A More than Basic Cult Library

 Abgrall, J-M.: Soul Snatchers: The Mechanics of Cults, New York: Algorra, 2000.

Altemeyer, R.: The Authoritarian Specter, Boston: Harvard University Press, 1996.

Arendt, H.: The Origins of Totalitarianism, (orig. pub. 1951) New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1973.

Arterburn, S.; Felton, J.: Toxic Faith: Understanding and Overcoming Religious Addiction, Nashville: Oliver-Nelson, 1991.

Atack, J.: Opening Minds: The Secret World of Manipulation, Undue Influence and Brainwashing, Colchester, UK: Trentvalley Ltd., 2015.

Asch, S. E. Social Psychology, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1952.

Bandura, A.: Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement, in W. Reich (Ed.), Origins of Terrorism: Psychologies, Ideologies, Theologies, States of Mind, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Barker, D.: Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists, Berkeley, CA: Ulysses Press, 2008.

Booth, L.: When God Becomes a Drug; New York: Penguin / TarcerPerigee, 1992.

Burroughs, W.: Ali's Smile: Naked Scientology; Bonn, Germany: Expanded Media, 1973.

Cavanaugh, S. R.: Hivemind: The New Science of Tribalism in our Divided World, London: 2019. 

Conway, F.; Siegelman, J.: Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change, New York: Dell Delta, 1978.

Cushman, P.: The Politics of Transformation: Recruitment & Indoctrination Processes in a Mass Marathon Psychology Organization, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993.

Deikman, A.: The Wrong Way Home: Uncovering the Patterns of Cult Behavior in American Society, Boston: Beacon Press, 1990.

Deikman, A.: Them and Us: Cult Thinking and the Terrorist Threat, Berkeley, CA: Bay Tree, 2003.

Delarue, J.: The Gestapo: A History of Horror, orig. pub. 1962; New York: MJF Books. 2008.

Frederick, C.: est: Playing the Game the New Way, self-published, c. 1975.

Galanter, M.: Cults: Faith, Healing and Coercion, New York: Guilford Press, 1989.

Gebauer, J.; Nehrlich, A; Stahlberg, D,: Mind-Body Practices and the Self: Yoga and Meditation Do Not Quiet the Ego but Instead Boost Self-Enhancement, in Psychological Science, June 2018.

Guinn, J.: Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014.

Hassan, S.: Combating Cult Mind Control, South Paris, ME: Park Street Press, 1990.

Hassan, S.: Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults & Beliefs, Newton, MA: Freedom of Mind Press, 2012.

Heimlich:, J.: Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment, Amherst, NY: Promethious Books, 2011.

Hoffer, E.: The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, New York: Harper and Row, 1951, 1966.

Huxley, A.: The Devils of Loudon, orig. pub. 1952, New York: Harper Perennial, 2015. 

Kaufman, S. B.: The Science of Spiritual Narcissism, in Scientific American, January 2021.

Kobes du Mez, K.: Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Captured a Nation, New York: Norton Liveright, 2020.

Krakauer, J.: Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, New York: Knopf / Anchor, 2004.

Kramer, J.; Alstad, D.: The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power, Berkeley, CA: Frog, Ltd., 1993.

Lalich, J.: Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults, Berkeley, CA: U. California Press, 2004.

Langone, M., ed.: Recovery from Cults: Help for Victims of Psychological and Spiritual Abuse, New York: W. W. Norton, 1993.

Lifton, R.: Methods of Forceful Indoctrination, in Stein, M.; Vidich, A.; White, D. (editors): Identity and Anxiety: Survival of the Person in Mass Society, Glencoe, IL: The Free Press of Glencoe, Illinois, 1960.

Lifton, R.: Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of Brainwashing in China, New York: W. W. Norton, 1961.

Lifton, R.: Cult Formation, in The Harvard Mental Health Letter, Vol. 7, No. 8, February 1981.

Lifton, R.: Losing Reality: On Cults, Cultism, and the Mindset of Political and Religious Zealotry, New York: The New Press, 2019.

Martin, B.: Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty, New York: St, Martin's Griffin, 2004.

Martin, J.: The Kingdom of the Cults, Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1985.

Meerloo, J.: The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1956, Mansfield Centre, CT: Martino, 2015.

Meerloo, J.: Brainwashing and Menticide, in Stein, M.; Vidich, A.; White, D. (editors): Identity and Anxiety: Survival of the Person in Mass Society, Glencoe, IL: The Free Press of Glencoe, Illinois, 1960.

