the view that sects and cults are only fringe organisations that are inevitably short lived and of little influence in wider society Troeltsch believed that a sect was “the opposite of a church”. He defines this type of religious organisation as a small, tightly-knit group of individuals that often oppose mainstream values and attempt to change society in some way. Cults on the other hand, are loosely knit and lack any concrete beliefs. Stark and Bainbridge suggest that cults often have “clients” rather
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Introduction American Cults is an interesting and fascinating subject to write about. There are thousands or even millions of cults around the word and each one have its own believes, value, philosophy, object, and goal. The term “cult” refers to social group which consists of people who defined by their believes, religious, philosophical or their common interest in a particular goal. However, this is often unclear and uncertain. The first part of this paper examines the meaning of cult in both culture
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Assess the usefulness of typologies in our understanding of religious organisations (33 marks) Religions are based upon very heterogenic principles and are structured in different ways, making them different of each other and therefore proving that they are not universal as some sociologists argue. Typologies within religious organisations have helped as to define religions and prove that they are based on religious pluralism and that they can be era-dependent, or in other ways can become outdated
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7 December 2010 Mormonism: Cult or Religious Movement? Mormonism is one of the fastest growing religions in the world today. When it first was founded in 1830 there were only six members. A month later this number had grown to forty members. Currently there are estimated to be over 13,824,854 members in the entire world ("Newsroom "). After observing the belief systems of Mormonism one could argue that it contains more similarities to that of a cult compared to that of a new religious movement
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Cults Cults are often seen as an alternative religion. “A cult is defined as a religious or secular group that employs unethical and extreme measures of manipulation to recruit, control and retain its members” (Study Resources). Most cults are started because someone doesn’t like the way the world is and want to create what they feel the perfect world is. Then this person strives to make others believe as they do so they will join. There are somewhere around 3,000 to 5,000 of these cults throughout
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INTRO: Individuals may have their own religious beliefs without belonging to any particular organization: they may firm their own personal and unique relationship with a God or some source of spiritual power. However, many members of society express their religious beliefs through organizations, and the organizations tend to shape those beliefs. There are many different types of religious organizations that need to be distinguished. CHURCH: Troeltsch 1931 was one of the first writers to try to
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group of individuals that often criticise mainstream values and attempt to change society in some way. Cults on the other hand, are loosely knit and don’t tend to have any firm beliefs. There are therefore some significant differences between these two organisations, however it is widely accepted that they are similar, in that they are usually short lived. Many sociologists state that sects, cults and New Age movements only appeal to a minority of the population. For example, people on the margins
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“’A cult, as I define it, is any religious group which differs significantly in one or more respects as to belief or practice from those religious groups which are regarded as the normative expressions of religion in our total culture (Martin 1997 cited Dr. Charles Braden 1954, Preface, xii).’ I may add to this that a cult might also be defined as a group of people gathered about a specific person or person’s misinterpretation of the Bible”. Cults in the United States of America fit this definition
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of it as a Cult but, I ask the question “Could a religion actually be considered a cult?” A few religions that we have studied in class have actually been considered a cult at one point in history, either many years ago, or very recently. What intrigues me about this is: the definition and characteristics of a cult or religion, what groups/religions have been considered to be a cult, and why do we think that a cult is not considered a religious group. Some characteristics of a cult are: that the
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that cults, sects and New Age Movements are fringe organisations that are short lived and of little influence in society. Churches and denominations are generally seen as respectable, mainstream organisations, whereas cults, sects and NAM’s are seen as more deviant, which involve belief systems that are viewed as odd or bizarre. The terms ‘sect’ or ‘cult’ have been stigmatised, due to the mass media view on them as controlling, brainwashing and manipulative to its members. Many believe cults, sects
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