J. Gordon Melton
| John Gordon Melton | |
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| Born |
September 19, 1942 Birmingham, Alabama |
| Residence | Santa Barbara, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | religion, new religious movements |
| Institutions | University of California, Santa Barbara |
| Alma mater | Birmingham Southern College, Garrett Theological Seminary, Northwestern University |
| Known for |
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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 an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church, and he is affiliated with the New Cult Awareness Network, an organization operated by the Church of Scientology.
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 and alternative religions, occultism and parapsychology, New Age, and vampirology.
Melton was born in Birmingham, Alabama, the son of Burnum Edgar Melton and Inez Parker. In 1964 he graduated from Birmingham Southern College with the B.A. degree and then proceeded to theological studies at Garrett Theological Seminary (M.Div., 1968). He married Dorothea Dudley in 1966, with one daughter, Melanie. The marriage ended in divorce in 1979. His second wife is named Suzie.
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