Religious Movements

List of religious movements

The largest religious organisations in the Western world, like the Christian Church, transformed and split into smaller denominations and sects due to several religious movements.

New religious movements (NRMs) of the 20th century have resulted in the emergence of entirely new cults, such as the Church of Scientology, or the Unification Church.

Causes of the rise of religious movements

Religious movements often emerge during periods of rapid social change and find a following among marginalised groups of society. Rapid social change causes increased distress and insecurity for marginalised people, so they look for ways to deal with these new struggles and voice their needs.

Religions gain followings because they provide both practical and psychological support for people's social, cultural, and economic problems.

Examples of religious movements

There are many types of religious movements. We can differentiate between them according to their causes, means, and effects.

Endogenous movements

Some religious movements develop to improve the internal structure of a religious organisation. They are known as endogenous movements, and they usually cause schisms, which break the existing religion into smaller sects.

Fig. 1 - Martin Luther's work was responsible for the Protestant Reformation.

Exogenous movements

Other religious movements aim to change the external environment around the organisation. They are called exogenous movements.

Generative movements

Finally, there are religious movements that aim to introduce a completely new religion - these are known as generative movements.

We will now go through the different types of religious organisations and movements and consider their features.

Religious organisations

Religious organisations are public or private organisations built around a religious ideology. They differ according to their size, inclusivity, interpretation of faith, and the level of commitment they require from their members.

The four main categories of religious organisations are churches, sects, denominations, and cults.

Religious charity organisations' goal is to provide economic, psychological, and medical support to those in need.

Religious environmental organisations are non-profit organisations that belong to churches and sects and focus on environmental issues.

Characteristics of New Religious Movements (NRMs)

The aim of NRMs is to establish completely new religions. There was a sudden expansion of NRMs in the 1960s, most of which emerged in America but gained a global following.

Roy Wallis (1984) distinguished three different NRMs according to their relationship to the outside world.

World-rejecting NRMs

• These have very clear notions of 'God'.

• They hold critical views of the outside world. Members have little contact with their former lives, and they often live in communes.
• Society generally has a negative view of them. World-rejecting NRMs are often accused of brainwashing their members.
• Examples of world-rejecting NRMs include the Manson family, and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON, also known as Hare Krishnas).

World-accommodating NRMs

• These NRMS often emerge from existing churches or denominations.

• They neither accept nor reject the outside world - the focus is on religious rather than worldly matters.

• Their followers usually live conventional lives.

• One example of a world-accommodating NRM is the Neo-pentecostalist group (it broke away from Catholicism).

World-affirming NRMs

• They are normally tolerant towards other religions and organisations.

• These accept the world as it is, but offer knowledge and techniques for a better life experience.

• They lack conventional religious practices such as communal worship.

• They are often referred to as cults.

• Examples of world-affirming NRMs include Scientology and groups that practise Transcendental meditation.

New Age Movements (NAMs)

NAMs emerged in the Western world in the 1980s. People started to step away from traditional religions and their doctrines and began to look toward a New Age of spirituality.

NAMs are very diverse and eclectic. Their main teaching is that spiritual awakening can be reached through individual experience, through the exploration of the self.

Social and religious reform movements

Let's look at an example of a social and religious reform movement.

Fig. 2 - Education played a crucial role in the social and religious reform movements of 19th century India.

Researching religious movements

In the 19th century, Social Darwinist sociologists like Max Weber and Ernst Troeltsch dealt with questions around the emergence and spread of religious movements.

In the 1960s, many new religious movements appeared, which increased sociologists’ interest in the subject. Researchers wanted to find out how these new religious movements organised themselves, what social-psychological causes lay behind their rapid expansion, and what the main points of conflict were between the new and the old religious traditions.