New Religious Movements: Their incidence and significance

Abstract

The current wave of new religious movements (NRMs), which became visible in the West after the second World War, differs from the vast majority of previous waves in that the movements come not only from the Judaeo/Christian tradition, but also from other traditions (such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Shintoism and Paganism) and from more recent philosophies or ideas (such as psychoanalysis or science fiction). Although concentrating mainly on the situation in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, the paper will mention briefly the growth of NRMs in Africa, Japan (where, more recently, we find the new new religions), Latin America, Eastern Europe and the traditionally Christian countries of the FSU. One of the most important points to be made concerns the enormous variety to be found among the movements. Furthermore, although there are some characteristics (similar to those frequently found in any new religion) that have manifested themselves in late 20th century NRMs, many of the movements now have a second or even third-generation membership, and have, accordingly, undergone changes that have diluted their original `sectarian' characteristics. It will be argued that the statistical significance of the movements is not as great as their social or cultural significance, and that much of this significance lies in societies' reactions to NRMs.

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