Religious Organisations (AQA A Level Sociology): Flashcards

A cult is a loosely organised, individualistic religious movement with little commitment from members, often focused on self-improvement or spirituality.

The benefits offered by sects and cults differ: sects offer otherworldly benefits, such as salvation, whereas cults offer this-worldly benefits, such as healing and self-improvement.

False.

Cults accept mainstream values and focus on personal fulfilment; it is sects that reject wider society.

Audience cults spread ideas via the media to a large audience and do not require formal membership, e.g. astrology and tarot.

What distinguishes client cults from other cults is that they involve a personal connection between the leader and the followers, e.g. alternative therapies.

Cultic movements require higher commitment and aim to transform members' lives.

Wallis identified world-rejecting, world-accommodating and world-affirming NRMs, based on how they relate to wider society.

World-rejecting NRMs are mostly sects that are highly critical of mainstream society, demand radical change and expect strict obedience, e.g. the People's Temple.

Niebuhr (1929) argued that most sects either die out or become denominations within one generation.

False.

World-affirming NRMs place few demands on members, who are more like clients or customers and often pay fees for courses, e.g. Scientology.

World-accommodating NRMs do not reject the world but are dissatisfied with it, so members conform to society while seeking spiritual fulfilment.

Stark and Bainbridge reject typologies as too rigid, preferring to classify groups by their degree of tension with wider society.

The Protestant ethic effect shortens a sect's life because members who practise asceticism may become prosperous and drift back into mainstream society.

The sectarian cycle is Stark and Bainbridge's idea that sects move from schism and initial fervour to establishment, until dissatisfied members break away and restart the cycle.

A theodicy of disprivilege is Weber's term for a religious explanation for suffering that promises salvation as compensation to the disprivileged.

Adventist sects survive by keeping apart from society and maintaining strict boundaries, e.g. Jehovah's Witnesses.

False.

Globalisation makes isolation harder, but it also makes it easier to recruit in LMICs, where poverty makes sects' messages attractive, e.g. Pentecostalism.

Stark and Bainbridge argue that world-rejecting sects offer 'compensators', spiritual rewards for what members lack in this world.

Barker argues that the wealthy may feel spiritually deprived in a materialistic, impersonal consumer society, and NRMs offer meaning and belonging.

Rapid social change leads to the growth of sects because, as Wilson (1970) argues, it creates anomie, and sects offer stability, clear norms and belonging, e.g. Methodism in the Industrial Revolution.

Castells uses 'resistance identity' for groups that defend traditional culture against globalisation and cosmopolitan values.

True.

As churches water down their beliefs, traditional followers may feel alienated and join sects offering a stricter faith (Herberg, 1960).

Two examples of New Age practices are astrology and reiki; others include crystals, tarot and meditation.

Self-spirituality is the New Age belief that individuals should seek the divine within themselves.

False.

New Age movements are usually world-affirming: they help people succeed in everyday life rather than reject it.

Drane (1999) says New Age movements are popular because traditional metanarratives, such as science and organised religion, have lost credibility.

Detraditionalisation is the rejection of the authority of traditional religions, so that truth is found through personal experience.

Bruce sees New Age movements as a product of modernity, not postmodernity, reflecting individualism, consumer culture and therapeutic appeal.

Bruce notes that New Age movements are diluted versions of demanding Eastern religions, reshaped for Western consumer culture.

Heelas argues that people turn to New Age movements when consumer culture fails to deliver happiness.

True.

The congregational domain was still dominant, although the holistic milieu of New Age participation was growing rapidly.

A spiritual revolution is Heelas et al.'s idea that New Age spirituality might overtake traditional religion in future generations.

Heelas et al. found that only 32% of Kendal parents passed New Age interests to their children, limiting future growth.

Bruce argues that most people only try out New Age movements, so involvement is short-term and superficial.

New Age movements mainly attract affluent, middle-class women, so they are less relevant to the working class.

It suggests that religion is not declining but changing in form, as New Age movements offer spiritual fulfilment.