Types of religious organisation

• Church - Toeltsch‘s definition

  • A large religious organisation where members don't usually have to demonstrate their faith; instead they are born into it and recruited before they can understand it’s teachings
• Church - features according to Troeltsch

  • universal - aim to recruit everyone in society
  • ideologically supporting and reinforcing norms and values
  • usually tied to state
  • clear hierarchy and paid clergy
  • try to protect and preserve a monopoly of truth
• Evaluation of Troeltsch - Bruce 


  says this was true of pre-modern Christian societies but now churches can’t give a definitive truth religious pluralism is more common
• Denominations - Bruce

  • argues that over time sects grow in size and often acquire a respectability that gives them the image of a denomination
  • claims that while they once claimed a monopoly of truth competition from other churches and denominations means that they have lost their claim to university
• Features of a denomination

  • tend to be tolerant of other religions
  • don’t place major demands on members
  • not connected to a state
  • don’t claim a monopoly of the truth as they co-exist with other religious organisations
• Denominations - Niebuhr 


  argues that most denominations begin as sects
• Definition of new age movement

  = a set of beliefs and activities which contain a spiritual element but are not organised in the same way as traditional religion
• What are the 4 themes of the new age?

  1. Self-spirituality - attempting to perfect yourself and discover your own hidden spiritual depths
  2. Detraditionalisation - you are responsible for your own actions and for discovering your own truth
  3. Marginality - marginalised may find status for their situation through a theodicy of ultimate salvation
  4. Relative deprivation - NRM’s may offer something lacking in the social experiments of the seeker
• Post-Modernist explanations for growth of NRM’s

  a response to the failure of the emphasis on science and material success in modernity
• Explanations for the growth of NRM’s - Bruce

  sees the new age as a product of modernity as it emphasises individualism and he sees the new age as an extreme version of this
• NRM’s - The Kendall Project - Heelas & Woodhead

  • tried and to identify every activity in a town that was new age/holistic
  • about 1.6% of town population does something holistic per week
  • questionnaire was sen out to see if they thought the activity was spiritual or not
  • most people interested in physical and intellectual benefits
• Cults - Wallis

  = used to refer to movements which are regarded as deviant but don‘t have a monopoly of truth

  • emphasis on inner divinity and inner power of individuals
  • make no demand on members to accept teachings
• Stark & Bainbridge - types of cult

  Audience cults - highly individualistic, people participate in workshops ect

  Client cults - people participate as clients attending occasional meetings when they have specific needs

  Cult movements - membership is required and theres a development towards status of a sect
• Cults - Bruce

  = loosely knit group organised around some common themes and interests lacking any sharply defined and exclusive belief system
• General features of sects

  • exclusive
  • barriers between them and outside world
  • clear disfunction between members and non-members