Welcome To The Sociology of Cults and New Religious Movements Charles M. Brown, Ph.D. Albright College

Substantive Definitions Edward Tyler –“Belief in Spiritual Beings” Emile Durkheim –“A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden- beliefs and practices which unite into a single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them”

Functional Definitions Milton Yinger –“Religion, then, can be defined as a system of beliefs and practices by means of which a group of people struggles with [the] ultimate problems of human life”

Symbolic Definitions

Star of David

Yin-Yang

Pentagram

Symbolic Definitions Clifford Geertz –“Religion is (1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long lasting moods and motivations in [people] by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence (a.k.a. a world view) and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.”

Working Definition Rodney Stark –“Any socially organized pattern of beliefs and practices concerning ultimate meaning that assumes the existence of the supernatural.”

The 2 Principles Reliance on Empirical Data Objectivity

Methods Historical analysis Cross-cultural analysis Experimentation Participant Observation Survey Research Content Analysis