A new religious movement (NRM) is a religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture. NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, such as Christianity, Hinduism or Buddhism, in which case they will be distinct from pre-existing denominations. Scholars studying the sociology of religion have almost unanimously adopted this term as a neutral alternative to the word cult, which is often considered derogatory. (For example, some have pointed out that the use of the word "cult" speaks more to the attitude of the individual using the label than to the nature of the NRM in question.^[1]) They continue to try to reach definitions and define boundaries.^[2]

An NRM may be one of a wide range of movements ranging from those with loose affiliations based on novel approaches to spirituality or religion to communitarian enterprises that demand a considerable amount of group conformity and a social identity that separates their adherents from mainstream society. Use of the term is not universally accepted among the groups to which it is applied.^[3] NRMs do not necessarily share a set of particular attributes, but have been "assigned to the fringe of the dominant religious culture", and "exist in a relatively contested space within society as a whole".^[4]

Definitions[link]

Although there is no one criterion or set of criteria for describing a group as a "new religious movement," use of the term usually requires that the group be both of recent origin and different from existing religions.^[2] Some scholars also have a more restricted approach to what counts as "different from existing religions". For them, "difference" applies to a faith that, although it may be seen as part of an existing religion, meets with rejection from that religion for not sharing the same basic creed or declares itself either separate from the existing religion or even "the only right" faith. Other scholars expand their measurement of difference, considering religious movements new when, taken from their traditional cultural context, they appear in new places, perhaps in modified forms.

NRMs vary in terms of leadership; authority; concepts of the individual, family, and gender; teachings; organizational structures; etc. These variations have presented a challenge to social scientists in their attempts to formulate a comprehensive and clear set of criteria for classifying NRMs.^[5]

Generally, Christian denominations that are an accepted part of mainstream Christianity are not seen as new religious movements; nevertheless, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (a.k.a. Mormons), Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Scientists, and Shakers have been studied as NRMs.^[6][7] Numerous Christian evangelicals consider these groups to also fit the pejorative category "cult" because of theological divergences from orthodox Christian theology.^{[8][9][10][11][12]}

Terminology[link]

The study of New Religions emerged in Japan after an increase in religious innovation following the Second World War. "New religions" is a calque (a word-for-word translation) of shinshūkyō, which Japanese sociologists coined to refer to this phenomenon. This term, amongst others, was adopted by Western scholars as an alternative to cult. "Cult" had emerged in the 1890s,^[4] but by the 1970s it had acquired a pejorative connotation, and was subsequently used indiscriminately by lay critics to disparage groups whose doctrines they opposed.^[2] Consequently, scholars such as Eileen Barker, James T. Richardson, Timothy Miller and Catherine Wessinger argued that the term "cult" had become too laden with negative connotations, and "advocated dropping its use in academia." ^[13] Instead, especially in the sociology of religion, (but also in religious studies),^[14] scholars use "new religious movement". Some still use the term "cult" for groups they believe to be extremely manipulative and exploitative.^[15]

A number of alternatives to the term new religious movement are used by some scholars. These include: alternative religious movements (Miller), emergent religions, (Ellwood) and marginal religious movements (Harper and Le Beau).^[13]

New religions studies[link]

New religions studies is the interdisciplinary study of new religious movements (so called cults) that emerged as a discipline in the 1970s.^[16] The term was coined by J. Gordon Melton in a 1999 paper presented at CESNUR conference in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania.^[16] David G. Bromley used its perspectives for a piece in Nova Religio^[17] and later as a Editor of "Teaching New Religious Movements" in The American Academy of Religion's "Teaching Religious Studies Series;" the term has been used by James R. Lewis, Jean-François Mayer. The study draws from the disciplines of anthropology, psychiatry, history, psychology, sociology, religious studies, and theology.^[18]

Charismatic movements[link]

NRMs based on charismatic leadership often follow the routinization of charisma, as described by the German sociologist Max Weber.

In their book Theory of Religion, Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge propose that the formation of "cults" can be explained through a combination of four models:^[19]

• The psycho-pathological model – the cult founder suffers from psychological problems; he develops the cult in order to resolve these problems for himself, as a form of self-therapy
• The entrepreneurial model – the cult founder acts like an entrepreneur, trying to develop a religion which he/she thinks will be most attractive to potential recruits, often based on his/her experiences from previous cults or other religious groups he/she has belonged to
• The social model – the cult is formed through a social implosion, in which cult members dramatically reduce the intensity of their emotional bonds with non-cult members, and dramatically increase the intensity of those bonds with fellow cult members – this emotionally intense situation naturally encourages the formation of a shared belief system and rituals
• The normal revelations model – the cult is formed when the founder chooses to interpret ordinary natural phenomena as supernatural, such as by ascribing his or her own creativity in inventing the cult to that of the deity.

