1. New Religious Movements

2. Who Is Drawn To NRM’s and Why Young Affluent Educated Unmarried Geographically Mobile Search for friendship, acceptance, recognition Desire to experience religion rather than think about it Something and someone to believe in Authenticity and naturalness in an otherwise “artificial” world

3. Conditions For Successful NRMs Ability to develop novel ideas and recruit/retain members 1. Maintain continuity with the host society 2. Maintain a medium level of tension with host society 3. Teach doctrines that are non-empirical 4. Legitimate leaders who some kind of authority 5. Generate highly motivated volunteer labor force 6. Maintain fertility 7. Tread carefully in our unregulated religious economy 8. Sustain strong internal attachments 9. Maintain sufficient strictness 10. Socialize young to minimize defection

4. Soteriological Differences Between Western Churches And Eastern New Religious Movements Asceticism self-denial or pain Mysticism unmediated experience with “God” focus on the by-and-by Otherwordly focus on the here-and-now Innerwordly