1. What are Cults? RELS 225 Cults and New Religious Movements RELS 225 Cults and New Religious Movements

2. Slide 2. LabellingLabelling Troeltsch: Churches: born Sects: join Yinger: Universal: Catholic Ecclesia: Anglican, Sunni Denomination: Baptist, Presbyterian Established sect: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science Sect: Pentecostals, Worldwide Church of God Cult: Moonies, Scientology

3. Slide 3. Wilson’s Sect/Cult Typology Sects: Change self Conversionist (Salvation Army, Pentacostal) Revolutionist (Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christadelphians) Introversionist (Hutterite, Exclusive Brethren) Manipulationist (Christian Science) Thaumaturgical (Spiritualism) Reformist (Quaker) Utopian (Oneida, Bruderhof) Cults: Illumination (Theosophy, Spiritualism) Instrumental (Scientology, Soka Gakkai) Service-oriented

4. Slide 4. Robbins & Anthony Typology Dualistic or Monistic? Multilevel or Unilevel?

5. Slide 5. Wallis’s Sect/Cult Typology Attitude to world Affirm? Reject? Accommodate?

6. Slide 6. Dawson’s Sect/Cult Typology Mode of Membership 1.Audience 2.Client 3.Cult Movement

7. Slide 7. Cult Features Cults meet individual needs / desires Claim esoteric knowledge Direct ecstatic experience Offer shorter, surer, safer, clearer salvation Often no systematic orientation to society Loosely organized Charismatic leader Usually short-lived

8. Slide 8. The Future of Religion New Religions have emerged in the last few decades. Are these a sign of what religion will become? Or are they the last remnant of religion?

9. Slide 9. Berger on the Role of Religion Berger (1967) Nomos Humans want stability Anomie Things happen to destabilize our lives. What things? This is the human predicament Religion seeks to protect from anomie Nomos vs. Anomie and alienation Externalize Objectivize Internalize

10. Slide 10. Berger on Secularization Secularization (culture not dominated by religion) Personal (privatized, not shared) Choice (options and optional, imagined) Religious claims are relativised. Religion is doomed

11. Slide 11. Stark & Bainbridge 4 premises 1.acknowledge the supernatural 2.Humans seek rewards and avoid costs 3.Rewards are scarce 4.Absence of real rewards leads to compensators: postulating future rewards Religions provide general compensators based on supernatural assumptions

12. Slide 12. Stark & Bainbridge Effects of Secularization NOT: humans no longer need such compensators 1.Revival (sects) 2.Innovation (cults) Cults are the unchurched trying to become churched Triumph of commercial & consumer ethic

13. Spiritual Quest of Generation X Spiritual Quest of Generation X Spiritual Quest of Generation X Spiritual Quest of Generation X 29 minutes