Joining[link]

According to Marc Galanter, Professor of Psychiatry at NYU,^[20] typical reasons why people join cults include a search for community and a spiritual quest. Sociologists Stark and Bainbridge, in discussing the process by which individuals join new religious groups, have even questioned the utility of the concept of conversion, suggesting that affiliation is a more useful concept.^[21]

Jeffrey Hadden summarizes a lecture entitled "Why Do People Join NRMs?" (a lecture in a series related to the sociology of new religious movements, a term Hadden uses to include both cults and sects)^[22][23] as follows:

1. Belonging to groups is a natural human activity;
2. People belong to religious groups for essentially the same reasons they belong to other groups;
3. Conversion is generally understood as an emotionally charged experience that leads to a dramatic reorganization of the convert's life;
4. Conversion varies enormously in terms of the intensity of the experience and the degree to which it actually alters the life of the convert;
5. Conversion is one, but not the only reason people join religious groups;
6. Social scientists have offered a number of theories to explain why people join religious groups;
7. Most of these explanations could apply equally well to explain why people join lots of other kinds of groups;
8. No one theory can explain all joinings or conversions;
9. What all of these theories have in common is the view that joining or converting is a natural process.

In the 1960s sociologist John Lofland lived with Unification Church missionary Young Oon Kim and a small group of American church members in California and studied their activities in trying to promote their beliefs and win new members. Lofland noted that most of their efforts were ineffective and that most of the people who joined did so because of personal relationships with other members, often family relationships.^[24] Lofland published his findings in 1964 as a doctorial thesis entitled: "The World Savers: A Field Study of Cult Processes," and in 1966 in book form by Prentice-Hall as Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization, and Maintenance of Faith. It is considered to be one of the most important and widely cited studies of the process of religious conversion, as well as one of the first sociological studies of a new religious movement.^[25][26]

Leaving[link]

There are at least three ways people leave a NRM: 1) by one's own decision, 2) through expulsion and 3) or through intervention (Exit counseling, deprogramming).^[27][28]

According to Eileen Barker, the greatest worry of potential harm concerns the central and most dedicated followers of a new religious movement. Barker mentions that some former members may not take new initiatives for quite a long time after disaffiliation from the NRM. This generally does not concern the many superficial, short-lived, or peripheral supporters of an NRM.^[29][30]

According to Barret leaving can be difficult for some members and may include psychological trauma. Reasons for this trauma may include: conditioning by the religious movement; avoidance of uncertainties about life and its meaning; having had powerful religious experiences; love for the founder of the religion; emotional investment; fear of losing salvation; bonding with other members; anticipation of the realization that time, money, and efforts donated to the group were a waste; and the new freedom with its corresponding responsibilities, especially for people who lived in a community. Those reasons may prevent a member from leaving even if the member realizes that some things in the NRM are wrong^{[citation needed]} According to Kranenborg, in some religious groups, members have all their social contacts within the group, which makes disaffection and disaffiliation very traumatic.^[31]

According to F. Derks and J. van der Lans, there is no uniform "post-cult trauma" of people leaving NRMs. While psychological and social problems upon resignation are not uncommon, their character and intensity are greatly dependent on the personal history and on the traits of the ex-member, and on the reasons for and way of resignation.^[32]

Sociologists Bromley and Hadden also note a lack of empirical support for claims by opponents of supposed consequences of having been a member of an NRM and substantial empirical evidence against it. These include the fact that the overwhelming proportion of people who get involved in NRMs leave, most short of two years; the overwhelming proportion of people who leave of their own volition; and that two-thirds (67%) felt "wiser for the experience."^[33]

NRMs and the media[link]

An article on the categorization of new religious movements in U.S. print media published by The Association for the Sociology of Religion (formerly the American Catholic Sociological Society), criticizes the print media for failing to recognize social-scientific efforts in the area of new religious movements, and its tendency to use popular or anti-cultist definitions rather than social-scientific insight, and asserts that "The failure of the print media to recognize social-scientific efforts in the area of religious movement organizations impels us to add yet another failing mark to the media report card Weiss (1985) has constructed to assess the media's reporting of the social sciences."^[34]

Criticisms[link]

Criticism of some new religious movements, a subset of which are often described by their critics as being "cults," has been a contentious issue with both sides sometimes using epithets such as "hate group" to describe the other side.^[35][36] Disaffected former members, stating that they are seeking redress for perceived wrongs or looking to expose perceived wrongdoings, have, in turn, had their motives called into question. They have themselves come under attack for allegedly using methods that have been characterized as polemic, hostile, and verbally or emotionally abusive.

Critics, both those who are ex-members and who aren't, have had their character and credibility impeached. The Church of Scientology, in particular, makes a practice of investigating its critics and publicizing any past crimes or wrongdoings,^[37] frequently alleging unproved wrongdoings.^[38] CESNUR’s president Massimo Introvigne writes in his article "So many evil things: Anti-cult terrorism via the Internet"^[39] that fringe and extreme anti-cult activism resorts to tactics that may create a background favorable to extreme manifestations of discrimination and hate against individuals that belong to new religious movements.

Examples[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

NRMs are diverse in their beliefs, practices, organization, and societal acceptance. Irving Hexham and Karla Poewe have consequently proposed that there are NRMs, particularly those who have gained adherents in a number of nations, which can be understood as forming global subcultures.

In general, the number of people who have affiliated with NRMs worldwide is small when compared to major world religions. However, scholars of NRMs in the west have noted the growing significance of religious syncretism, where nominal adherents of established religions import elements such as Buddhist meditation techniques, Hindu yoga methods or New Age visualisations. Contemporary Celtic Christianity in countries such as Ireland is one formalised example.^[40]

The diversity of NRMs has also seen the emergence of different groups in Africa, Japan, and Melanesia. In Africa, David Barrett has documented the emergence of 6,000 new indigenous churches since the late 1960s. In Japan a number of NRMs based on revitalised Shinto belief, as well as neo-Buddhist and New Age groups, have emerged, some of which originated in the late Nineteenth century in the Meiji Era and others in the aftermath of World War Two.

