Biographical Dictionary of American Cult and Sect Leaders

by J. Gordon Melton

First published in 1986. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

366 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1986

About the author

John Gordon Melton is an American religious scholar who was the founding director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion and is currently a research specialist in religion and New Religious Movements with the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion.

His areas of research include major religious traditions, new religions and alternative religions, Occultism and Parapsychology, New Age, and vampirology.

Melton has been criticized by several scholars for what they see as conflicts of interest in his reporting of some of the groups he studies.