AUTHOR

Richard Irwin
Director of SMN since 2015 with responsibility for rebuilding the Network's on-line presense. I have a passion for reconciling science with spirituality (see http://danceineternity.com), who also composes and arranges music (see http://hymnswithoutwords.com).

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Prof. Eileen Barker: Cults, Sects or New Religious Movements? An Exploration of Alternative Spiritualities
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Prof. Eileen Barker: Cults, Sects or New Religious Movements? An Exploration of Alternative Spiritualities

For the past four decades my research has frequently found me living in various parts of the world with minority religions who believe and do things that would seem, at least prima facie, to be both incredible and incomprehensible. I have also found myself drawn into taking an active, and often uncomfortable role in the so-called ‘cult scene’. Although it is impossible to generalise about the thousands of religious movements that currently exist, in this talk I shall discuss some of the characteristics that new new religions tend to display and how these are likely to change within a relatively short period. I shall also describe how, when stepping out of the ivory tower, one can find oneself in a Monty Python situation, discovering the familiar in the unfamiliar and the unfamiliar in the familiar.