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| Acknowledgements | |
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| Why Study New Religious Movements? | |
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| The Cults in Our Midst | |
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| The Hostility Towards Cults | |
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| They Come in All Shapes and Sizes | |
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| Responding to the Suspicions of the Public | |
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| What Are New Religious Movements? | |
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| Religion and Its Continuing Significance | |
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| Churches, Sects, and Cults | |
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| Creating a Typology of Cults | |
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| How New Religious Movements Change with Success | |
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| Why Did New Religious Movements Emerge? | |
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| Asking the Right Question First | |
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| New Religious Movements as a Response to Cultural Change | |
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| Three Models of Cult Formation | |
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| New Religious Movements as an Expression of Cultural Continuity | |
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| Concluding Remarks | |
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| Who Joins New Religious Movements and Why? | |
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| The Stereotypes | |
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| Getting Involved with New Religious Movements | |
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| The Social Attributes of Those Who Join | |
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| Why Are American Converts to New Religious Movements Disproportionately Jewish? | |
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| Some Reasons for Joining | |
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| Are Converts to New Religious Movements 'Brainwashed'? | |
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| The Issue and Its Significance | |
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| The Case Against the Cults | |
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| The Case Against Brainwashing | |
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| The Active Versus Passive Convert | |
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| Reformulating the Issues in the Brainwashing Debate | |
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| Why Are New Religious Movements So Often Accused of Sexual Deviance? | |
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| Sexual Deviance and the Cults | |
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| Child Abuse and the Social Control of NRMs | |
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| Gender Matters | |
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| Why Do Some New Religious Movements Become Violent? | |
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| Responding to Recent 'Cult' Tragedies | |
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| Apocalyptic Beliefs | |
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| Charismatic Leadership | |
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| Social Encapsulation | |
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| Surviving the Failure of Apocalyptic Prophecies | |
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| Concluding Remarks | |
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| What Is the Cultural Significance of New Religious Movements? | |
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| Our Skewed Perspective | |
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| Modernism and the New Religious Movements | |
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| Factors Affecting the Success of NRMs | |
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| Postmodernism and the New Religious Movements | |
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| NRMs: Anti-modern, Modern, or Postmodern? | |
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| Concluding Remarks | |
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| Notes | |
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| Bibliography | |
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| Index | |