Rodney Stark is one of the leading authorities on the sociology of religion. Stark has authored more than 150 scholarly articles and 32 books in 17 different languages, including several widely used sociology textbooks and best-selling titles. William Sims Bainbridge earned his doctorate in sociology from Harvard University in 1975. Altogether he has published about 300 articles and written or edited 40 books in a variety of scientific fields.

• Acknowledgments1 The Nature of Religion2 Of Churches, Sects, and CultsI THE RELIGIOUS ECNOMY3 The Spectrum of Faiths4 Religious RegionalismII SECT MOVEMENTS5 The Eternal Exodus: Causes of Religious Dissentand Schism6 American-Born Sect Movements7 Sect Transformation and Upward Mobility:The Missing Mechanisms  III CULTS8 Three Models of Cult Formation9 Cult Movements in America: A Reconnaissance10 Client and Audience Cults in America11 Cult Membership in the Roaring Twenties12 Scientology: To Be Perfectly Clear13 The Rise and Decline of Transcendental MeditationIV RECRUITMENT14 Networks of Faith: Interpersonal Bonds and Recruitmentto Cults and Sects15 Friendship, Religion, and the Occult16 The Arithmetic of Social Movements:Theoretical Implications17 The "Consciousness Reformation" Reconsidered18 Who Joins Cult Movements?V SOURCES OF RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS19 Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation20 Church and Cult in Canada21 Europe's Receptivity to Cults and Sects22 Rebellion, Repressive Regimes, and Religious MovementsBibliographyIndex

"The authors break new ground for the social scientific study of religion in scope and theory. The result is an empirically based rebuttal of the secularization thesis. . . . Future will enlighten its intended audience: social scientists who study religion, and their students. Its conceptual and empirical rigor enhances the standing of the sociology of religion in the scientific community."