Religion JKR Flashcards
Types of religious organisations
Some people hold religious beliefs without being members of any organisation but many others express their faith through membership of a religious organisation such as a church.
Troeltsch 1912 identifies religious organisations
Distinguishing between two main types:
Church
Sect
Churches
Large organisations with millions of members run by a bureaucratic hierarchy of priests and claim the monopoly of the truth
Universalistic aiming to include all of society
Few demands on members
Often linked to state
Sects
Small exclusive groups Hostile to outside world Draw members from poor and oppressed Monopoly on truth Charismatic leader
Niebuhr 1929
Identified other religious organisations
Denominations
Cult
Denominations eg Methodism
Midway between church and sect
Less exclusive than sect but don’t appeal to all of society
Broadly accept society’s values but no link to state
Impose minor restrictions on members
Don’t claim a monopoly on the truth
Cult - least organised religious organisation
Highly individualistic
Loose knit small grouping around shared themes and interests
Led by practitioners and therapists
Usually tolerant of other organisations
Don’t demand strong commitment
May have further little involvement once acquired the beliefs and techniques it offers
Wallis 1984 shows two characteristics between religious organisations when they are compared
How they see themselves- churches and sects claim that their interpretation of faith is the only legitimate one. Denominations and cults accept there can be many valid interpretations
How they are seen by wider society- churches and denominations are seen as respectable whereas sects and cults are deviant
Bruce 1996 claims that Troeltschs descriptions don’t fit today’s society
Idea of religious monopoly only applies to Catholic Church before 16th( Protestant reformation. Monopoly over society with massive cathedrals
Since then sects and cults have flourished and religious diversity has become the norm
Churches are no longer truly churches in Troeltschs sense as they have lost monopoly and reduced to denomination status
New religious movements
Since 1960s there’s been an explosion in new religions and organisations.
Led to new attempt to classify them. Wallis 1984 categorises them as New religious movements
Placed in three broad groups
World rejecting NRMs
Similar to Troeltschs sects
Vary greatly in size
Clearly religious organisation
Highly critical of outside world
Seek radical change
To achieve salvation must break with former life
Live communally restricted contact with outside world
Movement controls all aspects of their lives
Conservative moral codes
World accommodating new religious movement
Often breakaways from existing mainstream church or denominations
Neither reject or accept the world focusing on religious matters
Seek to restore spiritual purity
Members lead conventional lives
World affirming New religious movements
May lack some of the conventional feature of a religion not highly organised
Offer followers access to spiritual power
Accept world as it is. Optimistic. Enable followers to unlock own spiritual power
Most are cults
Customers rather than members. Entry through training
World affirming NRMs most successful
Evaluation of Wallis’s NRMs
Some argue that it’s not clear whether categorising them according to movements teaching or individual members beliefs
Wallis himself recognised NRMs will rarely fit neatly into typology
Stark and Bainbridge 1986 reject typologies. We should distinguish by the degree of conflict or tension between the religious group and wider society
Stark and Bainbridge identify two kinds of organisation that are in conflict with wider society
Sect and cults
Sects
Results from schisms. They breakaway from churches usually due to disagreements over doctrine
Cults
New religions like Scientology or have been imported into a particular society like TM
Stark and Bainbridge see sects as
Promising other worldly benefits eg place in heaven to those suffering economic deprivation or ethical deprivation (their values conflict with wider society)
Stark and Bainbridge see cults
Tend to offer this worldly benefits to more prosperous individuals who are suffering psychic deprivation (normlessness) and organismic deprivation (health problems)
Stark and Bainbridge subdivide cults according to how organised they are
Audience cults
Client cults
Cultic movements
Audience cults
Least organised and don’t involve formal membership or much commitment. There is little interaction between members. Participation may be through the media eg astrology or UFO cults
Client cults
Based on relationship between a consultant and a client and provide services to its followers. In the past they were often purveyors of medical miracles, contacted the dead etc. Now the emphasis has shifted to therapies promising personal fulfilment and self discovery
Cultic movements
Most organised
Demand a higher level of commitment
Attempts to meet all its members religious needs
Rarely allowed to belong to other religions groups
Eg Scientology
Stark and Bainbridge
Make some useful distinctions between organisations e.g idea to use degree of conflict with society to distinguish is similar to Troeltschs distinction between church and sect
Explaining the growth of religious movements
Since 60s been a rapid growth in number of sects and cults and people belonging to them There are over 800 NRMs in the UK There are three main reasons for trend; Marginality Relative deprivation Social change
Marginality
Troeltsch believed that sets draw their members from the poor and oppressed. Similarly Weber 1922 saw sects arising in groups who are marginal to society.
