Academic literature on the topic 'Religous groups; Cults'
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Journal articles on the topic "Religous groups; Cults"
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Regev, Eyal. "Early Christianity in Light of New Religious Movements." Numen 63, no. 5-6 (October 14, 2016): 483–510. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341435.
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Comparing early Christian groups with modern new religious movements (nrms) and cults enables us to identify and analyze indicative social and religious attributes that defined the self-identity of the early Christians (as reflected in the letters of Paul, Acts, and the Gospel of John), made them stand out as different, and, ultimately, led to their rejection by outside society.The devotion to Jesus as Christ and the inclusion of Gentiles among these early Christian groups were novel features that, by definition, created a new religious movement rejected by both Jews and Romans. The intense recruitment of converts by early Christians, also a characteristic ofnrms, was seen as a direct threat by their contemporaries. Early Christian groups lacked social separation from mainstream society, strong demands on their members along with sanctions against deviant ones, and systematic organization — all characteristics which are particular to certain cults, such as Scientology in its early years and the Sōka Gakkai. Taken together, these three social features demonstrate that early Christianity was not a segregated sect but, rather, a cult that aimed to penetrate mainstream society, gain legitimacy, and recruit converts.
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Lau, George F. "Animating Idolatry: Making Ancestral Kin and Personhood in Ancient Peru." Religions 12, no. 5 (April 21, 2021): 287. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel12050287.
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Historical and archaeological records help shed light on the production, ritual practices, and personhood of cult objects characterizing the central Peruvian highlands after ca. AD 200. Colonial accounts indicate that descendant groups made and venerated stone images of esteemed forebears as part of small-scale local funerary cults. Prayers and supplications help illuminate how different artifact forms were seen as honored family members (forebears, elders, parents, siblings). Archaeology, meanwhile, shows the close associations between carved monoliths, tomb repositories, and restricted cult spaces. The converging lines of evidence are consistent with the hypothesis that production of stone images was the purview of family/lineage groups. As the cynosures of cult activity and devotion, the physical forms of ancestor effigies enabled continued physical engagements, which vitalized both the idol and descendant group.
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HOLBRAAD, MARTIN. "Religious ‘Speculation’: The Rise of Ifá Cults and Consumption in Post-Soviet Cuba." Journal of Latin American Studies 36, no. 4 (November 2004): 643–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022216x04008119.
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With an ethnographic focus on the prestigious cult of Ifá, this article seeks to account for the recent effervescence of Afro-Cuban cult worship in urban Cuba. It is argued that, since worship involves a marked emphasis on ritual consumption, the cult's rise can be related to wider transformations that have taken place in the field of everyday consumption in Havana during the economic crisis that has followed the collapse of the Soviet bloc. In particular, Ifá has provided an arena for what habaneros call ‘especulación’, a style of conspicuous consumption that has become prevalent among so-called ‘marginal’ groups in recent years.
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Kovalchuk, Andriy, and Andriy Man’ko. "Paganism in Ukraine as a potential for the development of religious tourism." Visnyk of the Lviv University. Series Geography, no. 52 (June 27, 2018): 132–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.30970/vgg.2018.52.10179.
