Four types of religious organisation:
-Sects are break away groups from a pre-existing religion. E.g. Branch Davidians.
-Cults are a religious or spiritual organisation, that have not had any previous religious histories; unlike Sects they aren't break away groups, they are a group which is created. E.g. Heavens Gate.
-Churches are large, formal religious institutions where people go to worship and practice religion. E.g. St. Mary's church. Churches believe that they are the only religious institutions that someone should be involved in.
-Denominations are smaller, but still formal religious institutions which were developed from sects which were breakaway groups from the main church. E.g. the Protestant church breaking away from the Catholic church.
The term Evangelical refers to a Christian religion which is based on the teachings of the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) in the New Testament.
Millenarian refers to a belief that the world works on a thousand year cycle, and that belief that things may change after that time limit. E.g. Christian's believe, that as mentioned in the book of John,
the second coming would occur after a thousand years or more.
Heresy refers to an idea which goes against the conventional belief of the religion that you belong to. E.g. A member of the Catholic Church who had pro-abortion beliefs.
The term Orthodoxy refers to a belief or or religion that is authorised and accepted by the majority of the group.
Three things I've learnt:
- The different types of Cults;
Client cults are more organised, and more intensive opportunity for involvement and practice).
Audience cults have with less opportunity for involvement and practice, which is based on attracting a range of people interested in range of mystical things like horoscopes.)
-The definitions of Churches, Denominations, sect and cults.
- And the differences each of these.
Again, well done for being first in with the work. Your definition of sects is fine, your one on cults needs a slight refinement. Cults have no formal history, they don't evolve out of, or react too a preceding religious institution. Instead they draw on ideas and practices that are no longer part of the spiritual/religious mainstream. We sometimes refer to this as the cultic milieu, the collection of ideas and practices that retain some currency in a society without belonging to a validating institution. Horoscopes are a good example of this as are many forms of superstitious behaviour.
ReplyDeleteYour treatment of churches conflates two senses of the word. As sociologists use the term they aren't normally speaking about a building. Rather they are focusing on an established spiritual/religious institution that claims a monopoly on religious/spiritual truth. Churches aren't tolerant of other religious perspectives and technically if a society has two or more religious/spiritual traditions then they are both denominations and neither would be a church unless the other was prohibited by law. A church is the official religion of the state in a society that does not tolerate religious diversity.
Your key terms are fine, although we will be expanding the concept of millenarianism later in the course. Thanks for taking the task seriously, IGH