Product Description

The second revised edition explains the backgrounds to main world religions and then tackles the ever growing variations and alternatives under broad headings such as Christian originated, Eastern movements, Satanism, Neo-pagan, and the esoteric, psychological and self-help groups.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #524618 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 560 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
"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 Longenecker

The Daily Telegraph 10 Feb 2001
David Barrett's The New Believers is an excellent guide to fringe religions that juxtaposes "respectable" movements and those conventionally dismissed as cults.

Daily Mail 16 Feb 2001
David Barrett has compiled a no-nonsense, comprehensive survey packed with non-judgmental information about the beliefs, aims and activities of such movements.

Customer Reviews

Drawing Down The Moon?
Drawing comparisons with a book over 20 years old is not much use. David Barrett has been visiting modern religious groups on a regular basis, and the aim of the book is to give an up-to-date account. It does this superbly.

An excellent reference
I can highly recommend this if you're interested in the central tenets and practices of less mainstream religions. I've read it cover-to-cover at least a couple of times and it's an excellent reference for knowing your Unitarians from your Christian Scientists. It covers the whole gamut from the mainstream alternatives (e.g. Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses) to the ultra-obscure groups such as Elan Vital and The I AM Movement. This is not a book for those expecting an insincere or debunking exercise of the more esoteric religious faiths; the various sects are seriously and respectfully explored with Barrett gaining interviews with many of the groups main proponents and followers. Barrett himself is admirably neutral in his analysis and, as he says himself, "the book treats no theological position as more 'true' or 'valid' or 'sound' than any other".

There is so much information in this 500+ page book that I would be doing it a disservice by not at least attempting to mention some of the other areas that are covered. Nearly seventy sects are covered (which constitutes 'Part Two' and the large majority of the book) and within each of these analyses are the sections on the faith's history and an outline of beliefs and practices. Barrett also covers the various schisms within faiths and their off-shoots. However, Part One is a fascinating insight into many of the questions surrounding the growth and development of cults and alternative religions and seeks to define what exactly constitutes a 'cult' and what distinguishes them from 'real' or mainstream religion. In this section he considers the mechanism of cult conversion and recruitment, allegations of brainwashing, the problems of leaving a movement and how apocalyptic movements adapt and react once the prophesised apocalypse fails to materialise. Additionally Barrett explores some of the more sinister themes that are associated with certain groups and asks how and why the Waco type scenario could have occurred and how it may happen again. That said this book is less concerned with the tragic and more lunatic-fringe than the vast majority of other groups who, almost without exception, practice their faith with sincerity and in the pursuit of genuine spiritual enlightenment.

One's view on the contents of this book may depend on one's own established beliefs. Speaking as an agnostic but one who finds belief in religion fascinating I found this book enthralling and indispensible. The simply curious or those who (for whatever reason) require a comprehensive guide into the known and not-so-well-known cults that exist today should not hesitate in buying this excellent book.

An interesting book, if not the definitive
As this was the first book I have read on the subject of "new religious movements", I am not qualifiied to comment on the accuracy of it's content. However, I found this book to be clear in most of the topics it discussed, and also intensely readable. Considering that this is quite a sensitive, not to say controversial, issue I thought the book provided a fairly objective view of the different religious movements which it commented on. Altogether I think this is a useful resource, if not the definitive guide to the subject.