1. Describe, define and analyze Ellwood’s seven types of new religious movements.

There are many various types of new religions in the world. Ellwood presumes that to categorize all new religious movements would be a difficult task as most religions carry traits that would allow it to be categorized in more than just one category. Ellwood presents the term of “ideal types” when acknowledging the many variations. Ellwood divided the new religious movements into seven types. The first type of movement is the Reactive Movement. This movement is typically social or political that involves a response to stress. The Reactive Movement is commonly known to be the first of the modern cargo cults and is founded on older traditions which consisted of dancing and singing songs to communicate with ancestors. The second type of movement is the Accommodationist Movements. This movement is the introduction of an already established religion into a new culture background. The third type of movement is the Spirit Movement. This movement introduces the notion that appointed beings are able to communicate with the spirits or ghosts from the spiritual realm. These appointed beings, usually a medium, would be the connection humans would have to communicate with their dead loved ones. The fourth type of movement is the New Revelations Sects. This movement would include Christianity where the group illustrates rigorous, demanding attachment to the normative religion of the society. The fifth type of movement is the Import Religions. Import Religions establish the transcultural nature of new religious movements into new countries, but are founded from another country. The sixth type of movement is the Golden Age. This movement is where people were believed to be closer to becoming divine. This movement would take the beliefs from existing religions and develop their