Types of Religious Organisations

Question 1

What is a Church and who created definition

Answer 1

Very organised. Most Popular

Definition by: Troeltsch

Question 2

What is a cult and who created definition

Answer 2

Loosely Organised.

Definition by: Niebuhr

Question 3

What is a Sect and who created definition

Answer 3

Loosely Organised. Often mixed up and called a cult on media.

Definition by: Troeltsch

Question 4

What requires lots of commitments from members.

Answer 4

Sects

Question 5

What requires little/no commitment from members

Answer 5

Churches, Cults

Question 6

What is confused by media as being a cult

Answer 6

A sect

Question 7

What is a Denomination and who created definition

Answer 7

Definition by: Niebuhr

Question 8

How are churches and sects similar in way they see themselves

Answer 8

Claim interpretation of faith is the only correct one.

Question 9

How are denominations and cults similar in the way they see themselves?

Answer 9

Accepts that there are many different interpretations of faith.

Question 10

Which groups deviate from wider society

Answer 10

Cults and Sects

Question 11

Bruce - definitions of organisations vs postmodern world

Answer 11

In the postmodern world, those definitions are outdated due to the rise of secularisation, loss of religious followers. There is also an increase in insecurity of conservative knowledge ie questions both science and church cant answer causing people to turn to different organisations for answers ie sects or cults. No longer appropriate to label cults and sects as deviant.

Question 12

Explain Wallis’s 3 categories of New Religious Movements

Answer 12

world-rejecting - Counter-culture. Reject the outer world, communal living, requires high commitment from members (some even cut off contact with family members), seek radical change. Typically sects
world-accommodating - Neither accept or reject mainstream world, seek to restore spirtual purity of it’s members ie neo-pentacostalists.
world-affirming: Promise members sucess in mainstream world. Enable followers to unlock spiritual power they can use to succeed in mainstream world. Optimistic. Followers often customers rather than members. Typically cults.

Question 13

Stark and Bainbridge view of Cults

Answer 13

Audience- poorly organised with no commitment required. No interaction between members ie those who are interested in astrology
Client Cult - Relationship between consultant and client, people pay for services over a temporary period of time. Does not require that much commitment ie shrinks that contact the dead
Cult Movements- most organised requiring most commitment. Offer full spiritual salvation and solutions to all problems in the world, meet all of the followers religious needs. Not allowed to be part of another religious organisation, IE Scientology.

Question 14

What is marginalisation

Answer 14

The segregation of people from wider society. The subjective feeling of not feeling their economic rewards or social status.

Question 15

What is theodicy of disprivilege.

Answer 15

Theory by Weber explaining the religious explanation and justification for people’s suffering as a way to encourage people to join sects.

Question 16

Why do white MC people join sects

Answer 16

Wallis argues MC join sects to gain a sense of community because they feel relatively deprived, usually spiritually deprived because of materialistic, consumeristic world. Sense of a lack of emotional support

Question 17

What is relative deprivation

Answer 17

Those who may be quite privileged or poor feel deprived in some way compared with others.

Question 18

How does Social Change contribute to Growth of NRM

Answer 18

Wilson argues rapid change = instability in jobs = disruption to norms and values. NRMs offer salvations, a sense of community and clear norms and values

EX
Rise in methodist Church during post-industrialisation = loss of many factory jobs = moral panic = rise in the number of church members