New Religious Movements: An Introduction

1
New Religious MovementsAn Introduction
Centre of Asian Studies, The University of Hong
Kong A Carnival of Gods - A Study of
Contemporary Religions in Hong Kong

• Dr. K. K. Yeung
• Research Fellow, Religious Education Resource
  Centre

2
1. Some Intriguing Facts
3
Some estimate

• There are around a few tens of thousands of NRMs
  in the whole world (1999)
• There are around 2,000-3,000 NRMs in the West
  (1999)
• Over 3,000 NRMs in Japan (1993)
• 10-20 of Japanese population is involved in one
  or more of the NRMs
• Soka Gakkai (Largest NRM in Japan) claims a
  membership of over 17 millions worldwide and
  40,000 in Hong Kong
• There are around 100 new religions and spiritual
  groups in Hong Kong (1996)

4
Religious Population of the World, 1998
(From Britannica Book of the Year, 1999.)
5
Examples of NRMs in Hong Kong

• Christian-related
• Jehovahs Witnesses (??????)
• Mormons (???)
• Unification Church (???)
• Eastern
• Transcendental Meditation (????)
• Hare Krishna (??Krishna ????, ISKCON)
• Japanese
• Soka Gakkai (????)
• Indigenous
• Zion Church (????)

(From Chan Shun-ching)
6
2. Characteristics of NRMs
7
Defining NRM (1) A Working Definition

• An NRM is new in so far as it has become visible
  in its present form since the Second World War,
  and that it is religious in so far as it offers
  not merely narrow theological statements about
  the existence and nature of supernatural beings,
  but that it proposes answers to at least some of
  the other kinds of ultimate questions that have
  traditionally been addressed by mainstream
  religions.
• (Questions such as Is there a God? Who am I? How
  might I find direction, meaning and purpose in
  life? Is there life after death? Is there more to
  human beings than their physical bodies and
  immediate interactions with others?)
• (by Eileen Barker)

8
Defining NRM (2) Church, Sect Cult

• CHURCH (??) a conventional religious
  organization
• SECT (??) a deviant religious organization with
  traditional beliefs and practices
• Heresy (??)?
• CULT (????) a deviant religious organization
  with novel beliefs and practices
• Antisocial cults
• Doomsday cults
• Evil cults (??)?

(From Rodney Stark William Bainbridge)
9
Defining NRM (3) 7 Characteristics (Eileen
Barker)

• Small size in early days
• Members having personal knowledge of each other
  and face-to-face interaction
• Atypical representation of population
• A tendency to attract people of a narrow age
  range, educational level, or a particular gender
• e.g. young people of above average education
• First-generation membership
• Initial members have chosen to join
• Exhibit far more enthusiasm/ fanaticism and
  commitment
• Charismatic Leader
• Usually also founder of the movement
• Likely to be accorded charismatic authority
• Unbounded by the constraints of rules or tradition

10
Defining NRM (3) 7 Characteristics (Eileen
Barker)

• New belief systems
• Tend to be more unambiguous and uncompromising
• Syncretistic
• May include millennialism
• The Them/Us divide
• Social boundary between them and us, Evil and
  Good, fallen and saved.
• Esp. sharp in world-rejecting NRMs
• External hostility
• Because usually receive antagonistic reactions
  from larger society

11
Defining NRM (4) Formative Factors of NRM
Sociopolitical Opportunities
Organizational Structure
Socio-economic Process
Collective Action
Charismatic Leader
Identity
Religious Beliefs, Rituals and Practices
(Adopted with modifications from Chan Shun-hing )
12
Concepts Charisma

• Max Weber
• The term charisma will be applied to a certain
  quality of an individual personality by virtue of
  which he is set apart from ordinary men and
  treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman,
  or at least specifically exceptional powers or
  qualities. These are such as are not accessible
  to the ordinary person, but are regarded as of
  divine origin or as exemplary, and on the basis
  of them the individual concerned is treated as a
  leader.

13
Concepts Millennialism/Millenarianism

• Original meaning
• Belief in the Second Coming of Christ and the
  establishment of his kingdom on earth (the Book
  of Revelation).
• More generally
• Beliefs about the imminent transformation or end
  of the world and the creation of an age in which
  human suffering and violence will be eliminated
• Any religious movement that prophesies the
  imminent destruction of the present order and the
  establishment of a new order, usually reversing
  the relative status of the oppressed and the
  oppressor.

