Church and Sect

• They are universalistic, aiming to include the whole of society, although they tend to be more attractive to the higher classes because they are ideologically conservative and often closely linked to the state. For example, the British sovereign is head of both the state and the Church of England. They place few demands on their members.
• The first attempt to identify the features of different types of religious organisation was by Ernst Troeltsch (1912;

  1980). He distinguished between two main types - the church and the sect. Churches are large organisations, often with millions of members such as the Catholic Church, run by a bureaucratic hierarchy of professional priests, and they claim a monopoly of the truth.
• By contrast, Troeltsch sees sects as small, exclusive groups.

  Unlike churches, sects are hostile to wider society and they expect a high level of commitment. They draw their members from the poor and oppressed. Many are led by a charismatic leader rather than a bureaucratic hierarchy. The only similarity with churches is that sects too believe they have a monopoly of religious truth.