New Religious Movements: A Documentary Reader

I chose this reader as part of a course I developed on New Religious Movements in America for Honors Program students. The authors propose a five-fold typlogy for examining NRMs that I found useful in teaching students how to examine and think about the various NRMs we studied. I would definitely recommend this for teaching, and it is a very comprehensive overview for those who simply want to know more about NRMs. Best part - it is a "neutral" approach, unlike many of the books out there that are designed to be anti-"cult," covertly or overtly.

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This book appears to be an unbiased view of NRMs. The editors are careful to explain how the use of the word "cult" is pejorative. They have included a nice variety of religions that fall outside the traditional faiths. But all of this is misleading when they address The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Whenever they mention The Church of Jesus Christ, they say it is a NRM, yet they do not include a chapter on it despite the fact that it has the most members of any other the other religions focused on in the book. They do include a small discussion about The Church of Jesus Christ in their chapter entitled, "Constructing the New Religious Threat". In this chapter, they use the writings of an apostate member of the Church and follow up with a quote by Jan Karen van Baalen in "The Chaos of Cults," which clearly label The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a cult, going against their previous sanctimonious stand of avoiding the use of the term, "cult." As a professor of World Religions, I find this hypocrisy and bias to lack sincere scholarship and scholarly professionalism. I would never use this book in my course and I give it the lowest possible endorsement possible.

I expected this to be a book like many that I've read on newer, fringe religious movements. I expected some sort of undertone of contempt or finger-pointing, calling one or all of them a cult and warning the reader not to be sucked in. Either that, or I expected it to be a whiny, self-pitying lecture on how nobody understands these groups and the members are oppressed by non-believers. Instead this book is an actual look at the different groups from a non-biased standpoint, neither glorifying nor condemning the groups.Not only is this book easy to read, it is fascinating. It is also well put together, comprehensive and quite educational.