| Cults and
Sects - Conclusion |
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| It is good to conclude this section with a
reminder that we are investigating the issues of religion and social
resistance. Attempts to categorize religious groups based on their
resistance to or conformity with the prevailing culture and dominant
religious groups have led to a variety of proposals. These include the
church-sect distinction, as well as the denomination- sect-cult
categories. More recently, sociologist Bryan Wilson has attempted
to categorize new religious movements or sects not as sect or cult, but
according to how they respond to the society in which they find
themselves. Our investigation has shown us several challenges in trying
to categorize religious groups. These include the following: |
| 1. Even though words like cult, sect and
denomination are meant to be neutral classifications, they often carry
negative connotations for people.
2. Even though these terms are meant to help classify and categorize,
scholars are not in agreement on how or whether they should be used.
3. The phrase "New Religious Movements" is increasingly used
in place of the term, cult.
4. How religious societies are perceived by the dominant religious
groups and by society changes over time. For example, Christianity was
originally considered a cult or a sect by the government and religious
establishment. Very few people would categorize it as such today.
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| A final note: the academic study of religion
may find its greatest challenge is in the analysis and investigation of
new religious movements, cults and sects. On the one hand, it is
sometimes difficult to maintain a stance of temporary neutrality in
studying new religious movements. Even scholars of religion tend
to think in terms of the major, established religious traditions and
often fail to take seriously newer religious movements. On the
other hand, the tendency to reductionism is most prominent in studying
new religious movements. Scholars of religion often simply accept
sociological interpretations as the final and perhaps only word about
sects and cults. How are we to understand new religious movements
in their own terms? It is interesting, for example, that the Sacred
Quest, like most introductory texts on this subject, seems to resort
to sociological explanations of new religious movements. While these are
certainly of great importance, it is interesting that the text does not
explore the perceptions and experiences of the sacred held by new
religious groups. I suspect that such an investigation would be
illuminating and worthwhile. For now, however, we must move on to
a consideration of protest and reform within religious groups. |
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