movements offers the most objective introduction possible.

History

World

AltaMira Press

From Jonestown to Waco, from the Moonies to Scientology, new religious movements or "cults," as they are often and pejoratively called - are constantly in the news. Few books from a Christian background are anything but hostile to the vast expansion of these new ways of expressing religious sentiment. But Understanding New Religious Movements is different. John A. Saliba, who has been writing on new religious movements since 1976, here offer a dispassionate, balanced analysis of new religions. After opening with a broad overview of the new religious movements in contemporary Western culture and critically examining the various definitions and generalized features commonly applied to such movements, Saliba surveys a few select religious movements that have appeared throughout the history of the West - Gnosticism, the Cathars, the Flagellants, the Ranters, the Shabbatean Movement, and Mormonism. In the main body of the book Saliba examines new religious movements from a variety of perspectives - sociological, psychological, legal, and theological. Readers encounter such groups as the Hare Krishna movement, Transcendental Meditation, Scientology, and the Unification Church. Finally, Saliba offers principles and practical suggestions to psychiatrists, psychologists, and counselors who may be called on to advise cult and ex-cult members and their families. This volume is a serious study of interest to anyone who has contact with new religious movements or who seeks to understand the underlying motivations that may lead people to join them.

Religious Studies

Eerdmans Pub.Co.

Psychiatry and the Cults: An Annotated Bibliography (Routledge Library Editions: Psychiatry)

Psychiatry and the Cults (Routledge Library Editions: Psychiatry)

Religious Studies: Religions of the World - Bloomsbury Academic Collections (Religious Studies: Bloomsbury Academic Collections)

Renou, Louis

Werblowsky, R. J.

Bloomsbury Academic

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