Around twenty-five percent of the world's distinct cultures are found in Melanesia, spanning the island nations from Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji. It was here that the phenomena of Cargo Cults were first discerned by anthropologists and religious studies scholars. The Cargo Cults are interpreted as indigenous NRMs that have arisen in response to colonial and post-colonial cultural changes, including the influx of modernisation and capitalist consumerism.

At the time of their foundation, the religious traditions considered "established" or "mainstream" today were seen as new religious movements. For example, Christianity was opposed by people within Judaism and within the Roman culture as sacrilege toward existing doctrines. Likewise, Protestant Christianity was originally seen as a new religious movement or breakaway development.

In similar fashion, some of the contemporary naturalistic religions (naturalism) have evolved out of traditional Christianity and Judaism via process theology or using the term ‘God’ as a metaphor. Others have emerged via a dominating scientific perspective or by atheistic rebellion to the established beliefs of their culture. Still others have added a religious ingredient to their humanistic thinking. Most of these see the ritual/spiritual aspects of religious practice as necessary for broad adoption by many people. Examples are Religious Naturalism, Scientific Pantheism, Religious Humanism and some liberal Unitarians, Quakers, Rastafarians and Jews.

Cybersectarianism is a newer organizational form which involves: "highly dispersed small groups of practitioners that may remain largely anonymous within the larger social context and operate in relative secrecy, while still linked remotely to a larger network of believers who share a set of practices and texts, and often a common devotion to a particular leader. Overseas supporters provide funding and support; domestic practitioners distribute tracts, participate in acts of resistance, and share information on the internal situation with outsiders. Collectively, members and practitioners of such sects construct viable virtual communities of faith, exchanging personal testimonies and engaging in collective study via email, on-line chat rooms and web-based message boards."^[41]

See also[link]

References[link]

Constructs such as ibid., loc. cit. and idem are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title. (March 2010)

Further reading[link]

• Barrett, David B., George T. Kurian, and Todd M. Johnson, World Christian Encyclopedia: A Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions in the Modern World, 2 vols. 2nd edition, Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
• Hexham, Irving and Karla Poewe, New Religions as Global Cultures, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1997.
• Hexham, Irving, Stephen Rost & John W. Morehead (eds) Encountering New Religious Movements: A Holistic Evangelical Approach, Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2004.
• Kranenborg, Reender (Dutch language) Een nieuw licht op de kerk?: Bijdragen van nieuwe religieuze bewegingen voor de kerk van vandaag/A new perspective on the church: Contributions by NRMs for today's church Published by het Boekencentrum, (a Christian publishing house), the Hague, 1984. ISBN 90-239-0809-0.
• Stark, Rodney (ed) Religious Movements: Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, New York: Paragon House, 1985.
• Arweck, Elisabeth and Peter B. Clarke, New Religious Movements in Western Europe: An Annotated Bibliography, Westport & London: Greenwood Press, 1997.
• Barker, Eileen, New religious movements: a practical introduction London, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1989.
• Barker, Eileen and Margit Warburg (eds) New Religions and New Religiosity, Aarhus, Denmark: Aargus University Press, 1998.
• Beckford, James A. (ed) New Religious Movements and Rapid Social Change, Paris: UNESCO/London, Beverly Hills & New Delhi: SAGE Publications, 1986.
• Chryssides, George D., Exploring New Religions, London & New York: Cassell, 1999.
• Clarke, Peter B. (ed.), Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements, London & New York: Routledge, 2006.
• Davis, Derek H., and Barry Hankins (eds) New Religious Movements and Religious Liberty in America, Waco: J. M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies and Baylor University Press, 2002.
• Jenkins, Philip, Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History, New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
• Kohn, Rachael, The New Believers: Re-Imagining God, Sydney: Harper Collins, 2003.
• Loeliger, Carl and Garry Trompf (eds) New Religious Movements in Melanesia, Suva, Fiji: University of the South Pacific & University of Papua New Guinea, 1985.
• Meldgaard, Helle and Johannes Aagaard (eds) New Religious Movements in Europe, Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 1997.
• Needleman, Jacob and George Baker (eds) Understanding the New Religions, New York: Seabury Press, 1981.
• Partridge, Christopher (ed) Encyclopedia of New Religions: New Religious Movements, Sects and Alternative Spiritualities, Oxford: Lion, 2004.
• Possamai, Adam, Religion and Popular Culture: A Hyper-Real Testament, Brussels: P. I. E. - Peter Lang, 2005.
• Saliba, John A., Understanding New Religious Movements, 2nd edition, Walnut Creek, Lanham: Alta Mira Press, 2003.
• Thursby, Gene. "Siddha Yoga: Swami Muktanada and the Seat of Power." When Prophets Die: The Postcharismatic Fate Of New Religious Movements. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1991 pp. 165–182.
• Toch, Hans. The Social Psychology of Social Movements, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1965.
• Towler, Robert (ed) New Religions and the New Europe, Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 1995.
• Trompf, G. W. (ed) Cargo Cults and Millenarian Movements: Transoceanic Comparisons of New Religious Movements, Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1990.
• Wilson, Bryan and Jamie Cresswell (eds) New Religious Movements: Challenge and Response, London & New York: Routledge, 1999.

