It is challenging to keep up with the emergence of new and minority religions around the globe. Moreover, it is difficult to differentiate between new religions, cults, and dangerous cults. “Cult” is a problematic expression, since it has come to mean evil or dangerous religion. Nevertheless, it is still used as a shorthand for preferred terms, such as new religious movements, minority religions, alternative religions, and so on.
This page provides a listing of sources, rather than particular groups, to offer a range of academic yet accessible research into new and alternative religions. Many books will be available for free at the public library, or through inter-library loan, and are of course available for purchase through booksellers. Some of the journals listed are open access; others have a paywall but are generally accessible through public and university libraries either in print or through online databases such as ATLA, JSTOR, and Project Muse.
While there are many websites created by former NRM members that are highly critical, and other websites hosted by NRMs that are quite positive, we will not include either type on this page. The one website we do present is that developed by the World Religions and Spirituality Project or WRSP. This website has numerous articles on cults/NRMs written by experts on each religious group.
JOURNALS
Listed in Alphabetical Order
Bitter Winter: A Magazine on Religious Liberty and Human Rights (open access) : Daily news and information about government repression of minority religions around the world. Published by the Center for Studies on New Religions, Torino, Italy.
International Journal for the Study of New Religions : Scholarly articles about new religious movements around the globe. Published by Equinox Publishers for the International Society for the Study of New Religions.
International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation (open access) : Scholarly articles focused on the harm caused by cults. Published by the International Cultic Studies Association.
International Journal of Cultic Studies (open access) : Predecessor to International Journal of Coercion, Abuse, and Manipulation, this journal features a variety of articles that are both scholarly and popular. Some articles analyze particular issues, some address recovery and trauma, some focus on particular groups, in a wide-ranging format.
Journal of CESNUR (open access): Scholarly articles about new religious movements around the globe. Published by the Center for Studies on New Religions, Torino, Italy.
Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions : Scholarly articles about new religious movements around the globe. Published by University of Pennsylvania Press for the Association for the Academic Study of New Religions.
BOOKS
We have listed books by date of publication, from most recent to oldest. We have included books only from the twenty-first century and only those published by academic or trade presses. We have not included any self-help volumes in this list, but rather general encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks.
The Oxford handbook of new religious movements.
Lewis, James R. and Tøllefsen, Inga Bårdsen, editors
2016
Handbook of Scientology
Lewis, James R; Hellesøy, Kjersti, editors
2016
Handbook of Nordic new religions
Lewis, James R., editor
2015
Handbook of spiritualism and channeling
Gutierrez, Cathy, editor
2015
The Bloomsbury companion to new religious movements
Chryssides, George D., and Benjamin Zeller, editors
2014
Controversial new religions, 2nd ed.
Lewis, James R. and Petersen, Jesper Aa., editors
2014
Cults : a reference guide
Lewis, James R.
2014
Melton’s encyclopedia of American religions
Melton, J. Gordon; Beverley, James A; Jones, Constance M; Nadell, Pamela Susan
2009
Handbook of New Age
Kemp, Daren and Lewis, James R, editors
2007
The encyclopedic sourcebook of Satanism
Lewis, James R. and Petersen, Jesper Aagaard, editors
2006
Cults : a reference handbook
Lewis, James R.
2005
Controversial new religions, 1st ed.
Lewis, James R. and Petersen, Jesper Aagaard, editors
2005
New religions : a guide : new religious movements, sects, and alternative spiritualities
Partridge, Christopher H., editor
2004
The Oxford handbook of new religious movements
Lewis, James R., editor
2004
The encyclopedic sourcebook of New Age religions
Lewis, James R., editor
2004
UFO religions
Partridge, Christopher, editor
2003
New religious movements and religious liberty in America
Davis, Derek and Hankins, Barry
2002
The encyclopedia of cults, sects, and new religions
Lewis, James R
2002
Satanism today : an encyclopedia of religion, folklore, and popular culture
Lewis, James R
2001
UFOs and popular culture : an encyclopedia of contemporary myth
Lewis, James R.
2000
(Rebecca Moore is Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at San Diego State University, and has written and published extensively on Peoples Temple and Jonestown. Rebecca is also the co-manager of this website. Her full collection of articles on this site may be found here. She may be reached at remoore@sdsu.edu.)