ABSTRACT
New Religious Movements (NRMs)—or cults, as they are popularly known-emerged as a new phenomenon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They are mainly associated with
Introduction305 Public and media perceptions of NRMs309 What are New Religious Movements?311 Variety and similarity of aspects 312
Leadership and authority 313
Authoritative texts 313
The idea of family 314
The role of women 315
Causes for controversy 316 Number of NRMs and membership317 NRMs as a new phenomenon319 The combination of ideas and practices 320
Types of members 321
Visibility 321
Opposition to NRMs 321
NRMs and the academic community 322
The response of NRMs to views about them 323 The construction of NRMs and cults323 The future of NRMs326 Summary328 Key terms328 Further reading330
Western societies and with the counter-culture of the 1960s, and include movements such as the Unification Church or UC (its members are generally known as the ‘Moonies’—in reference to the founder, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon), the Hare Krishna movement (ISKCON), the Rajneesh Foundation (now Osho movement), and the Church of Scientology. Although countries in the West, notably the US, proved to be fertile soil for the germination of NRMs, numerous new religions have also appeared in other countries across the world such as Japan, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa. The answer to the question what kinds of religious groups and movements should be considered ‘New Religious Movements’ depends very much on the standpoint of the particular observera topic to which we shall return later in the chapter. As to the question of how many NRMs there are in any given country or globally, the simple answer is that we do not know. No reliable statistics exist and what figures we have are rough estimations or indications from NRMs themselves. The continually changing picture as well as the fluidity of membership make it difficult to be precise about the numerical importance of NRMs-in fact, we shall see that the social importance of NRMs has been disproportionately large in relation to their actual membership. The issue of the number of NRMs and their membership will also be discussed further below.
