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).