Table of Contents

World religions - historical background; Christian-originated religions; Eastern-originated religions; esoteric and neo-pagan; personal development movements; observations and conclusions; addresses.

Reviews

Beginning with a brief history of major world religions, British journalist Barrett proceeds to present systematically a history of Christian "heresies" and movements. He moves from there to Eastern neopagan movements such as wicca, druidry, and theosophy and closes with studies of such self-help movements as neurolinguistic programming and Scientology. Barrett writes concisely but thoroughly, in an accessible, objective, and (both geographically and chronologically) encyclopedic fashion that makes his work truly stand out. Within a literature dominated by Christian (ergo hostile) surveys of alternative religions, the only in-print study even comparable to this work is J. Gordon Melton's Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America (Garland, 1992. rev. ed.). The one minor shortcoming worth noting is that the "useful addresses" are mostly in Great Britain. Libraries will find Barrett's work appropriate for either (or both) circulating and reference collections.‘Bill Piekarski, Southwestern Coll. Lib., Chula Vista, Cal.