A Guide to New Religious Movements

by Ronald M. Enroth

Book Overview

Today's pluralistic society is filled with religious alternatives and options, and the choices for faith commitment have never been more numerous. Many of these new religious movements are growing at... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0739454951
• ISBN13: 9780739454954
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: InterVarsity Press
• Length: 215 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Basic Overview

This book edited by Ron Enroth is a good basic overview of religions commonly referred to by evangelical Christians as "cults." Rather than use this term, however, as the title declares, it uses the term "New Religious Movements." This is a more recent term which does not carry with it the negative connotation as does the word cult. (As an aside, however, this term itself can be quite ambiguous.) The chapters are written by leading authors and provide general overviews of the religions discussed. This work is best suited for those who are getting their first exposure to these groups. It is not intended for scholarly inquiry. Consider the book a small dictionary or encylopedia of select religious groups. The book can be read from cover to cover or referred to when seeking information about a specific group. The first chapter (written by editor Enroth) defines the term New Religious Movements. Chapters two through ten summarize the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses, Yoga and Hinduism, Unification Church, Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Astral Religion and the New Age, the Dali Lama and Tibetan Buddhism, Neopaganism, the Baha'i World Faith, and the Nation of Islam (in that order). There is no template the authors follow, allowing them to use their own method in their chapters. Some offer overt Christian/biblical responses to the faith they describe; others do not. Yet it is clear that the work is designed to introduce these groups to Christians. And inclusion of a group in the book necesarily implies that said group would be considered objectionable to Christians. The last chapter is titled "Evaluating New Religious Movements." A three-pronged approach is followed. Using the Apostle's Creed as the standard statement of orthodox Christian belief, LaVonne Neff, first, instructs readers on how to identify a group as lying outside traditional Christian parameters (recognizing that not all the religions discussed have necessarily diverged from Christianity but nonetheless present some challenge to Christian teaching). Second, Neff, instructs readers to evaluate groups on the basis of how it treats its members. He offers a list of questions to ask a group/religion in carrying out such an assessment. Third, Neff, offers four ways in which New Religious Movements can help the church. To be sure, he does not mean that these groups can teach the church theology, for that is the primary point of contention between traditional Christianity and the New Religious Movements. Rather, his comments suggest that these groups call Christians/Christianity to instrospection and renewed concern for others. Again, this book is geared to the novice and can be a good first look. One would want to springboard from this work to other more indepth works for further information.