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An artificial term “pagan” is used to denote someone who believes in his/her authentic religion different from Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. There are 400–500 millions of pagans in the world. They are divided into such groups: 1) aboriginal or autochthonous cults are widespread mostly among indigenous peoples of Asia, Africa, America, Australia and Oceania, and have not only deep historical roots, but also have kept the polytheistic religious worldview of their ethnos; 2) representatives of “vernacular” paganism, which combines some elements of ancient beliefs (magic, cult of nature, cult of ancestors, fortune telling etc.) with a specific Abrahamic religion; 3) groups of supporters of healthy lifestyle and living well in the harmony with nature, pagan religions characterized by substantial syncretism with environment-oriented teachings; 4) religious denominations, which combine an autochthonous religion of its people with its current political aims. Overall paganism is one of the least aggressive religions in the world. Ukrainian pagans (Ridnovirs, rodovirs (Slavic Native Faith)) have approximately 120 communities in all regions of Ukraine. The biggest amount of them is concentrated in Vinnytska, Khmelnytska, Zaporizka, Dnipropetrovska, Poltavska, Lvivska oblasts and the city of Kyiv. There are no foreigners among all clerics-pagans, which is unusual for most Ukrainian denominations. Paganism is an indigenous religion of the Ukrainians, which stands up for the authenticity of our society and country. According to our calculations, there are more than 100 pagan sacred places in Ukraine: ancient and functional, more or less preserved and managed, attractive for tourists. Podillia, Podniprovia, the Carpathians, Pollissia are characterized by the greatest concentration of pagan sacred sites - places of worship of anthropogenic and natural origin: sanctuaries, temples, sacrificial altars, caves, cliffs, megaliths (dolmens, cromlechs, menhirs), petroglyphs, burial mounds, trees, idols, springs, pantheons etc. However, most of these places are not widely known or they are known only as natural or historical and cultural objects. In order to make those facts well known, it is necessary to organize an advertising campaign in support of this issue and to stop an adversary, biased attitude of the whole society or some representatives of separate religions towards paganism. In addition, it is important to stop destroying pagan sacred places and to turn them into touristic spots. Multiple highlights of the ethnical religious and cultural significance of Ukrainian pagan sacred sites will augment already known information about them and will add religious tourists and pilgrims to the general flow of travellers. Key words: paganism, Abrahamic religions, organization of religious tourism, paganism in Ukraine, organization of pilgrimage, religious tourism in Ukraine.
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Melton, J. Gordon. "Perspective: Toward a Definition of ““New Religion””." Nova Religio 8, no. 1 (July 1, 2004): 73–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/nr.2004.8.1.73.
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The question of a defining ““new religion”” begins with a survey of a large number of groups that have been labeled as cults in the popular and scholarly literature. Attempts to locate any shared characteristics——beliefs, practices, or attributes——have failed. Thus it is suggested that what new religions share is a common deficiency that pushes them into contested space at the fringes of society. New religions are assigned their fringe status by the more established and dominant religious culture, and by various voices within the secular culture (government officials, watchdog groups, the media, etc.). New religious movements disagree significantly with the dominant accepted religious beliefs/practices in any given cultural setting and/or engage in one or more of a range of activities unacceptable to religious and/or secular authorities, such as violence, illegal behavior, high pressure proselytism, unconventional sexual contacts, or minority medical practices.
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Kindopp, Jason. "China's War on “Cults”." Current History 101, no. 656 (September 1, 2002): 259–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/curh.2002.101.656.259.
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China's leaders are well aware of the dangers of precipitating a Falun Gong–style campaign against another religious group, and appear eager to avoid doing so. Stung by the Falun Gong's tenacity and exhausted by the extraordinary measures required to flog its adherents into submission, they no longer have any illusions about the difficulty of wiping out religious groups that specialize in producing righteous martyrs. …
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Palayon, Raymund T., Richard Watson Todd, and Sompatu Vungthong. "The Language of Destructive Cults." Communication & Language at Work 7, no. 1 (December 7, 2020): 42–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.7146/claw.v7i1.123251.
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Destructive cults are the most notable damaging religious groups in society where leaders convince their followers to engage in destructive acts. Examples of such cults include Peoples Temple led by Jim Jones and Heaven’s Gate led by Marshall Applewhite who convinced their followers to commit mass suicide. Previous research into destructive cults has mainly focused on their social-psychological development. This research breaks new ground by examining the patterns of linguistic features in the sermons of destructive cults indicating the characteristics of their language using keyness analyses. The main data sets are the sermons of Jim Jones and the sermons of Marshall Applewhite in the period leading to mass suicide. As a benchmark, these sermons were compared to the sermons of Billy Graham and the sermons of Rick Warren, leaders of mainstream religious groups. The findings show that the language of destructive cults based on the sermons of the leaders upholds extreme non-religious ideologies that cannot be found in the sermons of mainstream religious groups. The styles of their language focus on othering, intensifying, elaborating, and negating with the aim of controlling their followers. The results may allow destructive cults to be identified before damaging events occur.
