NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS
Main issues:
- Distinguishing different types of religious groups.
- Examining their role in society
- Explaining their growth and future.
CHURCH, DENOMINATION AND SECT
Troeltsch distinguished church from sect
Characteristic Church Sect
Organisation Hierarchical egalitarian
bureaucratic single leader/founder possible
Membership Based on voluntary, members are recruited
nationality or
family
Relationship supports status rejects status quo. Doesn't
to society quo eg inequal. recognize social inequality
Belief Crucial events Crucial events in future,
added by niebhur rigid rules rigid rules upheld
but flexible in
practice
Neibhur said denominations were between sect and church, and also explained how religious movements changed from one type to another.
TYPES OF NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS (NRM)
- B. Wilson (1985) defined sects by their relationship with wider society, which was often hostile. He distinguished eight types of sect based n relationship to wider society.
- R. Wallis distinguished new religions from new cults. Cults were based on psychology and offered success in this world. He identified three main relationships that new religious movements had with the wider society:
- World-rejecting groups, strict, withdrawing except when recruiting.
- World-accommodating groups, living in wider society but beliefs kept separate.
- World affirming groups, offer happiness and success.
Evaluation
- The value of categorising new groups has been questioned, as some hostility towards groups accused of brainwashing has been encouraged.
- E. Barker (1984) did participant observation study to discover shy people stayed with the moonies, a group which had received very bad press.
EXPLAINING THE ORIGIN, GROWTH AND FUTURE OF NRM's
- A response to Secularization
- B. Wilson argued that the growth of sects was a result of secularization , not evidence against the decline of religion. Sects attracted people who were seeking mystery, a stale social order ad a sense of belonging and who rejected the impersonal, bureaucratic and wicked world.
- The Rejection of Modern Industrial Society
- R. Wallis identified negative experiences that pushed people into sects; alienation at work, restrictions of freedom, secularization and materialism.
- Political rebels in 60's & 70's failed to change the world and so sought groups which offered success in the wider society, or escape from it.
- Wallis also suggested that world affirming groups would attract people who could not achieve consensual goals (usually financial success). The rejection of consumerist values, found in world rejecting nrm's, tended to be the begavious of the educated middle classes.
A RESPONSE TO DERIVATION
- Glock and Stark said religious groups emerge as a response to deprivation. Secular responses are political, unions etc. Responses are more likely to be religious when:
- The real cause of deprivation isn't recognised.
' ' ' ' can't be eliminated. - So religion compensated for the feeling of deprivation rather than eliminates it. If an nrm can eliminate the cause of deprivation, it may become a more orthodox religion or become extinct.
- Types of deprivation influences the attractive group. Stick are attracted to faith healers, low status to groups which don't recognise social differentiation.