External links[link]

Wikinews has related news: New religious movement

Wikisource has original text related to this article: New religious movement

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: New religious movement

• AcademicInfo: Religious Movements Gateway - Directory of Online Resources
• Hartford Institute of Religious Research: New religious movements
• Online texts about NRMs
• SSSR Resolution on New Religious Groups
• Diskus The on-disk journal of international Religious Studies

The information in this article was originally developed for a sociology textbook on Wikibooks: The Church-Sect Typology.

Sociologists have proposed various classifications of religious movements. The most widely used classification in the sociology of religion is the church-sect typology. The typology states that churches, ecclesia, denominations and sects form a continuum with decreasing influence on society. Sects are break-away groups and tend to be in tension with society.

Cults and new religious movements fall outside this continuum and in contrast to aforementioned groups often have a novel teaching. They have been classified on their attitude towards society and the level of involvement of their adherents.

[edit] Sociological church-sect typology

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

This church-sect typology has its origins in the work of Max Weber. The basic premise is that there is a continuum along which religions fall, ranging from the protest-like orientation of sects to the equilibrium maintaining churches. Along this continuum are several additional types, each of which will be discussed in turn. The reader may notice that many of labels for the types of religion are commonly employed by non-sociologists to refer to religions and tend to be used interchangeably. Sociologists, when speaking technically, will not use these labels interchangeably as they are designations for religions with very specific characteristics.

These differing religions are often classified by sociologists as ideal types. Ideal types are pure examples of the categories. Because there is significant variation in each religion, how closely an individual religion actually adheres to their ideal type classification will vary. Nevertheless, the classification scheme is useful as it also outlines a sort of developmental process for religions.

Church and ecclesia[link]

The church classification describes religions that are all-embracing of religious expression in a society. Religions of this type are the guardians of religion for all members of the societies in which they are located and tolerate no religious competition. They also strive to provide an all-encompassing worldview for their adherents and are typically enmeshed with the political and economic structures of society.

Johnstone^[1] provides the following seven characteristics of churches:

1. claim universality, include all members of the society within their ranks, and have a strong tendency to equate "citizenship" with "membership"
2. exercise religious monopoly and try to eliminate religious competition
3. are very closely allied with the state and secular powers–frequently there is overlapping of responsibilities and much mutual reinforcement
4. are extensively organized as a hierarchical bureaucratic institution with a complex division of labor
5. employ professional, full-time clergy who possess the appropriate credentials of education and formal ordination
6. primarily gain new members through natural reproduction and the socialization of children into the ranks
7. allow for diversity by creating different groups within the church (e.g., orders of nuns or monks) rather than through the formation of new religions

The classical example of a church by this definition is the Roman Catholic Church, especially in the past, such as the State church of the Roman Empire. Today, the Roman Catholic Church has been forced into the denomination category because of religious pluralism, or competition among religions. This is especially true of Catholicism in the United States. The change from a church to a denomination is still under way in many Latin American countries where the majority of citizens remain Catholics.

Islam is a church in the strongest sense in most Middle Eastern countries (especially Saudi Arabia), where there is no separation of church and state. The Basic Law of Saudi Arabia states: "[The Constitution of Saudi Arabia is] God's Book [the Qur'an] and the Sunnah of His Prophet [Muhammad]"^[2]. These nations are ruled under a strict interpretation of religious law (a Salafi interpretation of shari'a in the case of KSA) with no equivalent secular legal system, or with religious law predominating, and never less than equal to secular law. Of all of Johnstone's criteria for a church, Islam is lacking only an ordained clergy and a strictly hierarchical structure, but has a form of clergy and hierarchy in the ulema. In the Shi'a denominations, there is a professional clergy led by a Grand Ayatollah.

A slight modification of the church type is that of ecclesia.^[3] Ecclesias include the above characteristics of churches with the exception that they are generally less successful at garnering absolute adherence among all of the members of the society and are not the sole religious body. The state churches of some European nations would fit this type.

Denominations[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The denomination lies between the church and the sect on the continuum. Denominations come into existence when churches lose their religious monopoly in a society. A denomination is one religion among many. When churches and/or sects become denominations, there are also some changes in their characteristics. Johnstone provides the following eight characteristics of denominations:

1. similar to churches, but unlike sects, in being on relatively good terms with the state and secular powers and may even attempt to influence government at times
2. maintain at least tolerant and usually fairly friendly relationships with other denominations in a context of religious pluralism
3. rely primarily on birth for membership increase, though it will also accept converts; some actively pursue evangelization
4. accept the principle of at least modestly changing doctrine and practice and tolerate some theological diversity and dispute
5. follow a fairly routinized ritual and worship service that explicitly discourages spontaneous emotional expression
6. train and employ professional clergy who must meet formal requirements for certification
7. accept less extensive involvement from members than do sects, but more involvement than churches
8. often draw disproportionately from the middle and upper classes of society

Most of the major Christian bodies formed post-reformation are denominations by this definition (e.g., Baptists, Methodists, Lutherans, Seventh-day Adventists).

Sects[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Sociologically, a "sect" is defined as a newly formed religious group that formed to protest elements of its parent religion (generally a denomination). Their motivation tends to be situated in accusations of apostasy or heresy in the parent denomination; they often decry liberal trends in denominational development and advocate a return to so-called "true" religion.

