New religious movements: terminology, typology, and characteristics

1
New religious movements terminology, typology,
and characteristics

• 15.9.2005

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Readings

• Richardson Definitions of Cult From
  Sociological-Techincal to Popular-Negative (in
  Dawson 1998)
• Wilson The Problem of Definition (in Wilson 1970)

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Discussion topics

• Terminology
• Problems with terminology
• Church vs sect
• Classics
• Weber, Troeltsch, Niebuhr
• General characteristics
• Problems with generalization
• Wilson
• Classification
• Different bases for classification
• Aberle, Wallis, Wilson

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Problems with terminology

• Sect
• Pejorative meaning
• eg. custody awards (Tyner 1991)
• Church
• Sect vs Church
• Sect gt Church
• TM etc.?

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Problems with terminology

• Cult
• Pejorative meaning
• Context-specific meanings
• Ethymological definition
• 'cultus cultivation, honour, related to
  ritual, emotions, liturgy
• all religions
• Theological/Christian definition
• religious movements that deny Biblical truths
• Sociological definition
• a group with pyramid-shaped authority structure

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Problems with terminology

• New Religious Movement (NRM)
• In what sense new?
• In what sense religious?
• In what sense movement?
• Alternative terms
• Emerging religions
• Alternative religions

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New religious movements

• What is meant by movement?
• What about groups that withdraw from the world?
• Eg. Peoples Temple/Jonestown
• In what sense new?
• Many trace origins to distant past
• Eg. Hare Krishna 16th c
• Eg. Soka Gakkai 13th c

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New religious movements

• What is the meaning of religious?
• Belief in a god/gods?
• But Buddhism, the Human Potential movements?
• Functional definition?
• any ideology (eg. Marxism)
• Having 'passed the test of time' ?
• real religions vs cults
• Importance of definition
• financial implications
• Scientology gt a religion
• acceptability in schools
• Science of Creative Intelligence (TM) gt not a
  religion

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Max Weber

• Pioneer in the study of religious organizations
• Church and sect
• different modes of communal religious worship
• church - formal, rationalized
• sect - informal, emotional, charismatic

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Ernst Troeltsch

• Major impact on the study of sects
• The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches
  (1912)
• Ideal typesof religious orientation
• Churchlike
• Sectlike
• Mystical forms of religious orientation
• Sect vs church
• Focus on medieval and modern Christian sects
• Criticism only applicable to Christianity

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Troeltsch church vs sect

• Function
• Church - administration of grace
• Sect brotherhood, sharing the fellowship of
  love/faith
• Members
• Church - ruling classes
• Sect - underprivileged groups
• Mode of membership
• Church ascribed
• Sect achieved
• Internal structure
• Church - hierarchical
• Sect - egalitarian

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Troeltsch church vs sect

• Religious roles
• Church - division of labour
• Sect egalitarian
• Political orientation
• Church conservative
• Sect radical
• Relations with the world at large
• Church
• integrated into the world
• agency of social control
• Sect
• in tension with the world
• reaction against social control

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H. Richard Niebuhr

• The Social Sources of Denominationalism (1929)
• Focus on religious organizations in the US
• Church vs sect
• satisfy the needs of different social classes
• church middle and upper classes
• sect lower classes
• Sect gt church
• Dynamic relationship between the two
• a result of changes in the class composition

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Problems with generalization

• Enormous quantity
• Wallace (1966)
• 100,000 different religions with significant
  following
• What counts as membership?
• eg. TM etc
• double membership
• high turnover rate
• Stark and Bainbridge (1987)
• over 200,000 moderately successful cults

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Problems with generalization

• Varieties in complexity of belief system
• From elaborate to vague
• Varieties in social organization
• From community to normal life
• Varying attitudes towards
• sex
• material possessions
• authority
• political/social involvement
• salvation
• etc.
• Barker
• the only generalisation which can be made about
  new religions is that one cannot generalise about
  them

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General characteristics Bryan Wilson

• Religious Sects A Sociological Study (1970)
• 1) Voluntary membership
• 2) Exclusiveness
• 3) Merit
• 4) Self-identification
• 5) Elite status
• 6) Expulsion
• 7) Conscience
• 8) Legitimation

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Classification

• Different bases for classification
• 1) What is the ideological source?
• 2) What kinds of changes are sought?
• Aberle
• 3) What is the relationship with the world?
• Wallis, Wilson
• 4) What are the ways of achieving salvation?
• Wilson

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Classification What is the ideological source?

• Eg.
• Christian
• Eg. Christian Science, Jehovahs Witnesses
• Hindu-based
• Eg. Hare Krishna, Sai Baba, Divine Light Mission
• Buddhist
• Eg. various Zen groups
• Esoteric
• Eg. various occult, pagan, magic, and witchcraft
  movements
• Human Potential Movements
• Eg. TM, Silva Mind Control and various gestalt
  groups
• But
• Mix of influences / no clear sources
• Japanese group venerating Thomas A. Edison
• Kennedy Worshippers

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Classification What kinds of changes are sought?

