Religious Organisations

• People express their faith through membership to religious organisations
• Troeltsch defines a church as a large organisation with a bureaucratic hierarchy with a monopoly of truth. They generally are a universalistic identity with a conservative view and ties to the state
• Examples of Churches are; catholic, Church of England, Judaism and Sunnism
• Bruce argues Troeltsch definition of a church no longer fits a modern Church, he suggests since the increase of science and technology they lack a monopoly of truth
• Lyotard, a post-modernist, argues that church has had a collapse of metanarratives in a post-modern society, thus society has become more secular
• Some argue the reason people have moved away from church is their conservative views that are still held in a modern society
• Some churches conservative views are on; Marriage, abortion, science and divorce
• Niebuhr describes a denomination as less exclusive then a sect, they impose minor rules/expectations of members and much more tolerant of other religious and do not claim a monopoly of truth
• Pentecostalism is an example of a Denomination
• Troeltsch defines a sect as a small exclusive group with high levels of commitment and draw a membership of the oppressed who follow a charismatic leader
• Examples of Sects are; Peoples Temple, Unification Church, and Heaven's Gate
• Heaven's Gate ultimately lead to the suicide of 39 people in order to join a UFO in 1997, it was ran by Nettles and Applewhite
• A cult is a highly individualist group loose-knit and in small numbers, they are based around some shared interests of members
• Stark/Bainbridge, says there is 3 types of cults; Audience cults, Client cults and Cult movements
• An Audience cult is highly individualist has little organisation and sustained by media
• Examples of Audience cults are Raelism
• Client cults are more organised and offer therapies/services, such as contact with the dead
• Cult movements are more organisaed and involve a wide range of religious activities, spiritual support and personal involvement
• An example of a Cult movement is Scientology
• Raelism believes in UFOs and cloning can be done for immortality, they interpret the existence of aliens in the Bible
• Scientology believes spiritual enlightment can be achieved and we rent not own our bodies