Field Notes A History of the Study of New Religious Movements1

Abstract

The study of New Religious Movements (NRMs) has evolved over the last thirty to forty years by both design and chance. Beginning in the 1970s, scholars interested in NRMs studied specific groups, read one another's work, and ultimately met one another to fashion a "coalition of the mind," or scholarly yet interdisciplinary field of study, focused upon NRMs. The story of this development largely depends on the accounts provided by NRM scholars in interviews conducted by the author.