Religious Organisations - Types Flashcards
What are the characteristics of a church
- run by a bureaucratic hierarchy of professional priests
- connected to the state e.g. Church of England and bishops sit in the House of Lords
- world-accommodating
- it claims monopoly on the truth
What is an example of a church
The Catholic Church led by the pope from the Vatican in Rome
What are the characteristics of a denomination
-some hierarchy of paid officials but much less formal than a church
-the broadly accept society’s values so is world accommodating
-minor restriction on member such as forbidding alcohol
- claims no monopoly on the truth - pluralistically legitimate
What is an example of a denomination?
Pentecostalism, a new form of Christianity emerged in the in the 1900s, focus on the revival of members who can be born again through baptism
What are characteristics of a sect
-Led by a charismatic leader
-Draws members from the poor oppressed
-High level of commitment expected e.g. Jehovah’s Witnesses required to recruit new members.
-Claim monopoly on the truth -uniquely legitimate
-World rejecting
Example of a sect
Jehovah’s Witnesses are a class community with conservative values
The People’s temple gave life savings and relocated to a new city in Jonestown
And was led by Jim Jones
What are the characteristics of a cult?
-Led by a practitioner or therapist
-Smaller numbers
-No formal commitment required followers and more like customers
-Claim no monopoly - pluralistically legitimate
-World affirming
Examples of a cult
The church of Scientology was based on a book about dianetics
-It aims to help personal graph and was founded by Ron Hubbard
What is Wallis theory of sects and cults?
Since 1960 there’s been an explosion the number of new religions this is led to attempts to classify them
Wallis categories new religious movements based on the relationships the outside world
Just movements include both sects and cults
What is the world rejecting new religious movement?
-they reject the secular world as corrupt and beyond redemption
-Therefore they either abandon the world or attempt to transform it with evangelism
-For example the peoples temple rejected the racial and class inequality in America and moved away from North America to form a new community in Guyana in South America
What is a world accommodating new religious movement?
-This is when they accept the values of wider society nor do they entirely reject them
-They exist on the margins of established churches and denominations
-They respond to increasing secular ation of the institutional church
-For example subud is a denomination of Islam founded in 1920s and it provides followers with a spiritual exercise that claims to cleanse their spirits
What is a world-affirming new religious movement
-they accept the values and goals of wider society but aim to provide new means to achieve them
-Human beings are seen as having enormous physical, mental and spiritual potential
-they advertise themselves as an alternative way of achieving economic and social success
- such groups often involve some financial investment
E.g. Scientology
How identifies the different types of cult
Stark and Bainbridge (1985)
What is the first stage of a cult and an example
Audience cults:
Least organised, no formal membership , little interaction between members
Example= Scientology in the 1970 was an audience cult. People bought the book ‘dianetics: the modern science of mental health’ to get self help
What’s the second stage of a cult and an example
Client cult:
Organised around a client/ consultant relationship where a service is provided, ‘therapies’ promise fulfilment e.g. spiritualism
Example= Scientology developed into a client cult as people used dianetics services as therapy
What’s the third stage of a cult and an example
Cultic movements:
More organised, claim to meet all their members religious needs, requires higher levels of commitment, membership of other faith is not permitted
Example= today the church of Scientology is a cultic movements that places more demands on members such as can’t talk to family if they aren’t members and you have to pay for more information
