Eileen Barker, PhDhc (Copenhagen), FAcSS, FBA, OBE, is Professor Emeritus of Sociology with Special Reference to the Study of Religion. Her BSc (Soc) (Hons 1st class) and her PhD were obtained from the ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳. In 2011 she was elected as one of ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳’s Honorary Fellows
Her main research interest is 'cults', 'sects' and new religious movements, the changes they undergo and the social reactions to which they give rise. Since 1989 she has also been investigating changes in the religious situation in Eastern Europe, Japan and China.
She has over 350 publications, translated into 27 languages. These include the award-winning The Making of a Moonie: Brainwashing or Choice? and New Religious Movements: A Practical Introduction.
She has given guest lectures at over 200 universities around the world, and is a familiar commentator on religious issues on both radio and television. She has been elected as an officer of most of the international organisations related to sociology of religion, being the first non-American to have been elected President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.
In 1988, with the support of the Home Office and the mainstream Churches, she set up INFORM, an independent educational charity affiliated to ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳’s Sociology Department which supplies information about alternative religions that is as objective and up-to-date as possible. ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ students can have access to INFORM's unique resources.
Selected Publications
2017. “From Cult Wars to Constructive Cooperation – Well, Sometimes” in Eugene V. Gallagher (editor) The ‘Cult Wars’ in Historical Perspective. Abingdon and New York: Routledge. 9-22.
2017. “The Changing Scene: What Might Happen and What Might Be Less Likely to Happen?” in Eugene V. Gallagher (ed.) New and Minority Religions: Projecting the Future. Farnham: Ashgate. Pp.7-19
2016. “From The Children Of God to The Family International: A Story of Radical Christianity and Deradicalising Transformation” in Stephen Hunt (ed.) the Handbook of Contemporary Christianity: Movements, Institutions & Allegiance. Leiden: Brill. 402-421.
2015. "Here, There and/or Anywhere? Minority Religions and their Migration In and Out of Britain." Czech and Slovak Journal of Humanities Anthropologica Culturalia March 1915:18-30.
2015. “New Religious Movements”. In: James D. Wright (editor-in-chief), International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition, Vol 16. Oxford: Elsevier. pp. 805–808.
2015. "Freedom for Me and, Perhaps, You - but Surely Not Them? Attitudes to New Religions in Contemporary Democracies." in Religious Pluralism: A Resource Book, edited by Aurélia Bardon, Maria Birnbaum, Lois Lee, and Kristina Stoekl. San Domenico di Fiesole: European University Institute: 68-77.
2014. “The Not-So-New Religious Movements: Changes in ‘the Cult Scene’ over the Past Forty Years.” Temenos Vol. 50 No. 2 (2014), 235–56. http://ojs.tsv.fi/index.php/temenos
2014. “New Religious Movements in the West: The Xu Yun Lecture, Peking University, World Religions Reviews, 2014: 8. Pp122-160. (In Chinese).
2013. "The Objective Study of the Subjective or the Subjective Study of the Objective? Notes on the Social Scientific Study of Religious Experience and the Social Construction of Reality,” Studies in Chinese Religions, 2013: 2:1-35.
2013. Revisionism and Diversification in New Religious Movements. (Editor.) Farnham: Ashgate. ISBN 978-1-4094-6229-3
2013. "Confessions of a Curious Sociologist of Religion." Pp. 39-54 in Studying Religion and Society: Sociological Self-Portraits, edited by Titus Hjelm and Phil Zuckerman. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0—415-667985
2012. "Ageing in New Religions: The Varieties of Later Experiences (PDF)." Diskus: The Journal of the British Association for the Study of Religions 12.
2011. "Stepping out of the Ivory Tower: A Sociological Engagement in ‘The Cult Wars (PDF)." The Methodological Innovations Online 6(1):18-39.
2011. "Religion in China: Some Introductory Notes for the Intrepid Western Scholar." Pp. 109-32 in Social Scientific Studies of Religion in China: Methodology, Theories, and Findings, edited by Fenggang Yang and Graeme Lang. Leiden & Boston: Brill.