What are New Religious Movements (NRMs)?

About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about what New Religious Movements (NRMs) are and the terminology we use to define them, focusing in particular on: (i) issues with the term “cult”, especially the negative popular associations its developed since the 1960s; (ii) the consequent decision of many scholars to use the more neutral term New Religious Movement; (iii) problems around what constitutes a new religion – should, for example, nineteenth-century sects count as NRMS?; (iv) Professor Barker’s preference for “first-generation movement” as a term which avoids ambiguity regarding the “new” in NRMs.

About the lecturer

Professor Eileen Barker is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the London School of Economics. She is a leading expert on New Religious Movements (NRMs), founder of the Information Network Focus on New Religious Movements (INFORM), and author of The Making of a Moonie (1984), a foundational text in the study of new religions. Her recent publications include Reactions to the Law by Minority Religions (2021, as co-editor) and Revisionism and Diversification in New Religious Movements (2016, as editor).