The elementary forms of the new religious life

Routledge & Kegan Paul

1984

x, 156, 15 p.

International library of sociology Routledge social science series

Bibliography: p. 146-156.

9780710098900

Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Three Types of New Religious Movement 3. Social Change and the new Religions 4. Secularisation and the New Religions 5. The Middle Ground and the ‘Integrative Hypothesis’ 6. Developments I: The Precariousness of the Market 7. Developments II: The Precariousness of Charisma 8. Concluding Theoretical Observations Appendix. Substance and Method in Studies of New Religious Movements

Roy Wallis deals with the whole range of new religious movements which appeared in the 1960s and 1970s in the West. He develops a wide-ranging theory of these new religions which explains many of their major characteristics. Some of the movements have been widely publicised, even attaining a certain notoriety through mass media treatment, for example: Scientology, Krishna Consciousness, the Unification Church, and the Manson Family. Others such as The Process, Meher Baba, and 3-HO are much less well known. While some have become international, others remain small, local entities, or have already virtually disappeared. In other ways too - style, ritual, belief, organisation and so on - they exhibit enormous diversity. The wide range of movements and groups is classified under three ideal types of world-rejecting, world-affirming, and world-accommodating groups, and from this the author develops a theory of the origins, recruitment bases, characteristics and developmental patterns which they display. The book provides much descriptive material which acquaints the reader with the main features of the life-style, beliefs and practices of a large number of movements. It offers a critical exploration of the theories of the new religions and analyses the highly contentious issue of whether they reflect the process of secularisation, or whether they are a countervailing trend marking the resurgence of religion in the West.

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