ABSTRACT
This chapter presents general materials on the cults under four interrelated topics. Namely: the background to the cults; the extent of their presence in the West and of the scholarly interest in them; the theoretical speculations that have been advanced to explain their emergence and persistence; and the debate about methods that should be employed to study them. The presence of new religious movements or cults in Western society is a widespread phenomenon that has attracted the interests of scholars with different academic backgrounds. If social-scientific descriptions of cultic beliefs and behavior and theoretical speculations on their impact and significance cannot be refuted, then the only option left to reject the methodological approaches used to gather information and theoretical frameworks adopted to explain their presence and success. The controversy about the methods of studying the cults has repercussions on the kind of explanatory theories that scholars devise and on the manner in which research is conducted.
