The New Believers: Sects, Cults and Alternative Religions Book

"New" religions are as old as time. Every period of history has produced a crop of cults with their messiahs, faith healers, charlatans, gurus, preachers and prophets. The human religious impulse almost demands that such characters be thrown up from the teeming mass of searching souls. Author David V Barrett is eminently suited to chronicle The New Believers of our times. He is a journalist and scholar. He writes for popular papers and magazines, but he is also finishing a PhD in the sociology of new religions. His journalistic style is fast-paced and interesting. Like any good journalist he reduces his topic to short readable chunks while his scholarship makes sure the facts are right. The New Believers is a great resource for every religious educator and college library. It outlines all the current cranky religions in four logical categories: those which derive from Christianity, from other "religions of the book", from Eastern faiths and from the occult and paganism. Barrett also provides an overview of the "cult mentality", the history of sects and a glance at "personal development" cults. In doing so he always combines a genuine enthusiasm for his topic with an objective approach which is never sensationalist or condemnatory. With an exhaustive bibliography and detailed index, this is both a good reference book and a good read. The only down side is that a book like this has to be big, and big means expensive. Unfortunately, this will put The New Believers out of the range of some readers. --Dwight LongeneckerRead More