Leaders of sectarian movements (i.e., the formation of a new sect) tend to come from a lower socio-economic class than the members of the parent denomination, a component of sect development that is not yet entirely understood. Most scholars believe that when sect formation involves social class distinctions, they reflect an attempt to compensate for deficiencies in lower social status.^{[citation needed]} An often seen result of such factors is the incorporation into the theology of the new sect a distaste for the adornments of the wealthy (e.g., jewelry or other signs of wealth).

After their formation, sects can take only three paths - dissolution, institutionalization, or eventual development into a denomination. If the sect withers in membership, it will dissolve. If the membership increases, the sect is forced to adopt the characteristics of denominations in order to maintain order (e.g., bureaucracy, explicit doctrine, etc.). And even if the membership does not grow or grows slowly, norms will develop to govern group activities and behavior. The development of norms results in a decrease in spontaneity, which is often one of the primary attractions of sects. The adoption of denomination-like characteristics can either turn the sect into a full-blown denomination or, if a conscious effort is made to maintain some of the spontaneity and protest components of sects, an institutionalized sect can result. Institutionalized sects are halfway between sects and denominations on the continuum of religious development. They have a mixture of sect-like and denomination-like characteristics. Examples include: Hutterites, Iglesia ni Cristo, and the Amish.

Most of the well-known denominations of the U.S. existing today originated as sects breaking away from denominations (or Churches, in the case of Lutheranism and Anglicanism). Examples include: Methodists, Baptists, and Seventh-day Adventists.

[edit] Cults or new religious movements

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

By sociological typology, cults are, like sects, new religious groups. But, unlike sects, they can form without breaking off from another religious group, though this is by no means always the case. The characteristic that most distinguishes cults from sects is that they are not advocating a return to pure religion but rather the embracement of something new or something that has been completely lost or forgotten (e.g., lost scriptures or new prophecy). Cults are also much more likely to be led by charismatic leaders than are other religious groups and the charismatic leaders tend to be the individuals who bring forth the new or lost component that is the focal element of the cult.

Cults, like sects, often integrate elements of existing religious theologies, but cults tend to create more esoteric theologies synthesized from many sources. Cults tend to emphasize the individual and individual peace.

Cults, like sects, can develop into denominations. As cults grow, they bureaucratize and develop many of the characteristics of denominations. Some scholars are hesitant to grant cults denominational status because many cults maintain their more esoteric characteristics. But given their closer semblance to denominations than to the cult type, it is more accurate to describe them as denominations. Some denominations in the U.S. that began as cults include Christian Science and the Nation of Islam.

Finally, there is a push in the social scientific study of religion to begin referring to cults as New Religious Movements (NRMs). This is the result of the often pejorative and derogatory meanings attached to the word "cult" in popular language.

Criticism[link]

Religious scholar John A. Saliba^[4] notes the many attempts to draw a classification or typology of cults and/or sects, but concludes that the divergences that exist in these groups' practices, doctrines, and goals do not lend themselves to a simple classification that has universal approval. He argues that the influx of Eastern religious systems, including Taoism, Confucianism and Shintoism, which do not fit within the traditional distinctions between church, sect, denomination and cult, have compounded typological difficulties.^[5]

Wallis' distinction between cults and sects[link]

The sociologist Roy Wallis (1945–1990) introduced differing definitions of sects and cults. He argued that a cult is characterized by "epistemological individualism" by which he means that "the cult has no clear locus of final authority beyond the individual member." Cults, according to Wallis, are generally described as "oriented towards the problems of individuals, loosely structured, tolerant, non-exclusive", making "few demands on members", without possessing a "clear distinction between members and non-members", having "a rapid turnover of membership", and are transient collectives with vague boundaries and fluctuating belief systems Wallis asserts that cults emerge from the "cultic milieu". Wallis contrast a cult with a sect that he asserts are characterized by "epistemological authoritarianism": sects possess some authoritative locus for the legitimate attribution of heresy. According to Wallis, "sects lay a claim to possess unique and privileged access to the truth or salvation, such as collective salvation, and their committed adherents typically regard all those outside the confines of the collectivity as 'in error'".^[6][7]

Cult and/or new religious movements[link]

Stark and Bainbridge[link]

The sociologists Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge^[8] distinguish three types of cults, classified on the basis of the levels of organizational and client (or adherent) involvement:^[8][9]

• Audience cults which have hardly any organization because participants/consumers lack significant involvement.
• Client cults, in which the service-providers exhibit a degree of organization in contrast to their clients. Client cults link into moderate-commitment social networks through which people exchange goods and services. The relationship between clients and the leaders of client cults resembles that of patients and therapists.
• Cult movements, which seek to provide services that meet all of their adherents' spiritual needs, although they differ significantly in the degree to which they use mobilize adherents' time and commitment.

The sociologist Paul Schnabel has argued that the Church of Scientology originated from an audience cult (the readership of Hubbard's book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health and the Astounding Science Fiction article which had preceded it) into a client cult (Dianetics) and finally into a cult movement (the Church of Scientology).^[10]

Roy Wallis[link]

The sociologist Roy Wallis introduced a classification system of new religious movements based on movements' views on and relationships with the world at large.^{[8][9][11][12]}

• World-rejecting movements view the prevailing social order as deviant and a perversion of the divine plan. Such movements see the world as evil or at least as materialistic. They may adhere to millenarian beliefs. The International Society of Krishna Consciousness (a.k.a. "Hare Krishnas"), the Unification Church, the Brahma Kumaris and the Children of God exemplify world-rejecting movements.
• World-accommodating movements draw clear distinctions between the spiritual and the worldly spheres. They have few or no consequences for the lives of adherents. These movements adapt to the world but they do not reject or affirm it.
• World-affirming movements might not have any rituals or any formal ideology. They may lack most of the characteristics of religious movements. They affirm the world and merely claim to have the means to enable people to unlock their "hidden potential". As examples of world-affirming movements, Wallis mentions Werner Erhard's est and Transcendental Meditation.

