New Religious movements Flashcards
What is the definition of a cult?
Type of new religious movement
Many of them springing up over USA and Europe during 1960s and 1970s
What does BRUCE believe cults are?
A loosely knit group, organised around some common themes and interests, lacking any sharply defined and exclusive beliefs system
What does STARK and BAINBRIDGE say about cults?
Cults have not broken away from existing religions
They have devised a completely new set of beliefs or religious traditions from outside that society
What is Heavens gate cult?
Followers thought Earth and everything on it were about to be ‘recycled’ to a clean state
Believed hitching a ride on comet Hale-Bopp in March 1997 could allow them to survive
(Belief doesn’t involve god)
What is scientology cult?
Doesn’t preach or impose a particular idea of God on scientologists
People are expected to discover the truth through their own observations as their awareness advances
Beliefs revolve around immortal soul
(lacks clear rules about how they believe supporters should behave)
What does WALLIS distinguish between with religions?
Respectable or deviant
Uniquely legitimate or pluralistic (accepting other beliefs)
Church = respectable, uniquely legitimate Sect = deviant, pluralistic
What does WALLIS say world religions are either?
World rejecting
World affirming
World accommodating
What are world rejecting NRM?
SECTS are highly critical of the outside world
Demand significant lifestyle changes from followers
Exercise complete control over members and require high levels of commitment
Aim to create social change, often conflict with state
What are world-affirming NRMs?
CULTS
Often lack typical characteristics of religion
People lack spirituality preventing them from achieving fulfilment and success
Supernatural powers enhance ability to live fulfilling lives
How is the PEOPLES TEMPLE (sect) an example of a world-rejecting religion?
Radical ideology based upon combination of Marxism and religion
Strictly controlled by charismatic leader –> claimed he could perform miracle medical cures
Members agreed to commit mass suicide, entire sect (over 900) died through poisoning
How is SCIENTOLOGY an example of a world-affirming religion?
Doesn’t preach or impose a particular idea of God on scientologists
People are expected to discover the truth through their own observations as their awareness advances
Beliefs revolve around immortal soul
(lacks clear rules about how they believe supporters should behave)
What is a world accommodating New Religious Movement?
DENOMINATIONS
Often breakaway movements from main churches
Want to restore spiritual purity to religion
Focus on spirituality and religion rather than world affairs
How is the Neo-Pentecostalism a world-accommodating religion?
Christian group
Original Bible teachings have been watered down
Holy spirit can speak directly through the bodies of humans
Engage in practice of ‘speaking in tongues’ when they feel possessed by the spirit who communicated through their mouths
What is the evaluation of WALLIS arrangement of religious organisations?
Wallis accepts some organisations do not fit in to his typology
- in commune holding a job
- healthy, happy, holy organisation 3HO is a branch of Sikhism
BECKFORD - categories are hard to apply as its not clear whether beliefs of the individuals or specific teaching of the movement are more important
Why do people join religions?
People are losing faith in modern rationality
(World Wars, Holocaust, Global warming, COVID)
- Provides solutions
- Need answers so pick and choose from variety around
- Dissatisfied with answers already provided
What does WEBER argue about marginality and joining sects?
Sects develop amongst marginalised groups in society
People outside the mainstream social life who felt that they weren’t receiving the status and economic rewards they deserved
What is a theodicy of dispriviledge?
A religious explanation and justification for their disadvantage often promising them salvation in the afterlife
What factors did WILSON think could lead to marginalisation?
Defeat in war, natural disaster, economic collapse
What does WALLIS say to why people may join sects if they feel relatively deprived?
In 1960s people felt spiritually deprived in a world they saw as too materialistic and impersonal
Sects and cults offered them an opportunity to regain a sense of spiritual wholeness
Why does WILSON believe that social change would cause people to join New Right Movements?
Traditional norms are disrupted and social relationship come to lack consistent meaning
Why does BRUCE believe that modernisation has increased the popularity of cults?
Conventional institutional religion has lost its influence, people have turned to alternatives
What does NIEBUHR explain for why the growth and and lifespan of NRMs is short lived?
Sects couldn’t survive more than a single generation without change:
- Ideology of many sects contains seeds of its own destruction
- Sects depend upon charismatic leader - tend to disappear when leader dies
- Sect membership is based on voluntary adult commitment when people choose to follow beliefs of the religion
What reasons does HEELAS give for the growth of the New Age?
New age = product of modernity
- People have multiple roles so lose sense of the true self
- Consumer culture encourages people to attain perfection through what they buy
- In rapidly changing society, people use spiritual beliefs to avoid insecurity
- Decline of traditional religion leaves spiritual gap
What reasons for the growth of the New Age does BRUCE give?
New age is a product of modernity
Modernity emphasises individualism, New age extreme version of individualism
New age closely linked to human potential movement - through self-improvement perfection is achieved
What did STARK and BAINBRIDGE say about categorizing religions like sects and cults?
Sects: small religious groups, offshoot of an existing religion, high degree of tension with outside world
Audience cults: little commitment for followers, source of entertainment
Client cults: offer services to their followers
Cult movements: members give up aspects of their life (living in a commune)
What did BRUCE say about the growth of world-affirming new religious movements?
Largely a response to the rationalization of the modern world
WA movements fill the gap of fragmented in society where people may have little sense of identity
What did WALLIS give for the reasons for the development of new religious movements?
Growth of higher education: period of freedom in which they could experiment
New technology would lead to an end need for commitment to hard work#
Growth of radical political movements which provided alternative to dominant social norms and values
What is the New Age?
Sets of beliefs and activities which contain a spiritual element but are not organized in the same way as traditional religion
What are some examples of the New Age?
Scientology
Aliens making contact with humans
Self-healing, herbal remedies
What does HEELAS say are the 2 themes of the New Age?
Self spirituality: look inside yourself for a sense of spirituality, hidden spiritual depths
Detraditionalization: rejection of traditional resources, discovering your own truth
Wallis defined which group as ‘life positive’ aiming to release human potential and to accept the
world?
World Affirming movements
Who found that the 2 main characteristics to joining a NRM were social grievance and a strong bond with those that recruited them.
Stark and Bainbridge
