Fundamentalism and New Religious Movements

Fundamentalism and New Religious Movements (NRMs)

The late 20th and early 21st centuries have seen both the growth of religious fundamentalism and the proliferation of New Religious Movements (NRMs). Both challenge the secularisation thesis.

New Religious Movements (NRMs)

Defining NRMs

NRMs are religious or spiritual groups that have emerged since the 1950s and differ significantly from traditional churches and denominations. Estimates suggest there are over 2,500 NRMs in the UK alone.

Wallis (1984) — A Typology of NRMs

Roy Wallis classified NRMs into three types based on their relationship to the outside world:

Type	Relationship to World	Examples	Typical Members
World-rejecting	Hostile to the wider world; members withdraw from mainstream society	Unification Church ("Moonies"), ISKCON (Hare Krishna), Peoples Temple, Branch Davidians	Often young, middle-class, counter-cultural — seeking radical alternative
World-accommodating	Neither fully accepting nor rejecting the world; focus on inner spiritual renewal	Neo-Pentecostalism, charismatic renewal movements	Often existing church members seeking deeper experience
World-affirming	Accept the world but offer techniques for personal success within it	Scientology, Transcendental Meditation (TM), est/Landmark	Often affluent professionals seeking self-improvement

World-Rejecting NRMs

• Make total demands on members: communal living, surrendering possessions, cutting ties with family
• Have a charismatic leader whose authority is absolute (e.g., Jim Jones, David Koresh, Sun Myung Moon)
• Members often undergo a radical conversion experience
• The outside world is seen as corrupt, evil, or doomed
• Critics often label these as "cults" — associated with brainwashing and psychological manipulation

Barker (1984) — The Making of a Moonie:

• Eileen Barker studied the Unification Church ("Moonies") using interviews and observation over six years
• Challenged the "brainwashing" thesis: found that of those who attended a recruitment weekend, only a small minority joined, and most of those left within two years
• Members were not passive victims but active seekers who found meaning, community, and purpose
• They tended to be young, idealistic, from comfortable backgrounds but experiencing a sense of moral or spiritual crisis

World-Affirming NRMs

• Do NOT require members to withdraw from the world — instead, they offer techniques to succeed in it
• Often lack traditional religious features: no church, no theology, no worship
• May be better described as "client cults" or quasi-religions
• Examples: Scientology promises personal empowerment through "auditing"; TM offers stress reduction through meditation
• Appeal to the prosperous but dissatisfied — those who have material success but feel something is missing
• Heelas (1996) — The New Age Movement: World-affirming NRMs are part of a broader "self-spirituality" culture that emphasises personal growth, inner truth, and self-actualisation

World-Accommodating NRMs

• The least dramatic type — members maintain their ordinary lives but seek a renewed, more intense spiritual experience within or alongside existing religions
• Neo-Pentecostalism: speaking in tongues, faith healing, emotional worship — but members remain in mainstream jobs and communities
• Often a response to what members see as the "watering down" of traditional religion

Explaining the Growth of NRMs

Relative Deprivation:

• Weber and Stark & Bainbridge: people join NRMs because they feel relatively deprived — not necessarily in material terms, but spiritually, socially, or psychologically
• Middle-class youth may feel deprived of meaning and purpose despite material comfort
• Marginalised groups (ethnic minorities, the poor) may join sects and NRMs that offer status, community, and a sense of being "chosen"

Social Change and Marginalisation:

• Wilson (1970): periods of rapid social change produce anomie — a sense of normlessness — and NRMs offer certainty, structure, and community
• The 1960s–70s counter-culture (hippies, anti-Vietnam movement) produced a generation seeking alternatives to mainstream society
• Immigration and ethnic marginalisation drive recruitment to world-rejecting groups that offer an alternative identity

The Spiritual Void (Postmodernism):

• Bruce (1996): the decline of mainstream religion has created a spiritual marketplace where NRMs compete for followers
• Lyon (2000): in postmodern society, people "pick and mix" from different spiritual traditions — NRMs are part of this consumer-driven spirituality
• Bauman (1992): postmodern insecurity drives some people towards NRMs that offer certainty in an uncertain world

Evaluation:

• Wallis's typology is useful but oversimplifies — many NRMs do not fit neatly into one category, and groups may change type over time (the Moonies became less world-rejecting over decades)
• Niebuhr (1929) — denomination theory: sects are inherently unstable — within a generation, they either die out, become denominations (routinise their charisma), or remain small and marginal
• The "brainwashing" debate is largely resolved — Barker and other scholars have shown that members are active agents, not passive victims, though coercive control does occur in some groups

Religious Fundamentalism

Defining Fundamentalism

Fundamentalism refers to a movement within a religion that advocates a return to the "fundamentals" — the basic, original, literal truths of the sacred text. Fundamentalists believe their faith is under threat from modernity and secularism.