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Albhlal, Tareq S. "Terrorism and Contemporary Religious Cults: Jim Jones, Shoko Asahara and Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi." Journal of Politics and Law 14, no. 1 (November 25, 2020): 32. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/jpl.v14n1p32.
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The present study breaks new ground in the field of radical cults as it provides a contemporary insight into three cult leaders; Jim Jones, Shoko Asahara and Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi. This comparative analytical study will assist national and local government agencies with the identifying the relations between those leaders and their conclusions of terrorism, which in turn, had led to the mass death of cult adherents. Terrorism is a major, and growing, concern in the world today as it relates to security, safety, and the efficient operation of the most important service sectors in any state. The personalities of Jones, Asahara and Al-Baghdadi have made of them sect leaders from three very different religions: Christianity, Buddhism and Islam. Therefore, religion is not the source of radicalism/mass death as the similarities and commonalities exist among those three different groups. Eminently, this study has emphasized on the answers analytically to the research query through academic process supported by refereed articles and real-life occurrences.
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MANTLE, INGA C. "Addendum: The Religious Roles of Children in the Provinces." Greece and Rome 57, no. 1 (March 8, 2010): 117–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0017383509990313.
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In my previous article, ‘The Roles of Children in Roman Religion’, it was shown, from literary and visual evidence, that children of both sexes played a part in religious cult in choirs and groups, as assistants to priests and other sacrificants, at weddings and in private rites. Most of the evidence cited came from Rome and Italy, as indeed the title implies. Since writing it, however, I have been collecting Latin epitaphs to children throughout the provinces of the Roman empire, and in the course of this study I have come across a small amount of evidence for children in religious roles. It is worth considering whether such children, along with those represented visually, were participating in what might be called offi cial Roman religion or whether they were to some extent involved in their own local cults.
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Rauhala, Marika. "Arresting Alternatives." Numen 66, no. 1 (December 19, 2019): 1–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341513.
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AbstractAncient Greek descriptions of ecstatic and mystic rituals, here broadly labeled as Bacchantic worship, regularly include elements of moral corruption and dissolution of social unity. Suspicions were mostly directed against unofficial cult groups that exploited Dionysiac experiences in secluded settings. As the introduction of copious new cults attests, Greek religion was receptive to external influences. This basic openness, however, was not synonymous with tolerance, and pious respect for all deities did not automatically include their worshippers. This article reconsiders the current view of ancient religious intolerance by regarding these negative stereotypes as expressions of prejudice and by investigating the social dynamics behind them. Prejudices against private Bacchantic groups are regarded as part of the process of buttressing the religious authority of certain elite quarters in situations where they perceive that their position is being threatened by rival claims. It is suggested that both the accentuation and alleviation of prejudice is best understood in relation to the relative stability of the elite and the religious control it exerted.
Dissertations / Theses on the topic "Religous groups; Cults"
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Young, Wendy Warren. "A North American human potential group in Britain : Werner Erhard and Associates, 1981-1991." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.294179.
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Dreher, Kevin Clark. "College Student Vulnerability to Harmful Religious Groups Based on Perceptions." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2008. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1957.
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This study was conducted in an attempt to understand which, if any, groups of college students are susceptible to cult influence based on false perceptions. Religion is a powerful practice that, if used for the wrong reasons, can influence a person to dissolve social and financial relationships with family, friends, and the surrounding community. Surveys were given to randomly selected cluster samples of students currently enrolled at the university. These surveys consisted of demographic questions and a scale designed to measure perceptions. Also devised was a scale to measure traits of depression. Both bivariate and multivariate analysis showed that the depression scale was more significant than the perceptions scale in measuring vulnerability.
