ABSTRACT
During times of change and uncertainty, coping strategies differ between esoteric and exoteric minority religions. In such times, esoteric minority religions produce radical violent responses either when identifying with a criminal class or orientation, or when both lacking in moral dualism and subject to persecution or repression. With the absence of these factors, esoteric minority religions both historically and in contemporary settings have tended to eschew violent extremism. This is strikingly in contrast to exoteric minority religions, which tend to produce violence and extremism either when moral dualism is present along with persecution or repression, and the group is not a majority anywhere, or when the exoteric religion is a minority group only on a local level, but a majority elsewhere, in which case the presence or absence of moral dualism appears to be irrelevant, and the significant factor is the perception of conflict with the surrounding out-group. Since esoteric religions are generally born during times of change and uncertainty, they seem to be endowed with a greater resilience when confronted with uncertainty and change later on. In contrast, exoteric minority religions generally exhibit greater sensitivity and reactivity to such conditions.
