New religious movements such as the Moonies, Jehovah's Witnesses and Hare Krishnas are now well established in mainstream cultural consciousness. But responses to these 'cult' groups still tend to be overwhelmingly negative, characterized by the furious reactions that they evoke from majority interests. Modern societies need to learn how best to respond to such movements, and how to interpret their benefits and dangers.Researching New Religious Movements provides a cutting-edge analysis of the controversy around new religions in America and Europe today. Drawing on original fieldwork, it explores the battles between the recruiting factions of groups like the Moonies, and the anti-cult movements and Church societies that have mobilized to oppose these. It considers academic and media interventions on both sides, placing special emphasis on the problems of objectivity inherent in the language of 'sects', 'abduction' and 'brainwashing'. Ideal for students, researchers and professionals, this provocative and much-needed book takes the debate over new religious movements to a newly sophisticated level.

Elisabeth Arweck is Research Fellow at the University of Warwick's Religions and Education Research Unit. She co-edits the Journal of Contemporary Religion, and has co-edited several books including New Religious Movements in Western Europe (1997) and Theorizing Faith (2002).

Foreword Acknowledgements 1. What This Book Is About 2. Milestones in a Reseach Itinerary 3. Institutions and Institutional Knowledge Part 1: Institutions Part 2: Institutional Knowledge 4. Sketching in the Cultural Background Part 1: The Contours of Religious Cultures Part 2: The Contours of Academic Cultures 5. The 'Anti-Cult' Movement's Response Part 1: The ACM Response in Britain: The Case of FAIR Part 2: The ACM Response in German: The Case of Elterminitiative 6. The Response of the Mainstream Churches Part 1: The Response of the Church of England Part 2: The Response of the Protestant Church in German Section 1: Evangelische Zentrallstelle fur Weltanschauunsfragen (EZW) Section 2: Pastror Friedrich-Wilhelm Haack and Arbeitsgemeinschaft fur Religions - und Weltanschuunsfragen Part 3: The Response of the Roman Catholic Church 7. Conclusions Bibliography