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Lockler, Tori Chambers. "Radical Religious Groups and Government Policy: A Critical Evaluation." [Tampa, Fla.] : University of South Florida, 2004. http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/SFE0000447.
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Hermand, Xavier. "Transformer la matière et négocier les cultes : les groupes de l'artisanat du Nangarhār (Afghanistan)." Thesis, Paris, EHESS, 2019. http://www.theses.fr/2019EHES0071.
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Après une enquête menée auprès des groupes d'artisans de la ville de Jalālābād et desrecherches historiques sur les changements sociaux des régions de l'est de l'Afghanistan, je décris comment ces professionnels qui étaient autrefois jugés marginaux parce qu'ilsmanipulent la matière, parviennent depuis peu, par ce même moyen, à acquérir de l'influence. Ceux qui transforment les matières et produisent des objets à partir des métaux, du bois, des tissus, de la terre, des peaux d'animaux, descendent de spécialistes de villages et de nomades qui étaient tenus par l'endettement au service de marchands ou de chefs fonciers. Avec la transmission aux enfants des dettes et des savoir-faire, les spécialisations étaient conservées entre proches limitant la mobilité sociale. Une succession de crises au cours de la deuxième moitié du XXème siècle obligea la population du Nangarhār à fuir et parfois émigrer. Plus tard, les artisans sont revenus se concentrer à Jalālābād pour constituer, au sein des métiers qui ont survécu, des cartels familiaux. L'évolution des rapports d'échange, la diffusion de la monnaie, l'accès à une clientèle plus large, ont permis à quelques-uns de devenir plus indépendants et à introduire de nouvelles façons de travailler. Selon les filières, certains ont monté de petites usines et repris la maîtrise sur des étapes clés de la transformation des matières, d'autres privilégient les fabrications à fortes plus-values, acquièrent des monopoles dans la distribution ou encore, délèguent les tâches les plus pénibles à un personnel extérieur.En dépit d'une absence chronique d'électricité, les artisans de cette ville, dont l'essentiel de la main d'oeuvre est composée de proches parents, réussissent à proposer des objets de très bonne qualité à faible coût, une situation qui leur permet de gagner en influence. Peu auparavant, ces artisans connaissaient une situation très différente. L'absence de références généalogiques empêchait qu'ils soient acceptés comme musulmans et, si leur économie dépendait, comme d'autres acteurs du Nangarhār, d'institutions non-musulmanes, leurs activités (extraction, échange, manipulation, transformation ou, destruction des matières) étaient jugées avec méfiance par les représentants religieux. L'implication, au siècle dernier, d'un homme d'affaire et chef religieux auprès des professionnels entraîna un changement des rapports économiques mais aussi aux rites de l'Islam. Tous les artisans prétendent aujourd'hui suivre les préceptes de cette religionAfter conducting a survey among artisans' groups in the city of Jalālābād, and historicalresearch about social changes in the eastern regions of Afghanistan, I describe how theseprofessionals which used to be deconsidered because of their involvement in material process, are succeeding today, through the same mean, to gain some influence. The people who are transforming metal, wood, textiles, earth, hides and skins, and produce objects from these materials, are descendants of village specialists and nomads. Usually working at the service of merchants and landowners, they were compelled to pay back or transmit their debts, as well as their competences, to their children. This contributed to maintain specialisations among kins and did limit social mobility. A succession of crisis in the second half of the XXth century forced the population of Nangarhār to emigrate before coming back and gather in Jalālābād and constitute family trusts among the profession that survived. The evolution of market relations, the diffusion of material money and access to many more costumers, offer them some independance and help them in introducing new working methods. According to their field, some are investing in bigger workshops in order to take back the control of several stages in the transformation process, others choose to specialize in capital gain production, monopolize the distribution markets or, hire personal from new comers to delegate the difficult tasks. Despite a regular absence of electrical energy, the employment of a very skilled workforce composed of kins, allow them today to get some influence and compete with networks of industrial producers from neighbouring countries. Few years ago, the artisans did had a very different experience. They were lacking genealogical references or credences to become accepted as Muslims and, as others economic actors, they depended on non-muslim institutions for their activities (extraction, trade, manipulation, transformation, or destruction of materials) were considered mistrust by the religious representants. During the previous century, the implication of a religious chief involved in business beside the professionnals contributed to the evolution of economic relations but also to the rites attached the islamic faith. All the artisans now claim to follow the precept of the muslim creed
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Göransson, Maria. "Mina tankar eller dina? : psykiskt välbefinnande hos avhoppare från sekter i relation till psykiska övergrepp i rörelsen." Thesis, Högskolan Kristianstad, Sektionen för lärande och miljö, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-12377.
