Modern and New Religious Movements
This area examines the transformations of religion in the modern world, including debates over secularization, the emergence of new religious movements, global revival, and reform within established traditions.
Definition
The study of religious change in the modern world, including secularization, new movements, revival, and reform.
Scope
It covers theories of secularization and the persistence of religion, the rise and study of new religious movements, the global growth of Pentecostalism and revivalist religion, and modernist and reform movements within the major traditions. The treatment is historical and sociological, describing patterns and debates without endorsing or criticizing any religious position.
Sub-topics
Core questions
- Has modernity led to the decline, transformation, or relocation of religion?
- What explains the emergence and appeal of new religious movements?
- Why has Pentecostal and revivalist religion grown so rapidly worldwide?
- How have established traditions reformed and modernized?
Key theories
- The secularization debate
- Charles Taylor's account of how modern Western societies moved from a condition in which belief in God was taken for granted to one in which it is one option among many, reframing secularization as a change in the conditions of belief.
- Deprivatization of religion
- José Casanova's argument that, contrary to strong secularization theories, religion has re-entered public life in many modern societies rather than retreating wholly into the private sphere.
History
From the Enlightenment onward, religion in the West was widely expected to decline; the twentieth and twenty-first centuries instead saw both secularization in some regions and vigorous religious vitality elsewhere, including new religious movements, the global expansion of Pentecostalism, and reform and revival within established traditions.
Debates
- Whether modernity entails secularization
- Scholars dispute whether modernization necessarily weakens religion, as classic secularization theory held, or whether religion adapts, persists, and sometimes grows in modern conditions.
Key figures
- Charles Taylor
- José Casanova
- Peter B. Clarke
Related topics
Seminal works
- taylor2007
- casanova1994
- clarke2006
Frequently asked questions
- Is religion declining everywhere?
- No; while religious participation has fallen in parts of Europe and elsewhere, religion remains vital or growing in many regions, and scholars now treat secularization as uneven rather than universal.
- What counts as a 'new religious movement'?
- The term refers to relatively recently founded or newly arrived religious groups; it is used neutrally by scholars in place of pejorative labels such as 'cult'.