See also[link]

• Anthropology of religion
• Psychology of religion
• Religious denomination
• Sect
• Sectarianism
• Sociology of religion

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Ayella, Marybeth F. Insane Therapy: Portrait of a Psychotherapy Cult,, 1998
• Bainbridge, William Sims, Satan's Power: A Deviant Psychotherapy Cult, 1978
• Chryssides, George D., "New Religious Movements - Some problems of definition", Diskus, Internet Journal of Religion, 1997. Available online
• McGuire, Meredith B. Religion: the Social Context fifth edition (2002) ISBN 0-534-54126-7
• Pilarzyk, Thomas ‘’The Origin, Development, and Decline of a Youth Culture Religion: An Application of the Sectarianization Theory’’ in "Review of Religious Research" 20, 1:33-37, 1978)
• Singer, Margaret, Ph.D. and Janja Lalich,Crazy Therapies: What Are They? Do They Work?, Ph.D., 1996.
• Wallis, Roy Scientology: Therapeutic Cult to Religious Sect in Sociology, Vol. 9, No. 1, 89-100 (1975) abstract available online
• Wallis, Roy The Road to Total Freedom: A Sociological analysis of Scientology (1976) Columbia University Press ISBN 0-231-04200-0 available online (bad scan)

External links[link]

• Three Groups in One by Mary McCormick Maaga excerpt from her book Hearing the Voices of Jonestown (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1998)
• Church sect theory by William H. Swatos, Jr . in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Society by Swatos (editor)
• "Psychotherapy Cults", Margaret Singer, Ph.D., Maurice K. Temerlin, Ph.D., and Michael D. Langone, Ph.D.
• "Psychotherapy Cults: An Ethical Analysis", Kim Boland and Gordon Lindbloom, Ph.D., Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon
• "Clinical Update on Cults", Psychiatric Times, Michael Langone, Ph.D., July 1996, Vol. XIII, Issue 7
• "Iatrogenic symptoms associated with a therapy cult: examination of an extinct 'new psychotherapy' with respect to psychiatric deterioration and 'brainwashing'". Abstract of an article by John Hochman in Psychiatry 1984 Nov;47(4):366-77. retrieved 2007-08-01.
• A typology of new religious movements and its empirical indicators, by Tadeusz Doktòr, Warsaw University

Bart D. Ehrman
Born	(1955-10-05) 5 October 1955 (age 56)
Nationality	American
Education	BA (1978), MDiv (1981), PhD (1985)
Alma mater	Moody Bible Institute Wheaton College Princeton Theological Seminary
Employer	The Department of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Known for	New Testament authentication, historical Jesus, lost gospels, early Christian writings, orthodox corruption of scripture.
Spouse	Sarah Beckwith
Children	Kelly and Derek
Website
www.bartdehrman.com

Bart D. Ehrman (born 1955) is an American New Testament scholar, currently the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While Ehrman is a leading New Testament scholar, he has also achieved acclaim at the popular level, authoring four New York Times bestsellers. His best-known works at the popular level are Misquoting Jesus and Jesus, Interrupted.^[1] Ehrman's work focuses on New Testament textual criticism and early Christianity.

Education[link]

Ehrman grew up in Lawrence, Kansas, and attended Lawrence High School, where he was on the state champion debate team in 1973. He began studying the Bible and its original languages at the Moody Bible Institute and is a 1978 graduate of Wheaton College in Illinois. He received his PhD and M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, where he studied under Bruce Metzger. He received magna cum laude for both his BA in 1978 and PhD in 1985.

Career[link]

Ehrman became an Evangelical Christian as a teen. In his books, he recounts his youthful enthusiasm as a born-again, fundamentalist Christian, certain that God had inspired the wording of the Bible and protected its texts from all error.^[2] His desire to understand the original words of the Bible led him to the study of ancient languages and to textual criticism. His graduate studies, however, eventually convinced him that one ought to acknowledge the contradictions in the biblical manuscripts rather than attempt to harmonize or reconcile discrepancies. He remained a liberal Christian for fifteen years but later became an agnostic after struggling with the philosophical problems of evil and suffering.^[2]

He was formerly the President of the Southeast Region of the Society of Biblical Literature and worked closely as an editor on a number of the Society's publications. Currently, he co-edits the series New Testament Tools and Studies. Much of Ehrman's writing concentrates on various aspects of Walter Bauer's thesis that Christianity was always diversified or at odds with itself. Ehrman is often considered a pioneer in connecting the history of the early church to textual variants within biblical manuscripts and coined the term "Proto-orthodox Christianity" to describe the Christianity that existed before theological consensus or orthodoxy was established.^[3] In his writings, Ehrman attempts to show that from the time of the Church Fathers it was those denounced as heretics (Marcion, for example) who were charged with tampering with the biblical manuscripts. Ehrman theorizes that it was actually more often the orthodox that corrupted the manuscripts, altering the text to promote particular viewpoints.

