Eileen Barker

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Eileen Vartan Barker (born 21 April 1938) is a professor in sociology and is an emeritus member of the London School of Economics (LSE), and a consultant to that institution's Centre for the Study of Human Rights. She is the chairperson and founder of the Information Network Focus on Religious Movements (Inform) and wrote studies about cults and new religious movements.

She is since 1970 involved with the LSE's sociology deptartment whence she received her Ph.D. Bromley, David G. Falling from the Faith: The Causes and Consequences of Religious Apostasy. Newbury Park: SAGE Publications, (1988) ISBN 0803931883 page 263

She performed a longitudinal study on the conversion process in the Unification Church in the United Kingdom which was published in her 1984 book

In 1988 she was engaged in research on the preservation of cultural identity in the Armenian diaspora. Bromley, David G. Falling from the Faith: The Causes and Consequences of Religious Apostasy. Newbury Park: SAGE Publications, (1988) ISBN 0803931883 page 263

Contents

1 Barker's opinions
2 Criticisms
3 See also
4 About Barker
5 Selected bibliography by Barker
6 References
7 External links

Barker's opinions

Barker wrote in the book that she rejects the 'brainwashing' theory (in the strict sense of the word as used e.g. by Margaret Singer) as an explanation for conversion to the Unification Church, because she writes that it does not explain the many people who attended a Unification Church (recruitment) meeting and did not become members and the voluntary disaffiliation of members. In addition, she did not observe coercion during the conversion process.

Criticisms

Rick Ross and other anti-cult / counter-cult activists have labelled Barker a "cult apologist". Anton Hein said that she is not critical enough about cults. Other have criticized her travels paid by the Unification Church, and her appearance as an expert witness for an array of cults in Moscow in 1997 [link].

On the other hand, the Australian psychologist Len Oakes and the British psychiatry professor Anthony Storr who have written rather critically about cults, gurus, or new religious movements and their leaders have praised her work. Oakes, Len "By far the best study of the conversion process is Eileen Barker’s The Making of a Moonie [...]" from Prophetic Charisma: The Psychology of Revolutionary Religious Personalities, 1997, ISBN 0815603983 [excerpts] Storr, Anthony Dr. Feet of clay: a study of gurus 1996 ISBN 0684834952

About Barker

James A. Beckford and James T. Richardson, eds., Challenging Religion: Essays in Honour of Eileen Barker (London: Routledge, 2003).