Meredith, N.: Werner, Dearest (a series of three articles in the Marin Independent Journal in 1990) which can be found online.

Milgram, S.: Obedience to Authority, London: Pinter & Martin, 1974.

Miller, A.: The Body Never Lies: The Lingering Effects of Hurtful Parenting, New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. (The renowned author gets into authoritarian religious abuse no later than page 24, and comes back to it again and again, as was increasingly typical of her books over time.)

Miller, R.: Bare Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard, New York: Penguin Books, 1987.

Minor, R.: When Religion is an Addiction; Amherst, NY: Promethius / Humanity Works, 2007.

Miscavige, R.; Koon, D.: Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me, New York: St. Martin's Press, 2016.

Miscavige Hill, J.; Pulitzer, L.: Beyond Belief: My Secret Life inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape, New York: Morrow / HarperCollins, 2013.

Mishra, P.: Age of Anger, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2017.

Mithers, C. L.: Therapy Gone Mad: The True Story of Hundreds of Patients and a Generation Betrayed, New York: Addison-Wesley, 1994.

Montell, A.: Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism, New York: HarperWave, 2021.

Ofshe, R.; Singer, M.: Attacks on Peripheral versus Central Elements of Self and the Impact of Thought Reforming Techniques, in The Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1986.

Ofshe, R.: Coercive Persuasion and Attitude Change, in Borgata & Montgomery: Encyclopedia of Sociology, Vol. 1, New York: Macmillan, 2000.

Remeni, L.; Paley, R.: Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology, New York: Ballentine, 2015.

Riezler, K.: The Social Psychology of Fear, in Maurice Stein et al (editors): Identity and Anxiety: Survival of the Person in Mass Society; Glencoe, IL: The Free Press, 1960.

Ross, R. A.: Cults Inside & Out: How People Get In and Can Get Out, Seattle: CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2014.

Salande, J.; Perkins, D.: An Object Relations Approach to Cult Membership, in Journal of Applied Psychotherapy (online), 30 April 2018.

Sargant, W.: Battle for the Mind: A Physiology of Conversion and Brain-Washing, orig. pub. 1957, Cambridge, MA: Major Books, 1997.

Schein, E.: Coercive Persuasion: A Socio-psychological Analysis of the Brainwashing of American Civilian Prisoners by the Chinese Communists, New York: W. W. Norton, 1961.

Shaw, D.: The Relational System of the Traumatizing Narcissist, a paper for the The National Institute for the Psychotherapies, c. 2005, online.

Simpson, C., McChesney, R.: Science of Coercion: Communication Research & Psychological Warfare, 1945-1960, London: Oxford U. Press, 1994.

Singer, M.; Goldstein, H.; Langone, M.; et al: Report of the APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Techniques of Persuasion and Control; New York: American Psychological Association, 1986.

Singer, M.; Temerlin, M.; Langone, M.: Psychotherapy Cults, in Cultic Studies Journal, Vol. 7, No., 1990; and Giambalvo, C.; Henry, R. (ed.): Margaret T. Singer Collection, at this link.

Singer, M.: Cults in our Midst: The Hidden Menace in our Everyday Lives; San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1995.

Singer, M. T.; Lalich, J.: Crazy Therapies: What are They? Do they Work?, Hoboken NJ: Jossey-Bass Div. of Wiley, 1996.

Stein, A.: Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment in Cults and Totalitarian Systems, London: Routledge, 2016.

Taylor, K.: Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control, London: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Tobias, M.; Lalich, J.: Captive Hearts - Captive Minds: Freedom and Recovery from Cults and Abusive Relationships, Alameda, CA: Hunter House, 1994.

Toch, H.: Social Psychology of Social Movements, New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965.

Tormey, N.: Cults: A Bloodstained History, London: Fonthill Media, 2014.

Vonk, R.; Visser, A.: An Exploration of Spiritual Superiority: The Paradox of Self-Enhancement, in European Journal of Social Psychology, July 2020.

Walker, R. L.: China Under Communism; The First Five Years, New Haven, CT: Yale U. Press, 1955. 

Watson, J.: Behaviorism, Revised Edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1930.

Westover, T.; Educated: A Memoir, New York: Random House, 2018.

Winn, D.: The Manipulated Mind: Brainwashing, Conditioning and Indoctrination, London: Octagon Press, 1984; Cambridge, MA: 2000 & 2017. 