Such groups may feel they are disprivileged or they feel they are not receiving their just economic rewards or social status
Marginality
In Weber’s view sects offer a solution to this problem by offering their members a theodicy of disprivilege or a religious explanation and justification for their suffering and disadvantage. They explain their misfortune as a test of faith eg they may promise rewards in the future for keeping the faith
Marginality
Historically many sects and millenarian movements have recruited from marginalised poor. In 20( Nation of Islam recruited among disadvantaged black Americans. Since 60s the sect, like world rejecting NRMs, have recruited from more affluent groups of often educated young MC whites.
Wallis argued this didn’t contradict Weber’s view because many had become marginal to society. Despite MC upbringing most of these recruits were hippies drop outs and drug users
Relative deprivation- sense of being deprived even if possibly well off eg spiritually deprived
Stark and Bainbridge argue that it’s the relatively deprived who break away from churches to form sects. When MC members of a church seek to compromise its beliefs to fit society deprived members are likely to break away to form sects that safeguard the original message of the organisation
Relative deprivation
Stark and Bainbridge argue that world rejecting sects offer to the deprived the compensators they’re denied in this world. By contrast the privileged need no compensators or world rejecting religion. They are attracted to world accepting churches that express their status and bring them further success in achieving earthly rewards. This distinction is similar to Wallis’s two main types of NRMs
Social change
Wilson 1970 argues that periods of rapid social change disrupt and undermine established norms and values producing anomie or normlessness. In response to the uncertainty and insecurity that this creates those who most affected by the disruption may turn to sects for a solution.
Social change
Bruce 1995 sees the growth of sects and cults today as a response to the societal changes involved in modernisation and secularisation. In Bruce’s view society is now secularised and therefore people are less attracted to the traditional churches and strict sects because they demand too much commitment. Instead people now prefer cults because they are less demanding and require fewer sacrifices
The growth of NRMs - rejecting
World rejecting NRMs - Wallis points to social changes from 60s impacting on young people including the increased time in education. This gave them freedom from adult responsibilities and enabled a counter culture to develop. The growth in radical political movements offered alternative ideas about the future. Rejecting NRMs were attractive because they offered young people a more idealistic way of life. Bruce 1995 argues that it was the failure of the counter culture to change the world that led to disillusionment and youths turning to religion instead
Growth of NRMs - world affirming
Bruce argues that their growth is a response to modernity especially to the rationalisation of work. Work no longer provides meaning or a source of identity when Protestant work ethic gave work a religious meaning to some people. Yet at the same time we are expected to achieve even though we lack the opportunities to succeed. World affirming NRMs provide both a sense of identity and techniques to succeed in this world.
The growth of NRMs
Wallis also notes that some movements of the middle ground such as the Jesus Freaks have grown since the mid 70s. They have attracted disillusioned former members of world rejecting NRMs (which are generally less successful) because they provide a halfway house back to a more conventional lifestyle.
The dynamics of sects and cults
While churches like Roman Catholicism have history stretching centuries sects are often short lived organisations frequently lasting only a single generation or less. Sociologists are therefore interested to understand the dynamics of sect development. There is also interest in how the NRMs described by Wallis will fare in the longer term
