Types of religious organisation

• Church and sect:

  Troeltsch - Church: 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 truth. 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.
• Church and sect:

  Troeltsch - Sects: small, exclusive groups. 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 truths.
• Denomination and cult:

  Niebuhr: describes denominations such as Methodism as lying midway between churches and sects. Membership is less exclusive than a sect, but they don't appeal to the whole of society like a church. Like churches, they broadly accept society's values, but are not linked to the state. They impose some minor restrictions on members, such as forbidding alcohol, but are not as demanding as sects. Unlike churches and sects, they are tolerant of other religious organisations and do not claim a monopoly of the truth.
• Denomination and cult:


  Cult: a highly individualistic, loose-knit and usually small grouping around some shared themes and interests, but usually without a sharply defined and exclusive belief system. Usually led by 'practitioners' or 'therapists' who claim special knowledge. Like denominations, cults are usually tolerant of other organisations and their beliefs.
• Denomination and cult:


  Cult: do not demand strong commitment from followers, who are often more like customers or trainees than members. They may have little further involvement with the cult once they have acquired the beliefs or techniques it offers. Many cults are world-affirming, claiming to improve life in this world.
• Denomination and cult - Similarities and differences:

  Wallis:

  • How they see themselves: churches and sects claim that their interpretation of the faith is the only legitimate or correct one. Denominations and cults accept that there can be many valid interpretations.
  • How they are seen by wider society: churches and denominations are seen as respectable and legitimate, whereas sects and cults are seen as deviant.
• Denomination and cult - from cathedrals to cults:

  Bruce: argues that Troeltsch's idea of a church as having a religious monopoly only applies to the Catholic Church before the 16th century Protestant Reformation, when it had a religious monopoly over society, symbolised by its massive and imposing cathedrals.
• Denomination and cult - from cathedrals to cults:

  Bruce: since them, sects and cults have flourished and religious diversity has become the norm. In today's society, churches are no longer truly churches in Troeltsch's sense because they have lost their monopoly and been reduced to the status of denominations competing with all the rest.
• New religious movements:


  Since the 1960s, there has been an explosion in the number of new religions and organisations, such as the Unification Church or 'moonies', the Children of God, Transcendental Meditation (TM), Krishna Consciousness and many more.
• New religious movements:


  Wallis: categorises these new religious movements (NRMs) into three groups based on their relationship to the outside world - whether they reject the world, accommodate to it, or affirm it.
• New religious movements - World-rejecting NRMs:

  These are similar to Troeltsch's sects. E.G. the Moonies, Krishna Consciousness, Children of God, the Manson family, the Branch Davidian and the People's Temple. They vary greatly in size, from a handful of members to hundreds of thousands.
• New religious movements - World-rejecting NRMs:

  Characteristics:

  • they are clearly religious organisations with a clear notion of God
  • they are highly critical of the outside world and they expect or seek radical change
  • to achieve salvation, members must make a sharp break with their former life
• New religious movements - World-rejecting NRMs:

  Characteristics:

  • members live communally, with restricted contact with the outside world. The movement controls all aspect of their lives and is accused of 'brainwashing' them.
  • they often have conservative moral codes, e.g. about sex.
• New religious movements - World-accommodating NRMs:

  These are often breakaways from existing mainstream churches or denominations, such as neo-Pentecostalists who split from Catholicism, or Subud, an offshoot of Islam. They neither accept nor reject the world, and they focus on religious rather than worldly matters, seeking to restore the spiritual purity of religion. e.g. neo-Pentecostalists believe that other Christians religions have lost the Holy Spirit. Members tend to lead conventional lives.
• New religious movements - World-affirming NRMs:

  These groups differ from all other religious groups and may lack some of the conventional features of religion, e.g. collective worship, and some are not highly organised. However, like religions, they offer their followers access to spiritual or supernatural powers. E.G. scientology, Soka Gakkai, TM and Human Potential.
• New religious movements - World-affirming NRMs:

  They accept the world as it is. They are optimistic and made promise followers success in terms of mainstream goals and values, such as careers and personal relationships.
• New religious movements - World-affirming NRMs:

  They are non-exclusive and tolerant of other religions, but claim to offer additional special knowledge or techniques that enable followers to unlock their own spiritual powers and achieve success or overcome problems such as unhappiness or illness. They have been described as psychologising religions offering this-worldly gratification.
• New religious movements - World-affirming NRMs:

  Most are cults, whose followers are often customers rather than members, and entry is through training. The movement places few demands on them and they carry on normal lives.
• New religious movements - World-affirming NRMs:

  In general, world-affirming NRMs have been the most successful of the movements Wallis studied. E.G. Scientology had about 165,000 members in the UK in 2005, as compared with only 1,200 Moonies.
• New religious movements - A03:

  Wallis offers a useful way of classifying the new religious movements that have developed in recent decades. However, some argue it is not clear whether he is categorising them according to the movement's teaching or individual members' beliefs. He also ignores the diversity of beliefs that may exist within an NRM.
• New religious movements - A03:

  Wallis himself recognises that real NRMs will rarely fit neatly into his typology (list of types) and some, such as 3HO (the Healthy Happy Holy Organisations), may have features of all three types. Nevertheless, many sociologists find such typologies useful as a way of analysing and comparing the significant features of NRMs.
• New religious movements - A03:

  Stark and Bainbridge: reject the idea of constructing such typologies altogether. Instead, they argue that we should distinguish between religious organisations using one criterion - the degree of conflict or tension between the religious group and wider society.
• Sects and cults:


  Stark and Bainbridge:

  • Sect: result from schisms - split in existing organisations. They break away from churches usually because of disagreements about doctrine.
  • Cults: new religions, e.g. Scientology and Christian Science, or ones new to that particular society that have been imported, such as TM.
• Sects and cults:


  Stark and Bainbridge: see sects as promising other-worldly benefits (a place in heaven) to those suffering economic deprivation or ethical deprivation. By contrast, cults tend to offer this-worldly benefits (e.g. good health) to more prosperous individuals who are suffering psychic deprivation (normlessness) and organismic deprivation (health problems)
• Sects and cults:


  Stark and Bainbridge - divide cults based on organisation:

  • audience cults - the least organised and do not involve formal membership or much commitment. There is little interaction between members. Participation may be through media e.g. astrology and UFO cults
• Sects and cults:

  Stark and Bainbridge - divide cults based on organisation:

  • Client cults - based on the relationship between a consultant and client, and provide services to their followers. In the past, they were often purveyors of medical miracles, contact with the dead etc, but the emphasis has shifted to 'therapies' promising personal fulfilment and self-discovery.
• Sects and cults:


  Stark and Bainbridge - divide cults based on organisations:

  • Cultic movements: most organised and demand a higher level of commitment than other cults. Movement aims to meet all its members' religious needs and unlike followers of audience and client cults, they are rarely allowed to belong to other religious groups at the same time. e.g. Moonies.
• Sects and cults:


  Stark and Bainbridge: make some useful distinctions between organisations. E.G. their idea of using the degree of conflict with wider society to distinguish between them is similar to Troeltsch's distinction between church and sect. However, some of the examples they use do not fit neatly into any one of their categories.