Wright, L.: The Apostate: Paul Haggis vs. The Church of Scientology, in The New Yorker, February 14, 2011.

Wright, L.: Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013.

Zablocki, B.; Robbins, T.: Misunderstanding Cults: Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field, Toronto: U. Toronto Press, 2001.

Some of the most effective material I have found on recovering from cult abuse include...

Arterburn, S.; Felton, J.: Toxic Faith: Understanding and Overcoming Religious Addiction, Nashville: Oliver-Nelson, 1991.

Bernstein, A.: Emotional Vampires: Dealing with People who Drain You Dry, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000.

Booth, L.: The God Game: It's Your Move: Healing the Wounds of Religious Addiction & Religious Abuse; Edinburgh, Scotland, UK: SCP Ltd, 1998.

Booth, L.: The Happy Heretic: Seven Spiritual Insights for Healing Religious Codependency, Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications Inc., 2012.

Carnes, P.: The Betrayal Bond: Breaking Free of Exploitive Relationships, Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, Inc., 1997.

Ellis, A.; Harper, R.: A Guide to Rational Living, North Hollywood, CA: Melvin Powers, 1961.

Ellis, A.: Overcoming Destructive Beliefs, Feelings, and Behaviors: New Directions for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, New York: Promethius Books, 2001.

Evans, P.: The Verbally Abusive Relationship, Expanded Second Edition, Avon, MA: Adams Media Corp., 1996.

Evans, P.: Controlling People, Avon, MA: Adams Media Corp., 2002.

Forward, S.: Emotional Blackmail: When the People in Your Life Use Fear, Obligation and Guilt to Manipulate You, New York: HarperCollins, 1997.

Hassan, S.: Freedom of Mind: Helping Loved Ones Leave Controlling People, Cults & Beliefs, Newton, MA: Freedom of Mind Press, 2012.

Hoffer, E.: The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, New York: Harper and Row, 1951, 1966.

Lalich, J.; Tobias, M.: Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships, Richmond, CA: Bay Tree Publishing, 2006.

Lalich, J.; McLaren, K.: Escaping Utopia: Growing Up in a Cult, Getting Out, and Starting Over, London: Routledge, 2017.

Langberg, D.: Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the Church, Ada, MI: Brazos Press, 2020. 

Linn, M.; Linn, S.: Healing Spiritual Abuse and Religious Addiction, Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1994.

Miller, A.: Becoming Yourself: Overcoming Mind Control and Ritual Abuse, London: Routledge, 2014.

Payson, E.: The Wizard of Oz and other Narcissists: Coping with One-Way Relationships in Work, Love and Family, Royal Oak, MI: Julian Day, 2002.

Ross, R. A.: Cults Inside & Out: How People Get In and Can Get Out, Seattle: CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2014.

Simon, G.: In Sheep's Clothing: Understanding and Dealing with Manipulative People (Revised Ed.), Marion, MI: Parkhurst Bros., 1996, 2010.

Tart, C. T.: Waking Up: Overcoming the Obstacles to Human Potential, orgi. pub,: New York: New Science Library dic. of Ferguson Publishing Co, 1987; Lincoln, NE: AuthorsGuildBackInPrint, 2001

Tobias, M.; Lalich, J.: Captive Hearts - Captive Minds: Freedom and Recovery from Cults and Abusive Relationships, Alameda, CA: Hunter House, 1994.

Winnell, M.: Leaving the Fold: A Guide for Former Fundamentalists and Others Leaving Their Religion, Berkeley, CA: Apocryphile Press, 2006.

Zieman, B.: Cracking the Cult Code for Therapists: What Every Cult Victim wants their Therapist to Know, North Charleston, SC: self-published, 2017.

But a far more extensive library of material on the psychodynamics of cultic manipulation and mind control can be found at the end of this first-draft, thesis paper, as well as several others listed at this location. If interested, see also A Free online BOOK on How Cults Work.

If you have additional suggestions, please reply with them. Thank you.

Recommended on Religion from Outside the Box

Aldwin, C.; Park, C.; et al: Differing pathways between religiousness, spirituality, and health: A self-regulation perspective, in Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, Vol. 6, No. 9. September 2014.

Alighieri, D.: Delphi Complete Works of Dante Aleghieri, New York: Delphi, 2013.

Armstrong, K.: A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam; New York: MJF Books, 1993.

Armstrong, K.: The Case for God; New York: Alfred Knopf, 2009.