Key Characteristics

Giddens (2006) identified key features of fundamentalism:

1. Scriptural literalism: the sacred text (Bible, Quran, Torah) is the literal, inerrant word of God — not open to interpretation or metaphorical reading

2. Tradition vs modernity: fundamentalists reject key aspects of modernity — secularism, liberalism, gender equality, sexual liberation — and seek to restore "traditional" values

3. Us vs them: a sharp boundary between believers and non-believers; the world is divided into good and evil

4. Aggressive defence of tradition: fundamentalism is not passive — it actively campaigns (and sometimes uses violence) to impose its vision on society

5. Patriarchal gender roles: most fundamentalist movements enforce strict gender hierarchies — women's roles are confined to the home and family

Davie (2007): fundamentalism is a modern phenomenon — it is a reaction to modernity, not a return to pre-modernity. It uses modern technology (TV evangelism, social media, global networks) to spread its message.

Examples of Fundamentalism

Christian Fundamentalism (USA):

• The New Christian Right: politically active evangelical movement seeking to influence US politics on issues like abortion, gay marriage, school prayer, and creationism
• Moral Majority (Jerry Falwell, 1979): campaigned for "traditional family values" and against secular liberalism
• Creationism vs evolution: fundamentalists demand schools teach "intelligent design" alongside or instead of evolution
• The Bible Belt of the Southern USA remains a stronghold of conservative evangelical Christianity

Islamic Fundamentalism:

• The Iranian Revolution (1979): Ayatollah Khomeini established a theocratic state based on Sharia law — a direct rejection of the Western-backed secular Shah
• Various movements worldwide seek to establish societies governed by Islamic principles
• Evaluation: Western media often equates Islamic fundamentalism with terrorism — sociologists emphasise that the vast majority of fundamentalists are not violent, and the term "fundamentalism" may be Eurocentric (originally coined for American Protestant movements)

Explaining Fundamentalism

Giddens (1999) — Cosmopolitanism vs Fundamentalism:

• Globalisation forces people to engage with diversity, pluralism, and uncertainty — this is the cosmopolitan response
• Some people find this threatening and respond with fundamentalism — retreating into rigid certainty
• Fundamentalism is a reaction to globalisation — it is a "tradition defended in a traditional way" in a world that no longer takes tradition for granted
• It is particularly likely in societies experiencing rapid modernisation that threatens existing power structures and identities

Castells (1997) — Resistance Identity:

• Fundamentalism provides a resistance identity for those who feel threatened by globalisation
• It offers certainty, community, and purpose in a world of flux

Bruce (2000):

• Fundamentalism arises in two contexts:

1. Within secular societies: where a religious community feels threatened by the dominant secular culture (e.g., Christian fundamentalism in the USA — a reaction to the 1960s counter-culture)

2. In developing societies: where rapid Westernisation threatens traditional cultures and power structures (e.g., Islamic fundamentalism as a reaction to Western cultural and economic imperialism)

• In both cases, fundamentalism is a defensive reaction to perceived threats to a traditional way of life

Bauman (1992) — Postmodern Uncertainty:

• Fundamentalism is a response to the "liquid modernity" of postmodern life — constant change, uncertainty, and the collapse of grand narratives
• It offers the solid certainty that many people crave — clear rules, absolute truths, and a defined identity

Evaluation of Fundamentalism Theories

Strength	Weakness
Giddens links fundamentalism to globalisation — helps explain its timing and geographical spread	Risks stereotyping all traditional believers as "fundamentalists"
Bruce identifies specific triggers (secularism, Westernisation)	The term "fundamentalism" may be ethnocentric — coined in a Protestant context and may not apply well to other traditions
Explains both Christian and Islamic fundamentalism within the same framework	Beckford (2003): "fundamentalism" is often used loosely — it should be reserved for movements with specific characteristics, not applied to all conservative religion
	Not all reactions to globalisation are fundamentalist — many religious responses are moderate and adaptive

The Relationship Between NRMs and Fundamentalism

• Both are responses to the same forces: secularisation, social change, globalisation, and the loss of certainty
• But they respond in opposite directions:
• NRMs (especially world-affirming) embrace individual choice and spiritual experimentation
• Fundamentalism demands collective obedience and scriptural certainty
• Both challenge the linear secularisation thesis by showing that modernity does not simply eliminate religion — it transforms it

Exam Tip

Examiners frequently ask you to assess the relationship between globalisation and either NRMs or fundamentalism. The strongest answers use Giddens (cosmopolitan vs fundamentalist responses to globalisation), Bruce (cultural defence), and Wallis (typology of NRMs) together. Always distinguish between description (what fundamentalists believe) and explanation (why fundamentalism has grown) — explanation earns the higher marks.