New Religion Adherents: An Overview of Anglophone Census and Survey Data James R. Lewis General estimates of the extent of the New Religions phenomenon vary considerably. The two basic quantitative questions in this area are: How many groups? And, How many people? These questions are not as simple as they might at first appear. A more fundamental question involves classification: Where does one draw the line between alternative and non-alternative religions? What one finds when one actually tries to determine where to draw such a line is that the difference between “mainstream” and “alternative” is a matter of degree rather than a sharplydefined distinction. Philipps-Universität Marburg Marburg Deutschhausstraße 9, 35037 Marburg 2004 2015-06-03 2015-06-03 Text article urn:nbn:de:hebis:04-0004-2004-117-36320 eng 1418722-x 9 1 (2004) 1 https://journals.uni-marburg.de/0004/article/download/3632/3516 10.17192/mjr.2004.9.3632 https://journals.uni-marburg.de/0004/2004/117/3632