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Syftet med studien var att se om psykiskt välbefinnande hos avhoppare från sekter är relaterat till förekomsten av psykiska övergrepp i den rörelse som lämnats samt att undersöka hur avhoppares psykiska välbefinnande ser ut. Deltagare var 57 avhoppare från åtta olika religiösa rörelser i Sverige. De rekryterades huvudsakligen genom hjälporganisationer för avhoppare och deltog genom att svara på frågor via ett nätformulär. Resultaten visade att högre förekomst av psykiska övergrepp, mätt med GPA-skalan, var relaterat till sämre psykiskt välbefinnande, mätt med CORE-OM, vilket var enligt hypotesen. Det fanns däremot inte något samband mellan psykiskt välbefinnande och antalet år i rörelsen eller antalet år sedan avhoppet. Vidare framkom att avhoppare har sämre psykiskt välbefinnande än normalbefolkningen, vilket var enligt hypotesen, där högt riskbeteende var utmärkande. Ett förslag till slutsats är att sämre psykiskt välbefinnande hos avhoppare till stor del orsakas av psykiska övergrepp som förekommit i rörelsen. Vidare indikerar resultaten att vården bör vara observant på riskbeteende hos denna patientgrupp samt att avhoppare skulle vara hjälpta av större kunskap hos vårdpersonal om sektmiljöer.The aim of this study was to examine if psychological well-being among ex-cult members is related to the extent of psychological abuse in the group, and to investigate the level and characteristics of their psychological well-being. Participants were 57 ex-cult members from eight different Swedish religious groups, who were primarily recruited from organizations for ex-cult members. They participated by answering an internet questionnaire. The results showed that higher levels of psychological abuse, measured with the GPA-scale, was related to lower levels of psychological well-being, measured with the CORE-OM, which supported the hypothesis. On the other hand, no relation was found between psychological well-being and the number of years in the group or the number of years since leaving the group. Furthermore it was found that ex-cult members have a lower level of psychological well-being than the normal population, which was in accordance with the hypothesis, in particular showing an elevated risk behaviour. The suggested conclusion is that low psychological well-being among ex-cult members is to a great extent caused by psychological abuse in the group. The results also indicate that personnel in health care should be aware of risk behaviour among these patients and that ex-cult members would benefit from better insight in cult environments by personnel in health care.
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Hofmann, David C. "A historical case study analysis of the establishment of charismatic leadership in a Protestant Reformation cultic group and its role in the recourse to violence." Thèse, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1866/5896.
