religious organisations

Question 1

EILEEN BAKER: why sects are short: unable to cope

Answer 1

• people are unable to cope with strict discipline/rules
• heavy/extreme commitment is required and difficult to maintain

Question 2

ROY WALLIS - new religious movements: world rejecting (sects)

Answer 2

• highly critical of outside world and seek radical change
• members break from their former lives, living communally and restricted contact with outside world
• controlls all aspects of life
• e.g. peoples temple

Question 3

ROY WALLIS - new religious movements: world accommodating (churches)

Answer 3

• neither accept nor reject the world
• focus on religious matters rather than worldly
• members tend to live conventional lives
• often breakaway from existing mainstream churches or denominations, such as neo-pentecostalism who split from catholicism

Question 4

ROY WALLIS - new religious movements: world affirming (cults)

Answer 4

• accept the world as it is
• tolerant of other religions but offer special knowledge
• promise followers success in mainstream goals (careers, relationships)
• members seen as customers

-e.g. scientology

Question 5

BRYAN WILSON - established sects

Answer 5

• some sects survived many generations e.g. the Amish
• succeeded in socialising their children into high levels of commitment, largely by separation from a wider world
• argues globalisation will make it harder for future sects to keep themselves separate

Question 6

H.R. NEIBUHR - three reasons sects are short lived

Answer 6

1. people born into sects lack the commitment of their parents
2. sects that practice asceticism become prosperous and will be tempted to compromise with the world
3. death of leader - causes the collapse of a sect - typically transforms into a denomination