Armstrong, K.: Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence; New York: Anchor Books, 2015.

Arold, B.; Woessmann, L.; Zierow, L.: Can Schools Change Religious Attitudes? Evidence from German State Reforms of Compulsory Religious Education, in Center for Economic Studies Faculty of Economics of the University of Munich working papers, No. 9504, January 2022.

Arterburn, S.; Felton, J.: Toxic Faith: Understanding and Overcoming Religious Addiction, Nashville: Oliver-Nelson, 1991 (one foot in and one foot out of the box).

Assman, J.: Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism; Cambridge, MA: Harvard U. Press, 1998.

Assman, J.: The Price of Monotheism; Palo Alto, CA: Stanford U. Press, 2009.

Backman, E. L.: Religious Dances in the Christian Church and in Popular Medicine, London: Allen & Unwin, 1952.

Batchelor, S.: Buddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening; New York: Riverhead / Penguin, 1997.

Batchelor, S.: Confession of a Buddhist Atheist, New York: Random House, 2011.

Batchelor, S.: After Buddhism: Rethinking the Dharma for a Secular Age; New Haven, CT: Yale U. Press, 2015.

Beder, S.: Selling the Work Ethic: From Puritan Pulpit to Corporate PR; London: Zed Books, 2001.

Bellah, R. N.: Beyond Belief: Essays on Religion in a Post-traditional World; New York: Harper & Row, 1970.

Bellah, R. N.: Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age; Cambridge, MA: Harvard U. Press, 2011.

Berger, P.: The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion; New York: Doubleday, 1967.

Bergson, H.: The Two Sources of Morality and Religion; Notre Dame, IN: U. Notre Dame Press, (1932) 1977.

Boethius of Rome: Consolation of Philosophy; orig. written c. 524 AD; New York: Penguin Books, 1999.

Booth, L.: When God Becomes a Drug; New York: TarcerPerigee (Penguin), 1992.

Booth, L.: The God Game: It's Your Move: Healing the Wounds of Religious Addiction & Religious Abuse; Edinburgh, Scotland, UK: SCP Ltd, 1998.

Booth, L.: The Happy Heretic: Seven Spiritual Insights for Healing Religious Codependency, Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications Inc., 2012.

Bottero, J.: The Birth of God: The Bible and the Historian; orig. pub. 1986; Philadelphia: Penn State Press, 2010.

Bottero, J.; et al.: Ancestor of the West : Writing, Reasoning, and Religion in Mesopotamia, Elam, and Greece; Chicago: U. Chicago Press, 2000.

Carpenter, J.: Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism; New York: Oxford U. Press, 1997.

Carrier, R.: Sense and Goodness Without God: A Defense of Metaphysical Naturalism, Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2005.

Clarke, J. J.: The Tao of the West: Western Transformations of Taoist Thought; London: Routledge, 2000.

Debray, R.: God: An Itinerary; London: Verso, 2004.

Durkhem, E.: The Elementary Forms of Religious Life; London: Allen & Unwin, 1915.

Edwards, J.; Smith, J. P.: A New Narrative of the Revival of Religion..., Glasgow: 1829. (As cited in Sargant, 1957.)

Ehrman, B.: How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee; New York: HarperOne, 2015.

Ehrman, B.: The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World; New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018.

Ehrman, B.: Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife; New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020.

Epstein, M.: Open to Desire: The Truth About What the Buddha Taught; New York: Gotham Books, 2006.

Epstein, M.: Thoughts Without a Thinker: Psychotherapy from a Buddhist Perspective (2nd revised edition); New York: Persesus / Basic Books, 2013.

Finch, J. L.: You Are Your Own: A Reckoning with the Religious Trauma of Evangelical Christianity, self-published, 2019. (This listing is NOT an endorsement.) 

Finney, C. G.: Lectures on Revivals of Religion, (13th edition), London: Simpkin & Marshall, 1840. (As cited in Sargant, 1957.)

Frankopan, P.: The Silk Roads: A New History of the World; New York: Vintage, 2017.

Fronsdal, G.: The Buddha Before Buddhism; Boulder, CO: Shambala, 2016.

Freud, S.: The Future of an Illusion; orig. pub. 1927, New York: W. W. Norton, 1961.

Freud, S.: Moses and Monotheism; orig. pub. 1939, New York: Penguin, 1955.