Selected bibliography by Barker

Barker, Eileen The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing?, Blackwell Publishers, November 1984, ISBN 0631132465
Barker, Eileen (editor) Of Gods and Men: New Religious Movements in the West Mercer University Press Macon, Georgia, U.S.A. 1984
Barker, Eileen Defection from the Unification Church: Some Statistics and Distinctions, article in the book edited by David G. Bromley Falling from the Faith: The Causes and Consequences of Religious Apostasy. Newbury Park: SAGE Publications, (1988) ISBN 0803931883
Barker, Eileen New Religious Movements: A Practical Introduction (Paperback) Bernan Press (October, 1990) ISBN 0113409273
Barker, Eileen "The Scientific Study of Religion? You Must Be Joking!" Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 34 (1995), pp. 287-310.
Barker, Eileen "New Religious Movements in Britain," in New Religious Movements in Europe, Helle Meldgaard and Johannes Aagaard, eds., (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 1997), pp. 99-123.
Barker, Eileen, "New Religions and New Religiosity," in New Religions and New Religiosity, Eileen Barker and Margit Warburg, eds., (Aarhus:Aarhus University Press, 1998), pp. 10-27.
Barker, Eileen Standing at the Cross-Roads: Politics of Marginality in "Subversive Organizations" article in The Politics of Religious Apostasy: The Role of Apostates in the Transformation of Religious Movements edited by David G. Bromley Westport, CT, Praeger Publishers, (1998). ISBN 0-275-95508-7
Barker, Eileen. New Religions, Haft Asman (Seven Heavens), A Journal for the Center for Religious Studies, Vol. 4, no. 19, translated into Persian by Baqer Talebi Darabi, Autumn 2002.
Barker, Eileen "Watching for Violence: A Comparative Analysis of the Roles of Five Types of Cult-atching Groups," in Cults, Religion and Violence, David G. Bromley and J. Gordon Melton, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 123-148.
Barker, Eileen. (Editor) Freedom and Religion in Eastern Europe. Special Edition of The Sociology of Religion 64 no. 3 2003.
Barker, Eileen. And the Wisdom to Know the Difference? Freedom, Control and the Sociology of Religion (Association for the Sociology of Religion 2002 Presidential Address). Sociology of Religion 64, no. 3, 2003, pp. 285-307. http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0SOR/3_64/109568880/p1/article.jhtml
Barker, Eileen. (Slovak language) Zákonné opatrenie nových náboženských knutí Vel'kej Británii, in Erópa a nové náboženskýhnutia, Zostavil Miroslv Lojda (ed.), Bratislava: Ministerstva kultúry Slovenskej republiky, translated into Slovakian by M. Lodja. 2003, pp. 87-92.
Barker, Eileen. Democracy and Religious Pluralism in Post-Soviet Society. In The Rebirth of Religion and the Birth of Democracy in Russia. Edited by Hoekema, D.; Bodrov, A. Calvin College, 2003.
Barker, Eileen (German language) "Vereinigungskirche" in Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart: vierte Auflage, edited by Hans Dieter Betz, Don S. Browning, Bernd Janowski, Eberhard Jüngel. Tübingen: RGG, 2004: 21068.
Barker, Eileen. Why the Cults? New Religions and Freedom of Religion and Beliefs. In Facilitating Freedom of Religion or Belief: A Deskbook. Edited by Lindholm, T.; Durham, W.C.; Tahzib-Lie, B. Koninklijke Brill, 2004, pp. 571-593.
Barker, Eileen. General Overview of the 'Cult Scene' in Great Britain. In New Religious Movements in the 21st Century: Legal, Political, and Social Challenges in Global Perspective. edited by Lucas, C.P.; Robbins, T. Routledge, 2004, pp. 27-34.
Barker, Eileen. (German language) Neue Religiöse Bewegungen: Religiöser Pluralismus in der westlichen Welt. In Religion und Gessellschaft. Edited by Reuter, K. G. H.-R.. Ferdinand Schöningh, 2004, pp. 333-352.
Barker, Eileen. The Church Without and the God Within: Religiosity and/or Spirituality? In Religion and Patterns of Social Transformation. Edited by Borowik, I.; Jerolimov, D.; Zrinšcak, D. IDIZ (Institute for Social Research in Zagreb), 2004, pp. 23-47.
Barker, Eileen. What Are We Studying? A Sociological Case for Keeping the 'Nova' , Nova Religio 8 no. 3 (2004) pp. 88-102.
Barker, Eileen "Crossing the Boundary: New Challenges to Authority and Control as a Consequence of Access to the Internet." in Religion and Cyberspace, edited by M. T. Højsgaard and M. Warburg, London: Routledge, 2005.
Barker, Eileen "Yet More Varieties of Religious Experiences: Diversity and Pluralism in Contemporary Europe" in Hartmut Lehman (ed.) Religiöser Pluralismus im vereinten Europa: Freikirchen und Sekten, Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2005: 156-172
Barker, Eileen (with Bryan R. Wilson) What are the New Religions Doing in a Secular Society? in Anthony F. Heath, John Ermisch & Duncan Gallie (eds) Understanding Social Change. British Academy Centenary Monograph, Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 2005: 291-317.
Barker, Eileen "New Religious Movements" Religions and Beliefs in Britain (GCSE/A'level resource book), Craig Donnellan (ed.), Cambridge: Independence, 2005: 19-22.
Barker, Eileen "Unification Church" in The Encyclopedia of New York State Peter Eisenstadt, Editor in Chief, Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2005.

References

External links

[Professor Eileen Barker page] at the London School of Economics
[An Introduction to New Religious Movements] by Eileen Barker
[Introducing New Religious Movements] From: London School of Economics and Political Science interview (video + text)
[Eileen Baker] critical entry by the countercult activist Anton Hein
[Eileen Barker] critical entry by anti-cult activist Rick Ross

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