Just a few minutes away from my place is one of the largest Sikh worship centers in the country. It was built in 2003 on a multimillion-dollar budget, and today it is a beautiful piece of architecture that houses a school, priest residences, guest quarters, an auditorium, and a Sikh museum, among other impressive amenities.1 It is on my way to many things in town, and I pass by it often and the questions that always go through my mind are: What does a Sikh worship service look like? What sort of things do they believe? Where and when did the Sikh religion come from? Thankfully, Sikhism is one of the new religions surveyed in Derek Cooper’s latest volume, Christianity and New Religious Movements, which is a follow-up to his Christianity and World Religions (2013), both published by P&R.
In Christianity and New Religious Movements, Cooper aims to “lay bare the essence of the most dominant new religious movements of the world as well as offer a way for committed Christians to engage them.”2 Throughout the book, Cooper provides a clear, systematic fulfillment of that goal. To that end, he catalogues five major world religion categories and then provides two new movements within each of those categories. The five major religions are Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Pagan, and Uncommitted. Within the Hindu category, the new religious movements are Jainism and Sikhism. The Baha’i and Nation of Islam are surveyed within the Muslim framework, while Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witness comprise the new movements within Christianity. The last two religious categories are less conventional yet no less significant and influential. Wicca and Scientology are evaluated under the broader Paganism umbrella, while Atheism and the so-called Nones (think “spiritual but not religious”) are examined in the larger Unaffiliated religious group. For the purposes of this review, the chapters on Sikhism, Baha’i, and Nones will be spotlighted below.
Sikhism
Cooper’s chapter on Sikhism is particularly helpful for readers who, like me, may have frequent exposure to Sikh neighbors while possessing little substantive knowledge of the religion’s origins or beliefs. He carefully situates Sikhism within its historical context in fifteenth-century Punjab, tracing its emergence alongside both Hindu and Islamic influences without collapsing it into either tradition. Cooper’s summary of Sikh monotheism, its reverence for the Guru Granth Sahib, and its rejection of caste distinctions is clear and accessible, avoiding both romanticization and reductionism.
Especially valuable is Cooper’s attention to Sikh self-understanding. Rather than treating Sikhism merely as a theological system to be refuted, he helps the reader understand how Sikhs perceive their own identity, practices, and communal life. This clarity provides a necessary foundation for meaningful Christian engagement and guards against the tendency to argue against a version of the religion that no actual adherent would recognize.
Baha’i
In his treatment of the Baha’i faith, Cooper demonstrates the importance of historical awareness for Christian apologetics. By tracing the movement’s nineteenth-century origins within an Islamic context, he shows how Baha’i theology develops through a series of prophetic claims that explicitly relativize and supersede Christianity. This historical framing helps the reader see why Baha’i’s emphasis on religious unity and progressive revelation, while initially attractive, ultimately undermines the finality of Christ’s work.
Cooper’s careful explanation allows Christians to engage Baha’i adherents with both clarity and charity. Rather than focusing on peripheral practices, he identifies the central theological fault lines, particularly the Baha’i reinterpretation of revelation and authority. For readers seeking to understand why the Baha’i faith cannot be harmonized with historic Christianity, this chapter offers a concise and thoughtful guide.
The Nones
Perhaps the most pastorally relevant section of the book is Cooper’s discussion of the so-called Nones. Unlike more formally organized religious movements, the Nones often resist clear definition, making them difficult to engage. Cooper helpfully treats this group not as a coherent belief system but as a shared posture toward institutional religion, authority, and tradition.
This chapter will resonate with many readers who recognize these patterns not only in their neighborhoods but within their own congregations and families. Cooper’s analysis avoids caricature, acknowledging the diversity within this category while still identifying common themes such as suspicion of doctrine, preference for personal spirituality, and moral individualism. In doing so, he equips Christians to recognize that engagement with the Nones often requires patience, careful listening, and a renewed emphasis on catechesis and the communal nature of the faith.
One of the most notable strengths of this volume is its consistent organizational structure; for those seeking a reference guide, this will be the most attractive quality as it makes the volume easy to navigate and quickly find a specific element of each movement the reader is researching. While this volume is certainly worthy of a cover-to-cover read, some will appreciate the format that lends to a more catalogue-like reference use.
Another attractive quality of this volume is its use of pictures and informative graphs. This particular quality breaks up the monotony of uninterrupted academic text. Because we are visual creatures, it always helps us to engage the imagination. When we are contemplating these new religious movements, it certainly does not hurt to know what people within the group wear, what their buildings look like, and what the rate of growth for the particular movements might be.
Last, another quality that stands out is its inclusion of thoughtful “Points of Contact” that allow the reader to find common ground with a neighbor from one of the groups surveyed in the book. Rather than treating these movements as only abstract systems of belief, Cooper identifies shared concerns, questions, or moral intuitions that can serve as natural starting points for conversation. These sections help guard against a confrontational or reductionistic approach and instead encourage patient, relational engagement that takes both truth and charity seriously.
On the other hand, the questions do lend to more subjective responses rather than assessing the reader’s comprehension and retention of the book’s more concrete nature. The majority of the question stems include the phrasing, “What do you think about . . . ?” In my experience as a classroom teacher who has taught various age groups, these types of questions can potentially plunge discussion into the subjective abyss or completely stymie some, leading to a very quiet room. This is the one weakness of the volume that I could think of. Those who use this volume in a group setting might have to come up with their own questions that suit the audience they are working with. This is one of the inherent risks of including study questions—they could potentially limit the expected discussion.
That caveat aside, this is a strong volume that deserves a place in the library of pastors, teachers, and thoughtful lay Christians alike. In an age when religious pluralism is no longer a distant abstraction but a lived reality, Cooper’s work provides a clear and charitable guide for understanding the beliefs of our neighbors.
Christianity and New Religious Movements should not be used as a substitute for personal relationships or careful listening, but it serves as an excellent preparatory resource. By helping Christians understand both what others believe and why they believe it, Cooper equips readers to engage their neighbors with clarity, humility, and confidence in the gospel of God’s grace.
Notes
- Readers can learn more about the Sikh National Center near my home here.
- Derek Cooper, Christianity and New Religious Movements: An Introduction to the World’s Newest Faiths (P&R, 2023), xxiii.
©Erik Warren O’Dell. All Rights Reserved.
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Erik Warren O’Dell
Erik Warren O’Dell is a Christian educator, writer, and curriculum developer in the classical humanities tradition based in the Houston, Texas area. He holds an MA in Theological Studies from Westminster Seminary California (2018) and teaches and develops homeschool curriculum from a confessional Reformed perspective. He also leads a church-history-as-apologetics Sunday school series at Christ Presbyterian Church, where he worships with his wife, Jessica. His work focuses on helping students and readers think clearly, historically, and faithfully about Christianity in a skeptical age.
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