New Religious Movements (NRMs) (AQA A Level Sociology): Revision Note

Types of new religious movements (NRMs)

• Wallis (1984) classified NRMs into three main types, based on how they relate to wider society:

  • World-rejecting movements

  • World-accommodating movements

  • World-affirming movements

World-rejecting NRMs

• Mostly sects that are highly critical of mainstream society and demand radical change

• Expect strict obedience and lifestyle changes; members often live communally and cut ties with their former lives

• Often millenarian – focus on divine intervention and judgement of the sinful

• Fundamentalist in nature, emphasising the literal truth of sacred texts

• Accused of coercive control, some movements have been linked to murder or mass suicide

• E.g., People’s Temple, Children of God, Branch Davidians, ISIS

World-accommodating NRMs

• Usually offshoots of mainstream churches or denominations

• They do not reject the world outright, but are dissatisfied and seek to make the best of their situation for salvation

• Tend to be conservative in nature, disapproving of practices like abortion and divorce

• Aim to improve the lives of followers while still conforming to society

• Members live conventional lives but seek spiritual fulfilment through their faith

• Often appeal to vulnerable communities, inspiring hard work or offering salvation in the afterlife

• E.g., neo-Pentecostalists (split from Catholicism) and Subud (an Islamic offshoot from Indonesia)

World-affirming NRMs

• Most are cults that do not reject other religions

• Present an optimistic outlook, aiming to enhance followers’ lives

• Accept and embrace the wider world without seeking social change

• Place few demands on members’ lifestyles

• Focus on self-improvement, success, and personal growth, often attracting ambitious professionals

• Followers are more like clients/customers than committed members.

• Often charge fees for teaching or courses

• E.g., Scientology, Transcendental Meditation

Evaluation of types of NRMs

Strengths

• Useful classification system

  • Wallis provides a helpful way of organising NRMs, especially given the large number of movements that have developed in recent decades

  • Sociologists use these typologies to analyse and compare key features of NRMs, making patterns easier to identify

• Captures the diversity of modern religion

  • Highlights the different ways groups relate to wider society (rejecting, accommodating, affirming)

  • Shows that not all NRMs are the same, helping to challenge stereotypes that group them all as 'cults'

Criticisms

• Unclear categorisation

  • It is not clear whether Wallis categorised NRMs based on the movement’s official teachings or the beliefs of individual members

  • This risks oversimplifying NRMs, as there is often diversity of beliefs within the same movement

• Rejection of typologies

  • Stark and Bainbridge (1986) reject the use of typologies altogether, arguing that they are too rigid

  • Instead, they suggest classifying groups by a single criterion: the degree of tension or conflict with wider society

Lifespan of sects

• The growth of many New Religious Movements (NRMs) is linked to the creation of sects, which often break away from traditional churches

Short lifespans

• Niebuhr (1929) believes that most sects either die out or evolve into denominations within one generation due to:

  • death of the leader:

    • Charismatic leadership is difficult to replace

  • the second generation:

    • Children of sect members lack the same fervour as converts

  • the Protestant ethic effect:

    • Members who practise ascetism may become prosperous and drift back into mainstream society

  • institutionalisation

    • Successful sects evolve into denominations, building professional hierarchies instead of relying on charisma

The sectarian cycle

• Stark & Bainbridge (1986) argue that sects go through a cycle of development:

  1. Schism – a group breaks away from a church due to disagreements

  2. Initial fervour – charismatic leadership unites members and rejects wider society

  3. Denominationalism – enthusiasm fades, especially among the second generation, who do not have the same beliefs as their parents

  4. Establishment – the sect becomes more accepting of the world and integrates into mainstream society

  5. Further schism – dissatisfied members form a new sect to preserve the original beliefs, restarting the cycle

Established sects

• Wilson (1970) argues that not all sects fit Niebuhr’s short-lived pattern

• Some survive long-term, especially when they deliberately separate themselves from society, e.g.,

  • Conversionist sects - aim to convert large numbers, often growing rapidly into formal denominations (e.g., evangelical churches)

  • Adventist sects – survive by keeping apart from society, maintaining strict boundaries (e.g., Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists)

Globalisation and survival

• Globalisation makes it harder for sects to remain isolated in the modern world

• However, it also makes it easier to recruit in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where poverty and deprivation make sects’ messages more attractive (e.g., Pentecostalism)

Explaining the growth of NRMs

• Since the 1960s, there has been a rapid rise in the number of sects and cults

• Sociologists suggest several reasons for this growth

Marginality

• Weber (1922) claimed that NRMs attract people who feel excluded or disprivileged in society — those denied economic rewards or social status

• Sects provide a theodicy of disprivilege: a religious explanation for suffering, promising salvation as compensation and offering a supportive community

Examples

• Many millenarian sects recruit among the marginalised poor

  • E.g., the Nation of Islam recruited successfully among disadvantaged black communities in the USA

  Some sects attract middle-class individuals who feel socially marginalised

  • E.g., the Moonies recruited educated young hippies, dropouts, and drug users

Relative deprivation

• Stark and Bainbridge (1986) argue that it is often the relatively deprived who leave churches to form sects

• World-rejecting sects offer 'compensators' — spiritual rewards for what members feel they lack in this world

• Barker (1984) argues that even the wealthy may feel spiritually deprived in a materialistic, impersonal consumer society

• NRMs provide meaning, authenticity, and belonging

Examples

• Barker found that some middle-class children felt neglected by career-driven parents, experiencing relative deprivation compared to peers with closer family ties

• Many young people join NRMs temporarily before leaving as they grow older and feel less need for an 'alternative family'

Social change

• Wilson (1970) suggests that periods of rapid change create anomie (normlessness), leading people to seek certainty and community

• Sects and cults provide stability, clear norms, and belonging

Examples

• The Industrial Revolution in Britain created disruption, but Methodism offered community, norms, and salvation

• Bruce (2011): Today, people prefer cults, as they are less demanding, over strict churches or sects, as they require high commitment

• Bauman (1992): In a postmodern, uncertain world, fundamentalist sects grow as a defensive reaction

• Castells (2010) calls this a 'resistance identity', where groups defend traditional culture against globalisation and cosmopolitan values

The religious marketplace

• Postmodernist Hervieu-Léger (2000) argues that de-traditionalisation means parents no longer pass on faith to their children

• People act as 'spiritual shoppers', picking and mixing beliefs to suit their needs

• NRMs thrive in this environment of choice and consumerism

Internal secularisation

• NRMs are benefitting from the internal secularisation that is occurring within traditional churches (Herberg, 1960)

• Mainstream churches have watered down their beliefs to appeal to a wider society

  • E.g., acknowledging abortion and same-sex marriage

• Traditional followers may feel alienated, seeing these changes as a loss of purity

• Sects attract those who want a stricter, more fundamentalist faith