Cultural SignificanceCultural SignificanceRELS 225

Cults and New Religious Movements

RELS 225Cults and New Religious Movements

Slide 2.

Cultural Significance of NRMsCultural Significance of NRMs

• Our Skewed Perspective• Why study NRMs?

• NRMs are intrinsically interesting• Permit the study of religion on a manageable scale

• Are they smaller representations of what is happening to religion as a whole?

• predict larger social transformations in the world?• ACM turned them into a social problem

• Reliable information on NRMs is needed• Stark & Bainbridge: NRMs will become World

Religions.

Slide 3.

NRMs and secularizationNRMs and secularization

• Secularization theory presents religion as reactive:• NRMs are seen as pre-modern, if not anti-modern.

• People turn to religions to provide meaning and structure, to construct a nomos.• People who turn to NRMs have a greater desire to live in a

coherent meaningful world.• Religious life has become increasingly subjective, about

individual expression.• Options for religions:

1. Accommodate to modernity2. Entrench against modernity3. A New Religious Consciousness that is not a reaction to

modernity…

Slide 4.

Features of a New Religious Consciousness

Features of a New Religious Consciousness

1. Religious individualism2. Religions of experience (not doctrines)3. Authority is given to those who can evoke

such experiences. (pragmatic)4. Accepting of relativism; tolerant5. Holistic; Monistic rather than dualistic6. Organizationally open

• Individuals select their level of involvement (like client cults)

Slide 5.

Significance of a New Religious Consciousness

Significance of a New Religious Consciousness

• Two kinds of NRMs:• Totalistic (exclusive commitment, communal lifestyle):

Moonies;• Open (to parallel commitments) (but not just “audience

cults”)• The totalistic NRMs have been studied more.• If people have profound personal experiences in a

religious setting; they will call them religious experiences.

• These people cohere with others who affirm, expect, appreciate, and promote such charismatic religious experiences

Slide 6.

Significance of a New Religious Consciousness

Significance of a New Religious Consciousness

• New religious consciousness more compatible with findings of science and social sciences, and with the new social order.• Individualistic nature is flexible, compatible

with hectic lifestyles.• Science is not purely material.• science and religion can be combined as

never before

Slide 7.

Modernism and the NRMsModernism and the NRMs

• Are NRMs reactions against modernity or adaptations to the modern social world?

• Lucas: The Surprising Similarities of “Anti-Modern” and “Modern” NRMs

• Pentecostals compared to New Age Movement1. Experience sacred power in everyday lives2. Create new structures of social cohesion (trans-

national, -ethnic)3. Spiritual healing4. Arrival of new age5. Anti-institutional; decentralized.

Slide 8.

Stark’s 10 Factors Affecting NRM Success

Stark’s 10 Factors Affecting NRM Success

1. Retention of cultural continuity (to get converts)2. Non-empirical doctrines3. Tension with culture (a moderate level)4. Legitimate leaders (justified doctrinally; other

members appreciated)5. Have a volunteer labour force6. Maintain fertility7. Local competition is weak8. Maintain strong internal attachments9. Maintain medium levels of tension with society10. Socialize the young to keep them involved

Slide 9.

Postmodernism and NRMsPostmodernism and NRMs

• Beckford’s 3 characteristics of New Spirituality

1. Holistic (emphasize inter-connectedness)2. Power (new sources to help others)3. Compatible (with other ideologies)

• Are NRMs postmodern?• In some ways, but even more modern.

Slide 10.

NRMs: Anti-Modern, Modern, or Postmodern?

NRMs: Anti-Modern, Modern, or Postmodern?

• Postmodernity:1. Insufficiency of reason to find worthwhile

knowledge2. Eclecticism (combine symbols)3. Sponteneity 4. Abandon over-arching myths and

triumphalist narratives• Religion not a social institution but a

cultural resource.