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Cultural Significance. RELS 225 Cults and New Religious Movements. Cultural Significance of NRMs. Our Skewed Perspective Why study NRMs? NRMs are intrinsically interesting Permit the study of religion on a manageable scale
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Cultural Significance RELS 225 Cults and New Religious Movements
Cultural Significance of NRMs Our Skewed Perspective Why study NRMs? NRMs are intrinsically interesting Permit the study of religion on a manageable scale Are they smaller representations of what is happening to religion as a whole? predict larger social transformations in the world? ACM turned them into a social problem Reliable information on NRMs is needed Stark & Bainbridge: NRMs will become World Religions.
NRMs and secularization • Secularization theory presents religion as reactive: • NRMs are seen as pre-modern, if not anti-modern. • People turn to religions to provide meaning and structure, to construct a nomos. • People who turn to NRMs have a greater desire to live in a coherent meaningful world. • Religious life has become increasingly subjective, about individual expression. • Options for religions: • Accommodate to modernity • Entrench against modernity • A New Religious Consciousness that is not a reaction to modernity…
Features of a New Religious Consciousness • Religious individualism • Religions of experience (not doctrines) • Authority is given to those who can evoke such experiences. (pragmatic) • Accepting of relativism; tolerant • Holistic; Monistic rather than dualistic • Organizationally open • Individuals select their level of involvement (like client cults)
Significance of a New Religious Consciousness • Two kinds of NRMs: • Totalistic (exclusive commitment, communal lifestyle): Moonies; • Open (to parallel commitments) (but not just “audience cults”) • The totalistic NRMs have been studied more. • If people have profound personal experiences in a religious setting; they will call them religious experiences. • These people cohere with others who affirm, expect, appreciate, and promote such charismatic religious experiences
Significance of a New Religious Consciousness • New religious consciousness more compatible with findings of science and social sciences, and with the new social order. • Individualistic nature is flexible, compatible with hectic lifestyles. • Science is not purely material. • science and religion can be combined as never before
Modernism and the NRMs • Are NRMs reactions against modernity or adaptations to the modern social world? • Lucas: The Surprising Similarities of “Anti-Modern” and “Modern” NRMs • Pentecostals compared to New Age Movement • Experience sacred power in everyday lives • Create new structures of social cohesion (trans-national, -ethnic) • Spiritual healing • Arrival of new age • Anti-institutional; decentralized.
Stark’s 10 Factors Affecting NRM Success Retention of cultural continuity (to get converts) Non-empirical doctrines Tension with culture (a moderate level) Legitimate leaders (justified doctrinally; other members appreciated) Have a volunteer labour force Maintain fertility Local competition is weak Maintain strong internal attachments Maintain medium levels of tension with society Socialize the young to keep them involved
Postmodernism and NRMs • Beckford’s 3 characteristics of New Spirituality • Holistic (emphasize inter-connectedness) • Power (new sources to help others) • Compatible (with other ideologies) • Are NRMs postmodern? • In some ways, but even more modern.
NRMs: Anti-Modern, Modern, or Postmodern? • Postmodernity: • Insufficiency of reason to find worthwhile knowledge • Eclecticism (combine symbols) • Sponteneity • Abandon over-arching myths and triumphalist narratives • Religion not a social institution but a cultural resource.