In March 2006, he joined theologian William Lane Craig in public debate on the question "Is There Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus?" on the campus of the College of the Holy Cross.^[4] In April 2008, Ehrman and evangelical New Testament scholar Daniel B. Wallace participated in a public dialogue on the textual reliability of the New Testament.^[5] In January 2009, Ehrman debated James White, Director of Alpha and Omega Ministries, an Evangelical Reformed Baptist apologist on "Did the Bible Mis-Quote Jesus?"

In 2007, he gave a speech at Stanford University in which he discussed the textual inconsistencies of the New Testament, and also took questions from the audience. He regularly conducts similar sessions through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Adventures in Ideas seminars. He has also made several guest appearances on National Public Radio (NPR) including the show Fresh Air in February 2008 to discuss his book God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question-Why We Suffer and in March 2009 to discuss his book Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don't Know About Them).

He has authored or contributed to more than 20 books. In 2006 and 2009 he appeared on The Colbert Report, as well as The Daily Show, to promote his books Misquoting Jesus, and Jesus, Interrupted (respectively). Professional awards received include the Students' Undergraduate Teaching Award, The Ruth and Philip Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement, and The Bowman and Gordon Gray Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Works[link]

Ehrman has written widely on issues of New Testament and early Christianity at both an academic and popular level, with over twenty books including three New York Times bestsellers (Misquoting Jesus, God's Problem, and Jesus, Interrupted). Much of his work is on textual criticism and the New Testament. His first book was Didymus the Blind and the Text of the Gospels (1987) followed by several books published by the Oxford University Press, including The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, and a new edition and translation of The Apostolic Fathers in the Loeb Classical Library series published by Harvard University Press. In God's Problem Ehrman discusses the problem of evil and suffering, the issue which he says led him to become agnostic.^[6] His book Jesus, Interrupted critically assesses the New Testament documents and early Christianity. In his book Forged which was released in 2011, he asserts that 11 or more books of the Christian New Testament were essentially politically expeditious forgeries, intended to advance various theological positions and were in fact not written by the authors traditionally ascribed to them.

In 1999 Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium was released as a study on the historical Jesus. Ehrman argues that the historical Jesus was an apocalyptic preacher, and that his apocalyptic beliefs are recorded in the earliest Christian documents: the Gospel of Mark and the authentic Pauline epistles. The earliest Christians believed Jesus would soon return, and their beliefs are echoed in the earliest Christian writings. In this, Ehrman follows the dominant scholarly consensus among secular scholars since Albert Schweitzer advanced a version of that thesis in 1905. In his foreword to the book, Ehrman notes that there are many popular books for the layman advancing various minority theories, such as Jesus as a wisdom-sage, shaman, magician, or even founder of a mushroom cult, but few popular books for laymen advancing the dominant scholarly consensus. This book was intended to correct that gap.

Much of Ehrman's writing has concentrated on various aspects of Walter Bauer's thesis that Christianity was always diversified or at odds with itself. Ehrman is often considered a pioneer in connecting the history of the early church to textual variants within biblical manuscripts and in coining such terms as "Proto-orthodox Christianity."^[3] Ehrman brought this counter-traditional thesis, and textual criticism in general, to the lay public through his popular-level work, Misquoting Jesus.

In 2012, Ehrman published Did Jesus Exist? defending the thesis that Jesus of Nazareth existed in contrast to the mythicist theory that Jesus is an entirely mythical or fictitious being woven whole-cloth out of legendary material. He states he expects the book to be criticized both by some atheists as well as fundamentalist Christians. His expectations were fulfilled when, in April 2012, Richard Carrier published a comprehensive criticism of the book, particularly questioning both Ehrman's facts and methodology.^[7] Ehrman replied to Carrier's criticisms on his website, primarily defending himself against Carrier's allegations of factual errors^[8]

Bibliography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Darrell L. Bock is a New Testament scholar and research professor of New Testament studies at Dallas Theological Seminary in Dallas, Texas, United States. Bock received his PhD from Scotland's University of Aberdeen.

His works include the monograph "Blasphemy and Exaltation" in the collection Judaism and the Final Examination of Jesus, and volumes on Luke in both the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament and the IVP New Testament Commentary Series. Bock is a past president of the Evangelical Theological Society. He serves as a corresponding editor for Christianity Today, and he has published articles in the Los Angeles Times and The Dallas Morning News.

[edit] Challenging The Da Vinci Code

Bock is most known for his recent work concerning The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. In a response to the theological implications of the novel, Bock wrote Breaking the Da Vinci Code, his best-selling work to date. The book challenges the historicity of various extra-biblical ideas expressed in The Da Vinci Code, most notably the supposed marriage of Jesus to Mary Magdalene. He also has written many pieces for beliefnet.com and ChristianityToday.com. Dr. Bock's latest book is The Missing Gospels, which argues for the existence and legitimate primacy of early Christian orthodoxy over non-canonical gospels and beliefs.