14
Three types of Christian millennialism

• Premillennialism (catastrophic millennialism)
• worldwide destruction and the return of Jesus
  Christ are required to save humanity and bring
  about a new era of peace on earth
• a pessimistic view of modern society and sees the
  world as fatally flawed.
• Postmillennialism (progressive millennialism)
• through social reform and by upholding Christian
  ideals, the kingdom of God will be built on earth
  and Christ will return.
• some believe the millennium has already started
• Amillennialism
• there will be no earthly millennium
• the millennial rule of Christ occurs in the
  hearts of believers

15
Why do people join NRMs? (Eileen Barker)

• To find direction, meaning, the hope of salvation
• To find a sense of belonging to like-minded
  community
• To develop a relationship with God
• To develop their spirituality
• To find their true selves
• To find other possibilities that they felt they
  were denied in the outside world
• To get good health cure diseases
• To have moral guidance

16
3 types of New Religions in Japan

• New Religions
• New New Religions
• New Spirituality Movement (Spiritual World)
  New Age

17
New Religions and New New Religions in Japan
18
(No Transcript)
19
New Spirituality Movement

• Beliefs
• Earlier religions (with hardened doctrines and
  institutional forms) prevented individuals from
  realizing full spiritual potential
• Humanity is entering a new stage in the evolution
  of consciousness
• Each individual should search and discover their
  own inner being, develop their own spirituality,
  and bring about their own spiritual
  transformation
• Techniques meditation, ascetic training,
  bodywork, psychotherapy
• Study ancient mysticism, archaic religions and
  myths, rituals, psychological theories

20
3. Development of NRMs
21
The believers

• Three types of response
• Joining an NRM will remain the most important
  thing to happen in their lives
• The experience may have seemed wonderful at first
  but has since soured through disappointment and
  disillusionment
• Having extremely unpleasant experiences and
  feeling that they have been deceived,
  manipulated, exploited and/or robbed not only of
  money and material goods but also of their time,
  innocence and faith in God/humanity

22
The NRMs

• Fundamental difficulty The aspiration to realize
  religious ideals in this world through political
  means met with strong opposition from society at
  large
• Choices available
• Greater confrontation (e.g. Aum Shinrikyo)
• Find hope in an ideal society in the future
• Compromise and take a more realistic position
  with regard to social reform (e.g. Soka Gakkai)

23
Typology of orientations of religion towards the
world

• World conqueror
• To control of the structures of society
• Militant use the sword or the bomb
• World transformer
• Influence the structures, institutions, laws and
  practices of a society (with accommodating
  strategies)
• Civil society rather than battlefield is the
  primary arena for interaction with the enemy

24
Typology of orientations of religion towards the
world

• World creator
• Direct competition with the outside world
  strengthen its own world to attract others as a
  clear alternative to the fallen world.
• Missionary work not to transform the structures
  of the world outside, but to increase the numbers
  of the enclave
• World renouncer
• Same as 3.1-2
• Seek purity and self-preservation (the
  self-construction of the fundamentalist world)
  more than controlling the fallen outsiders

25
What makes a cult become World-destroying ?

• Totalized Guru no deity beyond the guru no
  difference between reality and metaphors for both
  guru and disciples
• Extreme Technocratic Manipulation associated
  with both a claim to absolute scientific truth
  and the use of technical devices to transform
  disciples (in the case of Aum, hallucinogenic
  drugs).
• Impulse the relentless impulse toward
  world-rejecting purification
• Ultimate Weapons the attraction of ultimate
  weapons (e.g. nuclearism)

26
What makes a cult become World-destroying ?

• Aggressive Numbing a shared state, where
  hesitations toward violent and illegal actions go
  away
• World-destroying apocalyptic events a vision of
  an apocalyptic event or series of events that
  would destroy the world in the service of renewal
• Altruistic Murder ideology an ideology of
  killing to heal, of altruistic murder and
  altruistic world destruction

(From Robert Lifton )
27
Anti-Cultist Movement

• Allegations of danger
• Diminish the rights of those who enter their
  orbit
• Often use inappropriate techniques to draw people
  in.
• Deception and coercion (mind-control,
  brainwashing, forced separation from families)
• Illegitimacy of beliefs
• Sexual perversion
• Political subversion
• Financial exploitation

28
Arguments against Anti-cultist movement

• NRMs techniques of influence are not any
  different than the methods of influence that are
  widely used in every sector of human society gt
  it is not illegal.
• An abundance of empirical knowledge demonstrates
  that the average person who joins a cult remains
  only a short while. When the group ceases to
  serve the purpose that initially attracted them
  to the group, they leave.
• Cult and sect formation are a normal part of
  religious life.
• So long as cults and sects do not act in ways
  that demonstrably diminish the rights of other
  citizens, they are entitled to the full
  protection of the law.