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La recherche sur les questions touchant aux leaders de groupes sectaires et à la violence sectaire a mené à l’étude du rôle joué par l’autorité charismatique, tel que défini par Weber (1922) et repris par Dawson (2010). À ce sujet, d’éminents spécialistes des études sur les sectes sont d’avis qu’un vide important dans la recherche sur l’autorité charismatique dans le contexte de groupes sectaires et de nouveaux mouvements religieux reste à combler (ajouter les références ‘d’éminents spécialistes’). Ce mémoire vise à contribuer à l’étude cet aspect négligé, le rôle de l’autorité charismatique dans le recours è la violence dans les groupes sectaires, par une étude de cas historique d’un groupe de la Réformation protestante du XVIe siècle, le Royaume anabaptiste de Münster (AKA), sous l’influence d’un leader charismatique, Jan van Leiden. Cette recherche s’intéresse plus spécifiquement aux divers moyens utilisés par Jan van Leiden, pour asseoir son autorité charismatique et à ceux qui ont exercé une influence sur le recours à des actes de violence. L’étude de cas est basé sur le matériel provenant de deux comptes-rendus des faits relatés par des participants aux événements qui se sont déroulés à pendant le règne de Leiden à la tête du AKA. L’analyse du matériel recueilli a été réalisé à la lumière de trois concepts théoriques actuels concernant le comportement cultuel et le recours à la violence.. L’application de ces concepts théoriques a mené à l’identification de quatre principales stratégies utilisées par Jan van Leiden pour établir son autorité charismatique auprès de ses disciples, soit : 1) la menace du millénarisme, 2) l’exploitation d’une relation bilatérale parasitique avec ses disciples, 3) l’utilisation de l’extase religieuse et de la prophétie, 4) l’utilisation du désir de voir survenir des changements sociaux et religieux. En plus de ces quatre stratégies, trois autres dimensions ont été retenues comme signes que le recours à la violence dans le Royaume anabaptiste de Münster résultait de l’établissement de l’autorité charismatique de son leader, soit : 1) la violence liée au millénarisme, 2) la notion d’identité et de violence partagée, 3) des facteurs systémiques, physiques et culturels menant à la violence.Research surrounding questions regarding cultic behaviors, leadership and issues of sectarian violence has lead to the study of charismatic leadership. Prominent cultic scholars have identified that there remains a rather large void in research when analyzing charismatic leadership within the context of sectarian groups and new religious movements. This thesis will attempt to bridge that gap through a historical case study analysis of a 16th century protestant reformation group, the Anabaptist Kingdom of Münster (AKM), under the influence of a charismatic leader, Jan van Leiden. More specifically, this research will focus on the various means utilized by the group’s leader, to establish charismatic leadership and how this affected the group’s recourse to acts of violence. The case material was obtained through two primary source accounts from participants in the events that unfolded in Münster during Leiden’s reign. The analysis of this material was made using three current theoretical concepts on cultic behavior and violence, that is Casoni (2000), Robbins (2002) and Dawson (2010). It appears that four major strategies were utilized by Jan van Leiden to establish his charismatic leadership over his followers: (1) the threat of millenarianism, (2) the exploitation of a bilateral parasitic relationship with his followers, (3) the use of religious ecstasy and prophecy, and (4) the use of their desire for social and religious change. By contrasting the results of the analyses undertaken in chapters three and four, three factors that have played a crucial role in Leiden’s charismatic leadership, as it relates to the recourse to violence in the AKM, will be identified. These are: (1) millennial violence, (2) shared identity, and (3) macro-level dimensions.
Books on the topic "Religous groups; Cults"
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Church members and nontraditional religious groups. Nashville, Tenn: Broadman Press, 1985.
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The new elect: The church and new religious groups. Dublin: Veritas Publications, 1985.
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Ellwood, Robert S. Religious and spiritual groups in modern America. 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice Hall, 1988.
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Blind faith: Recognizing and recovering from dysfunctional religious groups. Minneapolis, Minn: CompCare Publishers, 1993.
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Casoni, Dianne. When does a cult become dangerous?: Group philosophy as associated to different types of dangerous behavior. Montréal: Université de Montréal, 2000.
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Singer, Margaret Thaler. Cults in our midst. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1996.
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Cults, new religious movements, and your family: A guide to ten non-Christian groups out to convert your loved ones. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books, 1998.
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Vernette, Jean. Dictionnaire des groupes religieux aujourd'hui: Religions, églises, sectes, nouveaux mouvements religieux, mouvements spiritualistes. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1995.