On May 17, 2006, immediately before the film The Da Vinci Code opened, Bock appeared on the TV show Nightline, talking about his book and about the movie.^[1]

Books[link]

• Bock, Darrell L. The Missing Gospels: Unearthing the Truth Behind Alternative Christianities / ISBN 978-0-7852-1294-2
• Bock, Darrell L. Breaking The Da Vinci code : answers to the questions everyone's asking / Darrell L. Bock. Nashville : Nelson Books, c2004. xx, 188 p. ; 22 cm. ISBN 0-7852-6046-3 (hardcover)
• Bock, Darrell L. Breaking the da Vinci code : answers to the questions everyone's asking / Darrell L. Bock. Waterville, Me. : Thorndike Press, 2004. 239 p. (large print) ; 22 cm. ISBN 0-7862-6967-7 (alk. paper)
• Bock, Darrell L. Blasphemy and exaltation in Judaism and the final examination of Jesus : a philological-historical study of the key Jewish themes impacting Mark 14:61-64 / Darrell L. Bock. Tübingen : Mohr Siebeck, c1998. xiv, 285 p. ; 24 cm. ISBN 3-16-147052-4
• Bock, Darrell L. Blasphemy and exaltation in Judaism : the charge against Jesus in Mark 14:53-65 / Darrell L. Bock. Blasphemy and exaltation in Judaism and the final examination of Jesus Grand Rapids, Michigan : Baker Books, 2000. xiv, 285 p. ; 23 cm. ISBN 0-8010-2236-3 (pbk.)
• Bock, Darrell L. The Bible knowledge key word study : the Gospels/ Darrell L. Bock. Colorado Springs, Colorado : Cook Communications Ministries, c2002. 430 p. ; 25 cm. ISBN 0-7814-3444-0 (hardcover)
• Bock, Darrell L. Can I trust the Bible? : defending the Bible's reliability. / Darrell L. Bock. Norcross, Georgia : Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, c2001. 64 p. : port. ; 21 cm. ISBN 1-930107-03-X
• Bock, Darrell L. Jesus according to Scripture : restoring the portrait from the Gospels / Darrell L. Bock. Grand Rapids, Michigan : Baker Academic ; Leicester, England : Apollos, c2002. 704 p. ; 24 cm. ISBN 0-8010-2370-X
• Bock, Darrell L. Jesus in context : background readings for Gospel study / Darrell L. Bock. Grand Rapids, Michigan : Baker Academic, c2005. 286 p. ; 23 cm. ISBN 0-8010-2719-5
• Bock, Darrell L. Luke / Darrell L. Bock. Grand Rapids, Michigan : Zondervan Pub. House, c1996. 640 p. ; 24 cm. ISBN 0-310-49330-7 (hardcover)
• Bock, Darrell L. Luke / Darrell L. Bock. Downers Grove, Illinois : InterVarsity, c1994. 412 p. ; 23 cm. ISBN 0-8308-1803-0 (hardcover)
• Bock, Darrell L. The missing Gospels : unearthing the truth behind alternative Christianities / Darrell L. Bock. Nashville : Nelson Books, c2006. xxvi, 230 p. ; 22 cm. ISBN 0-7852-1294-9
• Bock, Darrell L. Purpose-directed theology : getting our priorities right in evangelical controversies / Darrell L. Bock. Downers Grove, Ill. : InterVarsity Press, c2002. 114 p. ; 21 cm. ISBN 0-8308-2725-0
• Bock, Darrell L. Studying the historical Jesus : a guide to sources and methods. / Darrell L. Bock. Grand Rapids, Michigan : Baker Academic ; Leicester, England : Apollos, c2002. 230 p. : maps, geneal. ; 23 cm. ISBN 0-8010-2451-X
• Campbell, Donald K.; Jeffrey L. Townsend, Darrell L Bock (1992). A Case for Premillennialism: A New Consensus. Chicago: Moody. ISBN 0-8024-0899-0. 
• Blaising, Craig A.; Darrell L. Bock (1992). Dispensationalism, Israel and the Church: The Search for Definition. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Pub. House. ISBN 0-310-34611-8. 
• Blaising, Craig A.; Darrell L. Bock (1993). Progressive Dispensationalism. Wheaton, Illinois: BridgePoint. ISBN 1-56476-138-X. 
• Blaising, Craig A.; Kenneth L. Gentry, Robert B. Strimple, Darrell L. Bock (1999). Three Views on the Millennium and Beyond. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan. ISBN 0-310-20143-8. 
• Merrill, Eugene H; Darrell L Bock (1991). A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament. Chicago: Moody Press. p. 446. ISBN 0-8024-0738-2. 
• Bock, Darrell L (1994). A Biblical Theology of the New Testament. Chicago: Moody Press. p. 487. ISBN 0-8024-0735-8. 
• McDowell, Josh; Lee Strobel, Gary R Habermas, Darrell L Bock, Ravi K Zacharias, Paul L Maier, William A. Dembski, Brian Deacon, John Heyman, Barnet Bain, Peter Sykes, John Kirsh (2003). Jesus [videorecording]: Fact or Fiction ; the Jesus Film Project. San Clemente, California: Distributed by Inspirational Films. 

External links[link]

• Review by Thomas R. Schreiner of Blasphemy and Exaltation in Judaism and the Final Examination of Jesus: A Philological-Historical Study of the Key Jewish Themes Impacting Mark 14:61-64.
• Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Jun 2002. Review by Joel F. Williams of Blasphemy and Exaltation in Judaism: The Charge against Jesus in Mark 14:53-65
• Interview with Darrell Bock on reliability of New Testament Documents from the Centre for Public Christianity

References[link]