29
Future Trend

• Shimazono Susumu
• Since 1970s, movements that sought to create New
  Religions have declined, while the number of
  people pursuing an individualistic spiritual
  quest have increased.

30
NRMs A Postmodern phenomenon?

• Some characteristics of modern society
• The weakening of communal life after the
  breakdown of extended family
• The absence of emotional support in bureaucratic
  institutions
• In want of a mediating structure between the
  nucleus family and bureaucracy
• The meaninglessness of utilitarian individualism
  valued by capitalism
• Dissatisfaction boredom
• Loss of identity and values
• gt Counter-cultural movements

31
Example 1 Falun Gong (???)
Founder Li Hongzhi (???)
32
Example 1 Falun Gong (???)
33
Example 1 Falun Gong (???)

• Reasons for joining
• Physical cultivation (qigong) Health Curing
  diseases (The breakdown of public healthcare
  system)
• Moral directions cultivation of moral character
  (Forbearance)
• Spiritual supports (Truthfulness Benevolence)
  (esp. decline of Marxist ideology and rapid
  socioeconomic changes)
• Social communications, social security and mutual
  supports (Absence of freedom of association and
  speech)

34
Example 2 Aum Shirinkyo (?????)
Founder Shoko Asahara (????) real name Chizuo
Matsumoto (?????)
35
Example 2 Aum Shirinkyo (?????)

• At the time of the Tokyo subway attack, the group
  claimed to have 9,000 members in Japan and up to
  40,000 worldwide.
• 1,114 adopted Aums world-renouncing communal
  life. 47.5 of them were in their 20s.
• Aum's current membership is estimated at 1,500 to
  2,000 persons.
• Aum has to pay an indemnity of more than 3
  billion yens to the families of sarin-atttack
  victims

36
Example 2 Aleph Successor of Aum Shirinkyo

• Fumihiro Joyu (????)
• Previously Aums spokesman and Russia branch
  leader
• Have changed Aums name to Aleph

37
Soka Gakkai First Three Presidents
First President Makiguchi Tsunesaburo (?????)
Second President Toda Josei (????)
Third President Daisaku Ikeda (????)
38
Example 3 Soka Gakkai (????)

• Largest New Religion in Japan (claims a
  membership of over 17 millions (in 1993))
• Its third president Dr Daisaku Ikeda was awarded
  the degree of Doctor of Social Science, honoris
  causa by CUHK in 2000.

39
References (1)

• ????. 1998.lt??????????????????????gt?????
  ????. 554-582. ????????????????.
• ???. 1995.lt????????????????gt????????30(8?)
  149-158.
• ??.??.??. 1999. ?????????. 21????. ????.
  ?????. 109-143. ??? ????????????.
• 1995.lt???????????gt????. 4?2? 20-24.
• ????. 1999.?????????????.
• ???. 2002. lt?????????gt???????????? ?????.
  468-515.
• Barker, Eileen, ed. 1982. New Religious
  Movements A Perspective for Understanding
  Society. New York Edwin Mellen Press.
• Barker, Eileen. 1999. New Religious Movements
  Their Incidence and Significance. In New
  Religious Movements Challenge and Response.
  Edited by Bryan Wilson and Jamie Cresswell.
  15-32. London, New York Routledge

40
References (2)

• Beckford, James A. 1985. Chapter 2 A New
  Conceptual Framework. Cult Controversies The
  Societal Response to New Religious Movements.
  London Tavistock Publications.
• Lifton, Robert Jay. 1999. Destroying the World to
  Save It Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and
  the New Global Terrorism. New YorkMetropolitan
  Books.
• Metraux, Daniel Alfred. 1999. Aum Shinrikyo and
  Japanese Youth. Lanham University Press of
  America.
• Stark, Rodney and William Sims Bainbridge. 1979.
  Of Churches, Sects, and Cults Preliminary
  Concepts for a Theory of Religious Movements.
  Journal of the Scientific Study of Religion,
  18(2) 117-133.