What Is a New Religious Movement? Definitions and History
What is a new religious movement? Definitions, the difference between cults, sects and NRMs, the main families of new religions and why some succeed.
A new religious movement (NRM) is a religious or spiritual group of relatively recent origin that stands apart from the established religions of the society in which it appears. Scholars adopted the term in the 1970s as a neutral alternative to "cult", and they apply it to movements as different as the Latter-day Saints, the Bahá'í Faith, Christian Science, Jehovah's Witnesses, Rastafari, Tenrikyo, Scientology, the Hare Krishna movement and modern Paganism. Most new religions remain small or disappear within a generation, but a few grow into world religions in their own right.
Defining a New Religious Movement§
There is no single agreed definition, but several features recur in scholarly usage. A new religion is new in time, usually founded within the last two centuries; it is alternative, standing in some tension with the dominant religious culture; and it is religious in the broad sense of offering an account of ultimate reality, a path of salvation or transformation, and a community of practice. The American scholar J. Gordon Melton defined new religions largely by their relationship to the dominant religious community: they are the groups that the mainstream regards as outside its boundaries.
The British sociologist Eileen Barker, whose work did much to establish the field, has noted typical characteristics of first-generation movements: a membership made up mostly of converts, who tend to be unusually enthusiastic; a founder or leader with charismatic authority; a sharp distinction between members and outsiders; and rapid change as the movement ages. As founders die and children are born into the group, new religions tend to become more institutional and less demanding, a process sociologists, following Max Weber, call the "routinisation of charisma".
Cults, Sects and New Religions§
In the early twentieth century the sociologist Ernst Troeltsch distinguished the church, which embraces a whole society, from the sect, a smaller, stricter body that breaks away from it. Later sociologists added the cult, a group with novel beliefs that does not derive from the dominant religion. In this technical sense, "cult" was not an insult. From the 1970s, however, the word came to suggest manipulation, abuse and "brainwashing", especially after the mass deaths at Jonestown in 1978.
Scholars therefore shifted to "new religious movement". Critics, including some former members, argue that the neutral term can soften genuine harms; supporters reply that the word "cult" prejudges groups that are often harmless. The controversies and research behind this debate are discussed in Studying New Religious Movements.
Waves and Families of New Religions§
New religions appear in clusters, often in periods of rapid social change. Scholars group them in several broad families:
- Christian-derived movements of the nineteenth century, especially in the United States after the Second Great Awakening: the Latter-day Saints, the Adventists and Jehovah's Witnesses described in Adventist and Restorationist Movements, and Christian Science and New Thought.
- Movements from the Islamic world, such as the Bábí and Bahá'í Faith in nineteenth-century Iran and the Ahmadiyya movement in India.
- Esoteric and occult movements, including Spiritualism, the Theosophical Society, Anthroposophy, the Golden Dawn and Thelema, covered in the library's sections on the Theosophical Society and Spiritualism.
- African and diaspora movements, such as Rastafari, Kimbanguism and the African independent churches, together with syncretic religions such as Cao Đài.
- Asian new religions, especially the Japanese new religions such as Tenrikyo and Soka Gakkai, and Chinese movements such as Yiguandao and Falun Gong.
- The post-1960s wave in the West, which included the Unification Church, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (founded in New York in 1966), Transcendental Meditation, the Church of Scientology (incorporated in 1953–1954), the Children of God, Rajneesh's movement, UFO religions and the broader New Age.
- Modern Paganism, including Wicca, Druidry and Heathenry.
Where New Religions Come From§
New religions rarely arise from nothing. Most combine elements of existing traditions in new ways. Some begin with a new revelation given to a founder, as with Joseph Smith's account of the golden plates or Bahá'u'lláh's claim to be the manifestation of God for a new age. Others arise as reform or revival movements within an older religion that eventually separate from it. Still others are imports that are new in one society but old elsewhere, such as Hindu or Buddhist movements in the West.
Social circumstances matter. Rapid urbanisation, colonial rule, war, migration and the weakening of established churches all create conditions in which people seek new forms of community and meaning. In Japan the end of the Second World War and the new constitutional freedom of religion produced so many new groups that observers spoke of "the rush hour of the gods". In colonial Africa and the Pacific, prophetic movements responded to foreign domination. The anthropologist Anthony F. C. Wallace described such responses as "revitalisation movements".
Why Some Succeed and Most Fail§
The sociologist Rodney Stark, in an influential 1987 essay on how new religions succeed, observed that the great majority attract only a small following and soon disappear. Those that succeed tend to share certain features: continuity with the culture around them, so that they are new but not entirely alien; a strong but adaptable organisation; ways of retaining children born into the group; a legitimate means of choosing leaders after the founder's death; and, often, a missionary drive. The Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses, each now counting millions of members, are the usual examples. Movements that depend wholly on one leader, or that predict an end of the world that fails to arrive, face severe crises, though the history of the Adventists shows that disappointed prophecy does not always mean collapse.
Societies also shape a new religion's fate. Groups may be tolerated, regulated, or persecuted: the Bahá'ís in Iran, Falun Gong in China and Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia have faced bans and imprisonment. Debates about religious freedom often first arise over new and unpopular movements.
New Religions and the Esoteric Tradition§
Many of the movements in this library's other sections, such as Theosophy, Thelema, Wicca and the Satanic churches, are themselves new religious movements. Scholars of Western esotericism and of new religions overlap considerably, since both study alternative spiritualities, the claims of hidden knowledge and the creation of new rituals and scriptures. Readers interested in those connections may begin with What Is Theosophy? and The Theosophical Society.
Frequently asked questions§
What is the difference between a cult and a new religious movement?§
In everyday speech "cult" implies a dangerous, manipulative group. "New religious movement" is a neutral academic term for any recently founded religion outside the mainstream. Scholars use the neutral term so as to describe groups before judging them.
What are examples of new religious movements?§
Well-known examples include the Latter-day Saints, the Bahá'í Faith, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists, Christian Science, Rastafari, Tenrikyo, Soka Gakkai, Cao Đài, Scientology, the Hare Krishna movement, Wicca and the Unification Church.
How old does a religion have to be before it is no longer "new"?§
There is no fixed rule. Many scholars use about 1800 as a starting point, but some movements founded in the nineteenth century, such as the Latter-day Saints, are now large and established enough that they are often treated as major religious traditions.
Sources and further reading§
- New Religious Movements: A Practical Introduction — Eileen Barker, 1989
- Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America — J. Gordon Melton, 1986
- Comprehending Cults: The Sociology of New Religious Movements — Lorne L. Dawson, 1998
- The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements — James R. Lewis (ed.), 2004
- Cults and New Religions: A Brief History — Douglas E. Cowan and David G. Bromley, 2008
- New Religions: A Guide — Christopher Partridge (ed.), 2004
- The Rush Hour of the Gods: A Study of New Religious Movements in Japan — H. Neill McFarland, 1967