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Cultural Significance of NRMs

Cultural Significance of NRMs. Our Skewed Perspective NRMs are intrinsically interesting ACM turned them into a social problem Are they smaller representations of what is happening to religion as a whole? Secularization theory presents religion as reactive: pre-modern, if not anti-modern.

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Cultural Significance of NRMs

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  1. Cultural Significance of NRMs Our Skewed Perspective NRMs are intrinsically interesting ACM turned them into a social problem Are they smaller representations of what is happening to religion as a whole? Secularization theory presents religion as reactive: 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…

  2. Religious individualism Religions of experience Authority is given to those who can evoke such experiences. Accepting of relativism; tolerant Holistic; Monistic Organizationally open Features of a New Religious Consciousness

  3. Are NRMs reactions against modernity or adaptations to the modern social world? Two kinds of NRMs: Totalistic (exclusive commitment): Moonies; Open (but not just “audience cults”) 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 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. Significance of a New Religious Consciousness

  4. Are NRMs reactions against modernity or adaptations to the modern social world? 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. Modernism and the NRMs

  5. Factors Affecting NRM Success Retention of cultural continuity, Non-empirical doctrines Tension with culture Legitimate leaders (justified; owned) A Volunteer force Maintain fertility Local Competition is weak Maintain strong internal attachments Maintain medium levels of tension with society Socialize the young

  6. Holistic Power Compatible Postmodernism and NRMs

  7. Postmodernity: Insufficiency of reason Eclecticism Sponteneity Abandon over-arching myths Religion not a social institution but a cultural resource. NRMs: Anti-Moderns, Modern, or Postmodern?

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