Gervais, W.; Najle, M.; Caluori, N.: The Origins of Religious Disbelief: A Dual Inheritance Approach, in Social Psychological and Personality Science, Vol. 12, No. 7, October 2021.

Goldfield, D.: America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation, New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2012.

Goldfield, D.: Still Fighting the Civil War: The American South and Southern History, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State U. Press, 2013.

Goleman, D.: The Meditative Mind: The Varieties of Meditative Experience; New York: Puttnam & Sons, 1988.

Gorski, P.: American Covenant: A History of Civil Religion from the Puritans to the Present, 2nd Ed., Princeton, NJ: Princeton U. Press, 2019.

Hallman, J.: The Devil is a Gentleman: Exploring America's Religious Fringe; New York: Random House, 2006.

Hecker, J. F. C.: The Epidemics of the Middle Ages, London: Sydenham Society, 1844. (As cited in Sargant, 1957.)

Heimlich, J.: Breaking their will: Shedding light on religious child maltreatment, Amherst, NY: Promethius Books, 2011.

Hervieu-Leger, D.: Religion as a Chain of Memory; New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers U. Press, 2000.

Heyrman, C.: Southern Cross; New York: Knopf, 1997.

Hoffer, E.: The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements; New York: Harper and Row, 1951, 1966.

House, H. W.; Ice, T.: Dominion Theology: Blessing or Curse? An Analysis of Christian Reconstructionism, New York: Penguin / Multnomah, 1988.

Ingersol, J.: Building God's Kingdom: Inside the World of Christian Reconstruction, London: Oxford U. Press, 2015.

Ingersol, R.: The Gods and Other Lectures, New York: D, M. Bennett, 1876 (many other publishers since then; available free on Kindle).

James, W.: The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature; London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1902 (far from being out of the box, but the single most significant starting point for the study of "comparative religion" and often aware of religious manipulation).

Jaynes, J.: The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, New York: Houghton-Mifflin, 1976.

Jenkins, P.: Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History, London: Oxford U. Press, 2001. 

Kent, A.: Religious justification for child sexual abuse in cults and alternative religions, in International Journal of Cultic Studies, Vol. 3, 2012. 

Kerouac, J.: Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha; orig. pub. 1956, New York: Viking, 2008.

Kimball, J.: When Religion Becomes Evil: Five Warning Signs; San Francisco: Harper-SanFrancisco, 2002.

Knox, R. A.: Enthusiasm: A Chapter in the History of Religion; South Bend, IN, U. Notre Dame Press, 1950. (As cited in Sargant, 1957.)

Kobes du Mez, K.: Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Captured a Nation, New York: North Liveright, 2020. 

Krakauer, J.: Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, New York: Knopf / Anchor, 2004.

Krishnamurti, J.: This Matter of Culture; orig. pub. 1964, London: Victor Gollanz Ltd, 1974.

Krishnamurti, J.: On God, San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992.

Krishnamurti, J.: Choiceless Awareness, Ojai, CA: Krishnamurti Foundation of America, (1948-1976) 1992.

Langberg, D.: Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the Church, Ada, MI: Brazos Press, 2020. 

Linn, M.; Linn, L.: Healing Spiritual Abuse and Religious Addiction, Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1994.

Lobdell, W,: Losing My Religion: How I Lost my Faith Reporting on Religion in America -- And Found Unexpected Peace; New York: HarperCollins, 2009.

Lopez, D.: From Stone to Flesh: A Short History of the Buddha, Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 2013.

Martin, W.: The Kingdom of the Cults; Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1967, 1977, 1987 (one foot in and one foot out of the box).

Masukawa, T.: The Invention of World Religions, Or, How European Universalism Was Perceived in the Language of Pluralism, Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 2003.

McDougall, W.: Promised Land, Crusader State; New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1997.

Meinig, D.: The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History: Vol. 3: Transcontinental America, 1850-1915; New Haven CT: Yale U. Press, 1998.

Meinig, D.: The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History: Volume 4: Global America, 1915–2000 ; New Haven CT: Yale U. Press, 2006.

Michael, T.: The Pristine Dao: Metaphysics in Early Daoist Discourse; Albany: State U. of NY Press, 2005.

Miles, J.: God, A Biography; New York: Random House 1996.

Miles, J.: Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God; New York: Random House, 2001.

Miles, J. (Ed.): The Norton Anthology of World Religion, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2015.

Miles, J.: Religion as we Know It: An Origin Story, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2015.

