ABSTRACT
In religion, the conscious effort of missionary movements to propagate their faiths is a form of diffusion, as is the migration from one place to another of people holding a particular set of beliefs. This chapter focuses on the recruitment of individuals to new religious movements, which also is a form of cultural diffusion because it gives new religious culture to individuals who are likely to share it with still other individuals. The insight that interpersonal relationships are the one, essential element in all realistic models of religious recruitment and of cultural diffusion places the sociology of religion on a firm basis. Some forms of culture can certainly be transmitted in written form, and the materials disseminated over the World Wide Web are far from inconsequential. When religion is transmitted from person to person, it can become changed, and religious innovation often reflects the fluctuating dynamics of social interaction.
