J. Gordon Melton
John Gordon Melton (born September 19, 1942) 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.
He is the author of more than twenty-five books, including several encyclopedias, handbooks, and almanacs on American religion and new religious movements. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.
His areas of research include major religious traditions, new religions and alternative religions, Occultism and Parapsychology, New Age, and vampirology.
Some religious skeptics and orthodox believers have criticized Melton as an advocate for religious groups they strongly disapprove of.
Read more about J. Gordon Melton: Early Life, Graduate Studies, Methodology and Writing, Amicus Curiae, Encyclopædia Britannica Contributor, Aum Shinrikyo Investigation, Criticism
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