Early Christianity in Light of New Religious Movements
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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 of nrms, 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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9
Barclay 1996: 210–212. For a possible ethnic background of this division, see Stanley 1996.
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17
White 1978. Compare the attempts to gain legitimacy from political figures in Shupe 1998.
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20
Stark 1996b: 133–146. Stark determines that cults with a high level of tension may not grow at all.
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22
Burke Rochford 2000; 2005. Contemporary iskcon devotees in Slovenia, although preferring contacts with other members, do not wish to have the “least possible contact” with non-members. Most of them believe that other religions also profess fundamental truths, and more than a third think that redemption can be reached in all religions (which is even less exclusivist than among Roman Catholics). Thus, despite their intensive religious practice, they are open to other religions (Črnič 2009: 128–129).
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23
See Regev 2004: 402–409 and the references cited there. Compare the non-ascetic tendency (defining asceticism as practice, lifestyle, and social relations distinctive from those of the dominant culture) in the gospels, summarized in Kloppenborg 1999. Note, for example, that the transformation from sinners to believers in Ephesians 2 is a spiritual one and based on belief, lacking practical or behavioral apparatus.
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24
See also Bird 2002. Early Christian groups in Asia Minor are designated as associations, similar to Jewish and Greek ones. They functioned as congregations and not as organized sects (Harland 2009: 25–60).
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25
Stone 1978: 129; Lofland and Richardson 1984. Frances Westley argued that “while people may gather in groups to celebrate cult, the source of the sacred power (and of group integration) will be acknowledged by each individual turning inward as opposed to joining together with others to worship an external symbol of group unity” (1978: 138–139).
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26
Lucas 1992: 205–207; Dawson 2006: 184–185. Some used to characterize cults as totalistic communities with authoritarian leadership (implying a certain antagonism towards them), e.g., Robbins and Anthony 1982 and the studies discussed in Richardson 1993: 33–35. Indeed, the nrms that demand total commitment are the exception. These more “traditional oriented” nrms, which stress communal lifestyles and exclusive commitments, are termed “totalistic cults” (corresponding to Wallis’ centralized cults), in contrast to those more “modern in their orientation,” which are largely non-communal and open to segmented and multiple commitments (Dawson 2006: 184–185).
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31
Urban 2011: 42–52. Scientology introduced itself as a new way of life made for coping with a new age in humanity. Note, for example, the title of Hubbard’s 1965 book Scientology: A New Slant on Life. He offered “a clean new rule of living” and “a new science” (1965: 6, 11, 33, 41, 46, 54). See the book at http://www.tep-online.info/laku/usa/reli/scien/SECRETDOX/A_NEW_SLANT_ON_LIFE.pdf (accessed 18 May 2015).
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32
Wallis 1977: 45–46, 75–76, 122. Hubbard established several organizations in the early 1950s: the Elizabeth Foundation, the Wichita Foundation, the Church of American Science, and the Church of Spiritual Engineering. This may indicate a lack of a stable organizational framework in the pre-institutionalized phase of the movement (Urban 2011: 53–54).
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33
Wallis 1977: 227–228. See also Wilson 1990: 277–278. Hubbard (1959) maintained that “Scientology is not a heretic religion . . . and is not in conflict with faith.”
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34
Snow 1987. sgi-usa avoided becoming isolated by adopting a low-tension position that was close enough to American mainstream religious culture in an attempt to set a realistic alternative for those who encountered the religion, but it remained unique enough to maintain its distinctive appeal. Its non-exclusivist tendency is attested in its cooperation with other religions and other forms of Buddhism to achieve world peace, all without compromising the commitment to the teachings of Nichiren (Hammond and Machacek 1999: 82–83).
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35
Wilson and Dobbelaere 1994: 13, 186, 188. See further Dawson 2001: 356–358.
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Early Christianity in Light of New Religious Movements
In: NumenSearch for other papers by Eyal Regev in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
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 of nrms, 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.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1077 | 172 | 26 |
| Full Text Views | 400 | 18 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 174 | 28 | 2 |