ABSTRACT
The advantages of looking at the historical background to the debate about the cults are several. The pre-1970 social-scientific literature on sects and cults is devoid of the emotionally charged debates that characterize more recent studies. Sects and cults are, therefore, expressions of religious change. In an atmosphere that is not focused on just one problem that cults might bring with them, scholars are likely to find it easier to direct their attention to several important factors and issues brought to the fore by the presence of sects and cults. Though social scientists are not interested in determining the level of orthodoxy of new religious groups, their writings indirectly support the views that religious diversity is the norm and that the emergence of new religious groups is a natural phenomenon. Many of the sectarian traits ascribed to both cults and sects are negative.