Miller, D.: Reinventing American Protestantism: Christianity in the New Millennium; Berkeley: U. California Press, 1997.

Miller, D.; Yamamori, T.: Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement, Berkeley CA: U. California Press, 2007.

Miller, R.; Stout, H.; Wilson, C.: Religion and the American Civil War; New York: Oxford U. Press, 1998.

Minor, R.: When Religion is an Addiction; Amherst, NY: Promethius / Humanity Works, 2007.

Mishra, P.: An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World, New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2004.

Moore, B.: Moral Purity and Persecution in History, Princeton, NJ: Princeton U. Press, 2000.

Moore, M.: "Dante's Infernal Crimes Forgiven," in The Daily Telegraph; June 17, 2008.

Murdoch, D. M.: Christ in Egypt: The Horus-Jesus Connection, Ashland, OR: Stellar House, 2009. (A little frothy for my taste, but a lot of people like it.) 

Noll, M.: The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind; Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans, 1995.

Noll, M.: The Old Religion in a New World; Grand Rapids MI: Eerdmans, 2002.

Oren, M: Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, New York: W. W. Norton, 2007. 

Pagels, E.: The Gnostic Gospels, New York: Random House, 1979.

Pagels, E.: Adam and Eve and the Serpent, New York: Random House, 1988.

Pagels, E.: The Origin of Satan, New York: Random House, 1995.

Pagels, E.: Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelations; New York: Viking, 2012.

Pals, D.: Eight Theories of Religion (2nd Ed.), New York: Oxford U. Press, 2006.

Phillips, K.: The Cousins' Wars: Religion, Politics, and the Triumph of Anglo-America; New York: Basic Books, 1999.

Phillips, K.: American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religions, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century; New York: Viking, 2006.

Prothero, S.: God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World; New York: Harper Collins, 2010.

Quigley, C.: Tragedy and Hope: A History of The World in Our Time, New York: Macmillan & Co., 1966, (Chapter III: The Russian Empire to 1917). 

Raine, S.; Kent, S.: The grooming of children for sexual abuse in religious settings: Unique characteristics and select case studies, in Journal of Aggression and Violent Behavior, Vol. 48, September 2019. 

Ray, D.: The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture; Bonner Springs, KA: IPC Press, 2009.

Rubenstein, J.: Armies of Heaven: The First Crusade and the Quest for Apocalypse; New York: Perseus - Basic Books, 2011.

Salmon, G.: The Evidence of the Work of the Holy Spirit, Dublin: Hodges & Smith, 1859. (As cited in Sargant, 1957.)

Sargant, W.: Battle for the Mind: A Physiology of Conversion and Brain Washing; orig. pub. 1957, Cambridge, MA: Malor Books, 1997 (includes excellent material on Wesleyan Methodism and the "religion" of Soviet communism).

Setton, K.: The Papacy and the Levant, 1204-1571, Vol. 1: The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries; London: Arner Philosophical Society, 1976.

Shupe, A,: Wolves within the fold: Religious leadership and abuses of power, Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers U. Press, 1998.

Shupe, A.; Stacey, W. (editors): Bad Pastors: Clergy Misconduct in Modern America, New York: NYU Press, 2000. 

Smith, A.: Chosen Peoples: Sacred Sources of National Identity; New York: Oxford U. Press, 2002.

Smith, H.: The World's Religions: The Revised & Updated Edition of The Religions of Man; orig. pub. 1958, San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991 (one foot in and one foot out of the box).

Smith, H.: Forgotten Truth: The Common Vision of the World's Religions; orig. pub. 1976, New York: HarperOne, 1992.

Spong, J. S.: Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers in Exile; New York: HarperOne, 1999. (one foot in, for sure, but the other is well out)

Sprague, W. B.: Lectures on Revivals of Religion, 2nd edition, Glasgow: Wm. Collins, 1833. 

Stark, R.; Finke, R.: The Churching of America, 1776-1990; New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers U. Press, 1993.

Stewart, K.: The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism; London: Bloomsbury, 2020.

Strausberg, M. (Ed.): Contemporary Theories of Religion: A Critical Companion; London: Routledge, 2009.

Strozier, C.: Apocalypse: On the Psychology of Fundamentalism in America, Eugene OR, Wipf & Stock, 2002.

Strozier, C.; Terman, D.; et al: The Fundamentalist Mindset: Psychological Perspectives on Religion, Violence, and History; London: Oxford University Press, 2010.

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