J. Gordon Melton is a research specialist in the Dept of Religious Studies, University College-Santa Barbara and author of a number of encyclopaedic works.
From the sensational to the conventional, this book covers it. --About.com If you can't learn an interesting bunch of facts from this book, you must already have a doctorate on the topic. -- The Modesto Bee [T]his is an entertaining and fascinating look at an astonishing variety of ways that people experience belief. -- The Dallas Morning News The [book's] result cannot help but be inspiring or alarming, depending on your understanding of true faith. -- Reference & Research Book News Melton is a longtime researcher in esoteric traditions and new or unconventional religious movements, subjects on which he has written extensively. The book is fascinating to flip through, will interest a wide range of readers, and is written for nonexperts. -- Library Journal J. Gordon Melton is a renowned authority on what academics call New Religious Movements. His expertise with the arcane shines from the pages. . . . [T]his is an entertaining and fascinating look at an astonishing variety of ways that people experience belief. -- The Dallas Morning News From the sensational to the conventional, this book covers it -- About.com The work is not an effort to promote religious phenomena, nor to pass judgment. ... That's part of the appeal of this work. It's amazing how informative it is, without being disrespectful of any religious experience. -- Kliatt Melton is a longtime researcher in esoteric traditions and new or unconventional religious movements, subjects on which he has written extensively. The book is fascinating to flip through, will interest a wide range of readers, and is written for nonexperts. -- Library Journal [Melton] gives readers interesting religious expressions and phenomena from Buddhism, Baha'I, Islam, indigenous faiths and Christianity. The result cannot help but be inspiring or alarming, depending on your understanding of true faith. -- Reference & Research Book News Melton, a renowned authority on New Religious Movements, takes on a broad range of topics. If you can't learn an interesting bunch of facts from this book, you must already have a doctorate on the topic. -- The Modesto Bee