• David Aberle The Peyote Religion among the
  Navaho (1966)
• the most influential classification of NRMs in
  anthropology
• Two dimensions of movements
• the locus of the change sought
• individuals
• supra-individual system
• Eg. economic, technological, political order
• the amount of change sought
• total change
• partial change

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Classification What kinds of changes are sought?

• gt Four types of movements
• transformative movements (eg. Aum Shinrikyo)
• total change in supra-individual systems
• reformative movements (eg. Quakers)
• partial change in supra-individual systems
• redemptive movements (eg. Peyote cult)
• total change in individuals
• alternative movements (eg. TM)
• partial change in individuals

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Classification What is the relationship with
the world?

• Roy Wallis The Elementary Forms of the New
  Religious Life (1984)
• Tripatite classification
• 1) world-rejecting new religions
• 2) world-affirming new religions
• 3) world-accommodating new religions

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Classification What is the relationship with
the world?

• 1) The world-rejecting NRMs
• The world is evil
• Prevailing social order departs from the God's
  plan
• gt Rejection of the world
• Examples
• ISKCON, Peoples Temple, the Children of God etc

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Classification What is the relationship with
the world?

• Moses David (COG)
• Israel reminds us more of America than any
  country we visited with all its busy materialism,
  its riches, power, and armaments, its noisy
  traffic and air pollution, and its increasingly
  materialistically-minded younger generation.
  (Moses David, The promised land?', 4 February
  1971)'
• We're going to go back to those days with only
  the beautiful creation of God around us and the
  wonderful creatures of God to help us plow and
  power and transport what little we have to do to
  supply our meagre needs (Moses David, Heavenly
  homes', 21 October 1974)

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Classification What is the relationship with
the world?

• 2) The world-affirming NRMs
• The world is not evil
• world's secular values and goals OK
• Mankind
• restricted
• not using its full potential
• gt Unconventional means to achieve these goals
• Examples
• TM, Nichiren Shoshu (Sokka Gakkai), est (Erhard
  Seminars Training)

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Classification What is the relationship with
the world?

• Silva Mind Control
• In 48 hours you can learn to use your mind to do
  anything you wish. ... There is no limit to how
  far you can go,... to what you can do, because
  there is no limit to the power of your mind.
• TM
• a meditational technique taught by Maharishi
  Mahesh Yogi
• the Beatles by in 1968
• The Maharishi Effect
• social consequences of the practice of TM
• Social ills decline if 1 (10) of the population
  uses TM
• study of 1,100 cities

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Classification What is the relationship with
the world?

• 3) The World-Accommodating NRMs
• Pay little attention to the world one way or
  another
• provide stimulation for the individual's interior
  life
• Revitalize religious life
• Reaction to formalism
• Examples
• Neo-Pentecostalism, Subud

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Classification What is the relationship with
the world?

• Wilson Religious Sects A Sociological Study
  (1970)
• 1) World-denying cults
• The world is evil
• gt separate, communal lifestyle
• 2) World-enhancing cults
• seek to improve the skills and well-being of
  their members
• enhance enjoyment of and participation in the
  larger society
• self-transformation and self-improvement as
  ultimate goals
• 3) World-indifferent cults
• tolerate the secular society
• encourage seeking a purer, more spiritual life

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ClassificationWhat are the ways of achieving
salvation?

• Wilson Religious Sects A Sociological Study
  (1970)
• 1) Revolutionist/transformative sects
• The world is evil
• Salvation
• overcoming the evil, returning to Gods way of
  life
• Strategies
• Anticipating or causing the change of the world
• Examples
• Branch Davidians, Aum Shinrikyo

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ClassificationWhat are the ways of achieving
salvation?

• 2) Reformist sects
• The world is evil
• Salvation
• overcoming the evil, returning to Gods way of
  life
• Strategies
• reforming the world by communicating the ethic
• Examples
• Quakerism

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ClassificationWhat are the ways of achieving
salvation?

• 3) Introversionist sects
• The world is evil
• Salvation
• overcoming the evil, returning to Gods way of
  life
• Strategies
• Withdrawal in the religious community
• Examples
• pietist movements

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ClassificationWhat are the ways of achieving
salvation?

• 4) Utopian sects
• The world is evil
• Salvation
• to rediscover the model for the way of life for
  all men
• eventual returning to Gods way of life
• Strategy
• Withdrawal
• Not to abandon the world
• But a social experiment
• Examples
• Bruderhof community

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ClassificationWhat are the ways of achieving
salvation?

• 5) Manipulationist sects
• The world is full of unused opportunities
• Salvation
• success, including in this world
• Strategies
• Through the use/manipulation of esoteric
  knowledge
• Examples
• Christian Science, Scientology

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ClassificationWhat are the ways of achieving
salvation?

• 6) Conversionist sects
• Humans are evil
• Salvation
• change of hearts
• Strategies
• emotional involvement / religious feeling
• Otto numinous experience
• preaching and proselytizing
• Examples
• evangelical Protestantism of 18/19 c.
• Pentecostalism
• Glossolalia (speaking in tongues)

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ClassificationWhat are the ways of achieving
salvation?

• 7) Thaumaturgical sects
• Humans suffer from physical and mental ills
• Salvation
• relief from physical or mental ills
• Strategies
• through miracles performed by supernatural
  agencies
• Examples
• spiritualist sects