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Vernette, Jean. Dictionnaire des groupes religieux aujourd'hui: Religions, églises, sectes, nouveaux mouvements religieux, mouvements spiritualistes. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 2001.
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Catholic Church. Catholic Bishops of Uganda. Test the spirits: Pastoral letter of Catholic Bishops of Uganda to the faithful on cults, sects, and "religious" groups. [Kampala?: s.n., 2000.
Find full textBook chapters on the topic "Religous groups; Cults"
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Kahlos, Maijastina. "Economics of practices." In Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity, 350-450, 158–67. Oxford University Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190067250.003.0012.
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This chapter explores the economic aspects of religious dissidence, such as the confiscation of temples and churches, as well as competing philanthropic practices, civic euergetism, and ecclesiastical charity. In many instances, economic issues carried more weight than the solemn proclamations of emperors and church councils. When the emperor chose a cult or a group as something to support, he recognized that cult or religious group as a receiver of privileges and donations. The emperors’ economic support of Christian communities strengthened the position of the churches. The withdrawal of imperial support hit pagan cults that had traditionally been endowed with land, property, and exemptions from duties. Furthermore, late Roman society saw another great transformation in the economics of practices. The philanthropy of the Christian churches gradually replaced the traditional Graeco-Roman form of civic philanthropy in the fourth and fifth centuries.
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Glock, Charles Y. "The Role of Deprivation in the Origin and Evolution of Religious Groups." In Cults in Context, 147–57. Routledge, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203794265-10.
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Evans, Richard Kent. "Building a Cult." In MOVE, 175–200. Oxford University Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190058777.003.0008.
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This chapter studies how and why Americans in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s came to believe that some religions were “cults,” and interrogates the assumptions that underlay that category. After 1981, many people outside the group began to suspect that MOVE was a cult. Increasingly, the idea that MOVE was a religion—albeit a bad religion—began to make sense. The Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission concluded that in the early 1980s, MOVE was evolving into a “violence-threatening cult.” This belief had less to do with transformations within MOVE, I argue, than it did with transformations in American culture. After John Africa’s acquittal, Americans began to think of MOVE as a cult because scholars, journalists, and their government taught them to.
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Palmer, Susan. "Cult Wars on the Internet." In New Media and Communication Across Religions and Cultures, 99–108. IGI Global, 2014. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-5035-0.ch007.
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This chapter focuses on the impact of the Worldwide Web on the trajectories of new and controversial religious movements. The research data indicates that the use (misuse?) of the Internet has, paradoxically, facilitated the expansion of minority religions – and yet it has also undermined their quest for social legitimacy. The ways in which different interest groups in the “Cult Wars” (“anticult” organization, Christian “countercult” groups, ex-members support networks, second-generation members, teen chat rooms, and official Websites of NRMs) use the Internet are demonstrated – from evangelism, to “white-washing,” to whistle-blowing, to stigmatizing attacks. The unprecedented challenges to boundary maintenance in communal, utopian, or racialist religions posed by Internet communications are discussed, and the formation of virtual (“dis-embodied”) congregations described. The use of the Internet in the “cult wars,” by human rights and religious freedom activists, for the formation of new interest groups, and for the forging and wielding of new cyber-weapons in these sectarian struggles (e.g. hacking or blocking Websites, promoting conspiracy theories) is discussed, drawing on examples from the Falun Gong, Scientology, the International Raelian Movement, ISKCON, and others.
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Terpstra, Taco. "Economic Trust and Religious Violence." In Trade in the Ancient Mediterranean, 168–210. Princeton University Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691172088.003.0005.
