types of religious organisation

• • Weber identified churches
  • Troeltsch differentiated between churches and sects, highlighting the prime differences between the two
  • Niebuhr introduced denominations
• Churches

  • they are large, conservative and mainstream religious organisations that seek to maintain the status quo
  • they have a bureaucratic and hierarchical structure in which there is a clear line of seniority amongst the clergy, this is seen by their varying salaries
  • they claim a monopoly of truth and reject alternative interpretations
  • connected to the state, this is seen in some countries having an “official” or “state” religion. eg. King Charles III is the head of the Church of England
  • they pose very few, loose demands on their members
• Sects

  • smaller, world-rejecting quasi-religious organisations that have broken away from a mainstream religion through a schism
  • claim a monopoly of truth
  • they lack bureaucracy and hierarchy, and instead are led by a charismatic leader
  • they demand total commitment from members, this comes with the costs of significant sacrifices on the members part
  • hostile to the state and other mainstream religions, and often comprised of marginalised, deprived groups. eg those of an ethnic-minority, or those on low incomes
• Sects tend to grow quickly, but can also decline just as fast with the death of a leader, or the erroneous prophesying of “imminent” events
• Niebhur described a denomination as a half-way house between sects and churches, as sects tend to change overtime, becoming more church-like
• Denominations

  • not closely connected to the state, but will comment and campaign on societal issues
  • they have some bureaucracy and hierarchy, but less than an established church
  • quite accepting of other religious denominations, churches and religious beliefs
  • eg. Methodist, Baptists
• evaluations of sociological definitions and explanations of organisation?

  • Bruce argues that with the emergence of religious pluralism, society’s acceptance of diverse religious beliefs and practises in a multi-faith society, Troeltsch’s typology of the church becomes inapplicable to contemporary society
  • religious pluralism makes it harder for churches to claim monopoly of truth
  • Bruce highlights that the Church of England often takes critical positions about government policies, and campaigns for change, this shows that it is not always a conservative force
• Another evaluation?

  Robertson argues that globalisation and the secularisation of society has led to a decline in the state’s concern for the church’s attitudes
• Another evaluation?

  It is becoming more common in modern Western societies for people in society to not belong to a church. Despite having a population of nearly 66 million, the established church, Church of England, has fewer than a million members
• schisms are divisions that occur within a religious groups due to differences in beliefs, practises or leadership
• charismatic leaders of sects tend to attract overzealous members of society who have become disillusioned with society, encouraging them to reject mainstream societal values
• Cults

  • the aim and promise is often to help members improve their lives
  • they are individualised and loosely-organised
  • do not demand total commitment from its members
  • they are tolerant and do not claim a monopoly of truth
  • often confused with sects in popular culture and popular usage
• sects have an authoritarian structure
• Wallis

  • looked at how religious organisations view themselves versus how outsiders perceived them
  • identified 3 types of New Religious Movements, world-rejecting, world-affirming and world-accommodating
• 3 types of NRM according to willis?

  • world-rejecting; harbour values that run counter to mainstream societal values, believe that a radical, fundamental change in the way society is organised is crucial, eg. Millenarianism
  • world-accommodating; class life as having spiritual and worldly spheres, focusing on the spiritual
  • world-affirming; offer spiritual enrichment to members and strive to unlock “hidden potential”, eg. Scientology
• some world-affirming cults are more organised and so demand more from their members, as is the case for Scientology
• Stark and Bainbridge look at religious and spiritual movements through a more business-like lens, referring to participants/congregants as clients or customers. they identified the different types of cults to be audience, client or cult movements
• Stark & Bainbridge’s 3 types of cults?

  • audience cults; the “client” is a passive consumer, sets of beliefs and values are typically consumed through books, DVDs or lectures
  • client cults; there is a prolonged relationship between cult and client akin to that of doctor/patient relationship, the cult is a service provider
  • cult movement; do not provide just one service, but instead seek to fulfil all spiritual needs of the clients, relationship starts to resemble that of a church or denomination with its congregation
• Arguably, Scientology started as an audience cult and developed into a client cult when it sought to offer psychological therapy through indoctrination of Hubbard’s theory (dianetics) and “dianetic auditing”, this form of therapy has been highly controversial and is widely condemned by the scientific community
• • Postmodernist Drane argues that the rise in New Age Movements can be attributed to the apparent failure of science as a belief system
  • whilst the Enlightenment has led to the dissmisal of traditional religions, people found that science did not infact answer the ultimate questions of life
  • Drane argues that people are beginning to turn to themselves and spirituality as a means of finding rationality
• sects harbour beliefs and values that are deemed as deviant by society
• some sects even go as far as establishing themselves as substitutes for family or other conventional social groupings
• sects as short-lived organisations

  • they tend to lose initial fervour and enthusiasm after the first generation, commitment and beliefs of parents can be hard to socialise into children
  • Becker states that denominations are “a sect that has cooled down”, as they become more world-accommodating and tolerant to other beliefs of mainstream religions
  • in a postmodern society, the shelf-life of sects are massively reduced due to changes in consumer tastes and fashions