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Rating: 
Summary: Copiously researched, but a little too fair
Review: I like this book a great deal; we used it in a grad. seminar in my Ph.D. work. The book is very well researched, and the author takes great pains to understand the nature of the religious groups he discusses. He reveals that too often a standard stereotype of cults has prevented the FBI and other "cult watching" groups from correctly understanding and resolving conflicts that arise in cults. My only criticism is that at times, the author is a little too fair to the cults. It is hard for him to condemn even the most destructive behavior, and it gives the book a preachy tone, as though his readers are all bigots in need of sensitivity training toward cultists. This book is leagues better, however, than your standard "anti-cult" books, though, and I can't really think of anything like it on the topic. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Copiously researched, but a little too fair
Review: I like this book a great deal; we used it in a grad. seminar in my Ph.D. work. The book is very well researched, and the author takes great pains to understand the nature of the religious groups he discusses. He reveals that too often a standard stereotype of cults has prevented the FBI and other "cult watching" groups from correctly understanding and resolving conflicts that arise in cults. My only criticism is that at times, the author is a little too fair to the cults. It is hard for him to condemn even the most destructive behavior, and it gives the book a preachy tone, as though his readers are all bigots in need of sensitivity training toward cultists. This book is leagues better, however, than your standard "anti-cult" books, though, and I can't really think of anything like it on the topic. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding
Review: Philip Jenkins is one of America's best historians of religion, and also a frequent contributor to Chronicles magazine. In this work, Jenkins shows us that concern over "cults" goes back to the 1800's and that many of the allegations raised about modern cults (sex abuse, etc.) were also made about groups in the past (which as Jenkins states, doesn't mean that this is never found in certain fringe groups).Prof. Jenkins makes all sorts of interesting observations in this history of fringe groups, such as that some practices like women ministers and speaking in tongues were once considered far-out but are now considered mainstream. (Just look at the sorry state of "evangelical" Christianity in the U.S.) But the best part of this book is that it is just good history: lots of interesting facts and colorful characters.
Rating:
Summary: A very good read on an important topic
Review: Religious tolerance remains a key challenge today. Some contend that we are in a remarkable and unprecedented era of new "cults" and "heterodoxy". Jenkins' work is a timely and highly entertaining reminder that the American religious landscape has always been filled with new faiths dismissed in their time as deviant. In particular, Jenkins shows that in some instances the very religious movements that were once denounced as new faiths produce the leaders who in turn denounce the faiths that come after them. I found the work anecdotal and interesting, the kind of book one flips through back and forth rather than necessarily treating as a "novel-style" linear text. One might imagine that a work with Jenkins' theme would run a severe risk of being either a polemic or a dreary dissertation-like tome. Mystics and Messiahs evades both risks. Jenkins' writing style is highly readable, and his tone is not that of a pedantic, but of a sympathetic skeptic telling a bit of interesting popular history. The book is well documented, but there is no loss of a good read in pursuit of an "academically-refined text". America's pulsating religious need in our time is the need for tolerance (as the song says, "what's so funny 'bout peace, love and understanding?"). Jenkins' book illustrates the lessons from our history that past Americans' intolerance has caused us to learn, without interfering with the fact that the story of America's many faiths is a darned entertaining read. It is refreshing to see a level-headed book which is neither "XYZ Evangelist's Book of Cults" or "What Christians Fail to Get about our Wonderful New JLK Faiths". Instead, in the Dragnet parlance, it's more "just the facts", and whether one is a fervent believer or a casual skeptic, this one is a worthwhile read.
Rating: 
Summary: Maze of unsorted facts
Review: The book is good scholarship in that it presents a myriad of facts about a myriad of organizations and movements. However, it is also extremely bad scholarship in that the author is unable to make sense of his own research. The extensive facts become a cluttered maze, a complex puzzle the author is unable to fit together. The book is a good historical reference, but otherwise an a-theoretical work that offers little insight. The author would do well to reach out and read the work of others who apply a more analytical perspective to similar material. I am not trying to be insulting, but he seems to have no comprehension of the history he reports.
Rating: 
Summary: Symphathetic Scholar's History of Cults
Review: This is a good example of much of what secular academia is about: well researched, scholarly history of cult activity in our country, but supposedly without an edge towards any spiritual interest. This is the deception: the slant is definitely towards defending the "supposed cults/sects" especially against the Evangelist, Christian group who continue to attack without proper, academically acceptable rhyme or reason. Due to this, the author's extreme bias in interpreting the history is scewed. However, this remains nonetheless a valuable source for searching out this movement, which as noted in this work accelerated with all the happenings in the 70-90's.
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