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This chapter explores the changing world of the fourth century CE, a time of social ferment heightened by the Roman emperors' adoption of Christianity as a religion of state. Although this shift followed a turn toward forced religious centralization initiated by the emperors during the crisis of the third century, the choice for Christianity represented a momentous departure from Roman tradition. The intolerance and violence it engendered upset the equilibrium of Mediterranean diaspora trade, producing an institutional shock. Indeed, religion played a prominent role in how diaspora groups operated. Through the worship of their native gods, group members remained distinct from their hosts and connected to their place of origin, both necessary ingredients for successful intercommunity trade. Equally important, acts of religious devotion signaled commitment and loyalty to the group, encouraged collective action against defectors, and fostered economic trust and collaborative behavior. However, this complex system of socioeconomic interaction came under pressure when emperors began legislating against pagan cults.
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"The Several Meanings of "Cult"." In Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America, 26–37. Routledge, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315507255-6.
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Corrigan, John, and Lynn S. Neal. "Intolerance toward “New” Religions in the Twentieth Century." In Religious Intolerance in America, Second Edition, 181–214. University of North Carolina Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.5149/northcarolina/9781469655628.003.0008.
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This chapter examines the power of the “cult” stereotype and how it is used against minority religious groups rhetorically, legally, and, in some cases, violently. The primary sources, ranging from internet hoaxes and jokes to FBI memos and city ordinances, demonstrate the ways that technology, law enforcement, and laws are embroiled in the spread and enactment of religious intolerance against minority religious groups. Readers explore the “cult” stereotype and these patterns through a series of case studies, including Unificationism, Wicca, Heaven’s Gate, the Nation of Islam, and Santería.
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Boehm, Ryan. "Civic Cults between Continuity and Change." In City and Empire in the Age of the Successors. University of California Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520296923.003.0004.
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This chapter considers the important role of the polis as a religious community. Reconstructing cultic continuities and changes reveals aspects of social response to the rupture and discontinuity posed by population movement, settlement shift, and political change. The epigraphic, literary, and archaeological evidence allows us to piece together important indications of how traditional cultic and religious identities intersected with innovation. The chapter first maps the changing religious landscape of regions before and after urban mergers and considers how and why particular cults survived or died out and what this meant for the community that resulted. It then shows the ways in which central sanctuaries and civic cults served as focal points for integrating the discrete citizen groups into the polis, and the ways in which the traditional sacred landscape was simultaneously respected and replicated in the center of the new city. Finally, it examines the ways in which these synoikized communities—and, at times, their original constitutive parts—participated in religious and theoric networks such as koina and Panhellenic festivals.
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Kahlos, Maijastina. "Rhetoric and realities of magic." In Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity, 350-450, 195–213. Oxford University Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190067250.003.0015.
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In Late Antiquity, the label of ‘magic’ functioned as a boundary marker between what was understood as the proper religion and the deviant one. It was used in marginalizing and alienating people. This chapter looks at the consequences that the label of magic had for group relations in Late Antiquity. Magic was a discursive category of social disapproval, and it proved to be a powerful cultural weapon against religious dissenters. Religious groups that fell outside the public religion were at risk of being charged with practising magic. In the Christian Empire, these fears were faced by adherents of pagan cults and deviant Christians. Even though there were probably not great numbers of criminal proceedings concerning magic, from time to time the label was employed against political and ecclesiastical rivals. Being suspected of magic was by no means a harmless affair.
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Kahlos, Maijastina. "Sacred places and spaces." In Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity, 350-450, 168–75. Oxford University Press, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190067250.003.0013.
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This chapter discusses not only the rivalry between Christians, pagans, and Jews in regard to sacred places and spaces, but also how these were shared. Even though many groups maintained the separateness and uniqueness of their sacred sites, they could easily move into locations held by other groups. Late antique people commuted between spaces or between different interpretations of the same space. Attention is also drawn to the contradictions between the triumphalist declarations made by church leaders about the destruction of cult places in some regions and the archaeological evidence, which reveals a less dramatic picture, such as the continuity of cult practices or the natural abandonment and decay of shrines. Furthermore, emperors issued laws to protect temples from attacks and plundering. They were regarded not only as cult places, but also as civic monuments, and they were valued as aesthetic objects.