Organization of Religious Life

A Church
• church is a formally organized, highly
institutionalized religious organization
with estalished religious doctrine and
practices, as well as beliefs.
 The Universal Church
• This includes all the members of a
society within one united moral
community. It is fully a part of the social,
political, and economic status quo and
therefore accepts and support the secular
culture.
 The Ecclesia
• An ecclesia extends itself to all members of a
society. It promotes the interests of the ruling
classes since it has so completely adjusted
system to the political structure of the secular
society. Because of this, it loses its adherence
among the lower classes who increasingly
reject it foe membership in sects.
Russian Orthodox Church
 The Denomination
• The denomination has no official or unofficial
connection with the state,and any political
involvment is purely a matter of choice by the
denominations leader. These leaders may
either support or oppose any or all of the states
actions and political position.
 The sects
• This refers to a small religious group that
adheres strictly to a doctrine involving
unconventional beliefs or forms of worship. It
represents a withdrawal from secular society
and an active rejection of secular culture.
 A Religious Movement
• This is an organized religious group with the
prmary goal of changing existing religious
institutions and sometimes the state of
education as well. All religious institutions and
churches began as well as small religious
movement often in considerable tension with
their environment.
 The Millenarian Movements
• These are religious movements that prophesy
the end of the world, the destruction of all evil
people and their works, and the saving of the
just. Like revitalization movements, they
usually in times of stress and crises. These
movements is called millenarian because their
teachings prophecy the end of the era often
represented by the symbolic number of 1000
years.
 The Cults
• This is religious movement that usually
introduces totally new religious ideas and
principles. Cults usually have charismatic
leaders who expect a total commitment from
the cult members, who are usually motivated
by an intense sense of mission. Member must
give up individual autonomy and decision
making.
Secularization, Sects, and Cults
 Secularization
• This refers to the erosion of belief in the
supernatural and is associated with
modernization and industrialization. It includes
a respect for values of rationality, cultural and
religious pluralism, tolerance of moral
ambiguity, faith in education, and belief in
civil rights, the rule of law, and due process.
 Sects
• Secularization appeals to those who are
concerned with wordly sucess. Members of a
religion who have other wordly and spiritual
concerns may break away to form new sects.
 Fundamentalism
• Often sects are formed in an effort to get back to
the more basic, or fundamental teachings of the
religion from which the member came.
• Fundamentalism is a form of religious
traditionalIsm that insists that the faithful allow
allow every part of their lives to be dominated by
religion.it is typically characterized by the literal
interpretation of religious texts or teachings, by a
conception of an active supernatural, and by
clear-cut distinctions between sin and salvation.
 Evangelicalism
• is a form of protestantism which stresses the
Gospel of Jesus Christ and the validity of
personal conversion experiences. They adopt
biblical Scripture as the basis of their faith, and
active preaching of the faith in one’s home
country and abroad.
• The the evangelicals are optimistic thaqt the
people and societies could change for the
better with God’s support.
 Cults
• Based on the history, cults flourish in the later
stages of secularization and in those regions
where church membership lowers. Cults do not
claim cultural continuity with existing
churches and religious traditions
 According to stark and brainbridge,
there are three types of cults:

• 1. Audience cults.they have at least social

organization because they reach their audience
through magazines, newspapers, television,
radio, and books. Membership is seen as
consumer activity.
• 2. Client cults. They deal primarily in magic or
therapeutic services, not organizations.
Examples are horoscope and palm reading,
wicthcraft
 3. Social movement cults.
• They claim to be full-fledged religious
organizations that attempt to satisfy all the
religious needs to convert. They come close to
being sects. Members cannot belong to other
sects. The primary golas of member is to
converts. The group tend to be organized as
“total institutions” that seek to isolate their
members from contact with outsiders,
including members of their own family and
friends.
Types of Religious Institution
• 1. Sect. It is the small, exclusive,
uncomprising fellowship of individuals
seeking spiritual perfection. The members are
voluntary converts, and their lives are largely
controlled by the sect.
• 2. Church. It is a large, conservative,
universalist religious institution. Because it is
large, it tends to acquire a certain amount of
social and political power; it retain that power
by becomimg associated with the government
or the ruling classes. Thus, a church
accommodates itself to the claims of powerful
groups and dominant institution, and it tends to
support the status quo.
• 3. Cult. Stark and Brainbridge identified two
kinds of religious movements that are at odds
with their social environment:
(1) sects which arise by breaking away from
church, and
(2) cults which have no prior ties with an
established religious body in a given society. For a
religious body to be sect, it must be founded by
individuals who leave one religiousbody found a
new group.