Church

• Ernst Troeltsh defines church as a large

religious organization that is:
1. Overwhelmingly conservative, but accepts
the secular order to a certain extent
2. May dominate the masses
3. At its most developed, makes use of the State
and the ruling class becoming an integral part
of the social order
 Sects
• Ernst Troeltsh Comparatively small groups
• Aspire personal inward perfection
• Members are expected to be deeply committed to its beliefs.
• Attitude towards the world, the state and society may be
indifferent, hostile or tolerant
• Mainly draw their membership from the lower classes
• Mainly interested in the supernatural and a direct and
personal union with God
• Niebuhr : split-offs from Church, because of disagreement
over interpretation of religion
• Life-span of sect is short-lived
 Examples of SECTS
• Methodists: Protestantism. Concentrated on
social welfare and public morals
• Jehovah’s Witnesses: the world’s bad things
would diminish and there would be a
theocracy (Christian basically)
• Moonies: Moon was the second coming of
Christ.
 Denomination
• An organization that is an intermediate strata
between church and sect
• More large and more established than sects
• Do not have same wide appeal as the church
• Draw members from all strata in society
• Does not identify with the state
 Examples of Denominations
• Methodists, Pentacostalists, Jehovah’s
witnesses
• Some organizations are classified as sects by
some sociologists but as denominations by
others
 Cult
• Farthest extreme from the universal church
• Small religious grouping
• Tends to be an individualistic rather than
organized form of religion, lacking a fixed
doctrine
• Are tolerant of other beliefs
• Have vague beliefs
• Some aspects of New Age Movements are
based around cults
 New Religious Movements

• (Roy Wallis) divides new religious movements

into 3 main groups – based on their
relationship to the outside world.
 1. World-rejecting new religious
movements
(Sects)
a) They are usually a clearly religious organization with a definite
conception of God e.g. the Unification Church or ‘Moonies’ pray
in a conventional way to Heavenly father.
b) Their ideology is highly critical of the outside world, they seek to
change the world
c) They expect God’s intervention to change the world e.g. Black
Muslims believe that there is a prophesy that Allah will destroy
the whites and their religion.
d) Members are expected to take a break from their conventional
life when they join the movement.
e) Limited contact with outer world may be allowed to facilitate
fund-raising
World-rejecting new religious movements

• Wallis most world-rejecting new religious

movements as sects – groups that claim to be
uniquely legitimate and which advocate religious
declines which are orderly regarded as deviant. They
are hostile to the state and non-members.
 2. World-accommodating new religious
movements
Denominations
a. These are usually off-shoots of an existing major Church or
denomination e.g. new-Pentecostalist groups are variants of
Catholic or Protestant religions.
b. They neither accept nor reject the world as it is: they are primarily
concerned with religious rather than worldly questions.
c. Their aim is to restore the spiritual purity to a religion that it
believes has been lost in Churches and denominations.
d. According to Wallis, denominations have a ‘respectable’ set of
religious beliefs and are tolerant of the existence of other religions.
e. Members of world accommodating groups live conventional and
conforming lives outside their religious activities
 3. World-affirming new religious groups.

(Cults)
a) To Wallis, most world-affirming new religious movements
are cults.
b) Cults are like sects in that they have religious beliefs that
are widely regarded as deviant but unlike sects, cults
tolerate the existence of other religions. Cults are loosely
structured tolerant and non-exclusive. They are relatively
undemanding on their followers.
c) They may lack some of the features normally thought to
be central to a religion. They may have no Church, no
collective ritual of worship, or any dvpd. ethics.
 3. World-affirming new religious groups.

 They accept the world as it is and they are

not particularly critical of other religions.
 They offer the followers potential to be
successful in terms of the dominant values of
society by unlocking spiritual powers present
in the individual.
 They seek as wide a membership as possible.
Followers carry on their normal lives except
when undergoing training
 Reasons for the Growth of Sects and cults

1. Marginality: Max Weber argued that sects were likely to arise

within groups that were marginalized.
• Members of groups outside the mainstream of social life often
feel they are not receiving the prestige or economic rewards
they deserve.
• Hence, they turn to theodicy which is a religious explanation
and justification
• (Bryan Wilson) points out to why marginalization may occur:
defeat in war, natural disaster or economic collapse.
• In part, the growth of sects in USA in 1960s, was accomplished
through the recruitment of marginal and disadvantaged
groups.
Reasons for the Growth of Sects and cults

2. Relative deprivation: (Stark and Bainbridge) It

rejects to subjectively perceived deprivation:
that which people actually feel e.g. certain
members of the middle class may feel more
deprived than the poor. They may not lack
wealth, but feel spiritually deprived in a world
they see as too materialistic, lonely and
impersonal.
• Hence, they may achieve satisfaction as being
members of a cult.
Reasons for the Growth of Sects and cults

• 3.Social Change: Bryan Wilson argues that sects

arise during periods of rapid social change,
when traditional norms are disrupted, social
relationships come to lack meaning, and the
traditional inverse of meaning is undermined.
• He sees the rise of Methodism as the response
of the urban working class to the chaos and
uncertainty of life in the newly settled industrial
areas.
 New religious movements 1960s
• Roy Wallis points out several social changes accounting
for new religious movements in 1960s.
• Youth cultures developed because of growth of higher
education and the lengthening of time spent in education
creating more freedom for young people and little
responsibilities. Hence, they were attracted to cults.
• There was a belief that dvpg. technology would herald
the end of poverty and economic society.
However, it didn’t fulfill its promise, so people started losing
faith in scientific rationality.
 The New AGE Movements
• The term New Age started becoming prominent in 1980s.
• New Age movements are close to cults and world
affirming movements. They may be spread through a
culture (media, presentations)
• Examples:
 Reiki: a type of massage that normalizes energy
 Feng shui: Chinese Art to create a harmonious
environment
 Neo-Paganism: involves witch-craft, they worship earthly
things
 The New Age Movements
• Paul Heelas: new age beliefs are dedicated to
self-spirituality and the development of the self
• Bruce: new science rejects many claims of
traditional science, new ecology is concerned for
the environment, and new psychology sees the
self as sacred
• New Age appeals more to women than men and
more to middle classes than working classes.
 The New Age-Conclusion
• On surface the popularity of New Age contradicts the
view of Weber that the modern world would become
increasingly rational.
• But, according to Bruce and Heelas, the rationality of
modernity also brought with it an individualism in which
apparently non-rational beliefs could flourish
• Some view this as a movement away from modernity to
post modernity
• There is no agreement on whether the New Age is
evidence of the resurgences of spiritual belief or a
manifestation of secularization