English

Wikiquote

Wikisource

Wikiversity

Noun

new religious movement ‎(plural new religious movements)

1. (religion) (abbreviated NRM) a religious community or spiritual group of modern origins, which has a peripheral place within its nation's dominant religious culture.
   • 1987, James A. Beckford, New Religious Movements and Rapid Social Change, SAGE Publications Ltd, ISBN 0803985916, page 44:

     TM, Erhard Seminars Training (est), and the Rajneesh Foundation are currently the most visible NRMs offering a release service to clients in Western Europe, but a large number of smaller groups are also in operation.

   • 1996, Barker, Eileen, “New Religions and Mental Health”, in Psychiatry and Religion: Context, Consensus and Controversies, London and New York: Routledge, ISBN 0415089557, pages 126-127:

     To illustrate rather than to define: among the better-known NRMs are the Brahma Kumaris, the Church of Scientology, the Divine Light Mission (now known as Elan Vital), est (erhard Seminar Training, now known as the Landmark Forum), the Family (originally known as the Children of God), ISKCON (the Hare Krishna), Rajneeshism (now know as Osho International), Sahaja Yoga, the Soka Gakkai, Trandscendental Mediations, the Unification Church (known as the Moonies) and the Way International. One might also include Neo-Paganism, Occultism, Wicca (or witchcraft) and several movements that are within mainstream traditions, such as part of the House Church (Restoration) movement from within Protestant traditions, and Folkolare, the Neo-Catechumenates, Communione e Liberazione and perhaps even Opus Dei from within the Roman Catholic traditions.

   • 1999, Jamie Cresswell and Bryan Wilson, editors, New Religious Movements, Routledge, ISBN 0415200504, page 35:

     ...the human potential and psychotherapy movements, as well as the more 'life-affirming' New Religious Movements and religions of the self. This was the complex world of the Californian 'psychobabble', of Scientology and est (Erhard Seminars Training, later called Forums Network), of Encounter Groups, meditation techniques and self-help manuals designed to assist individuals 'realise their potential'.

   • 2004, Beckford, James A., “New Religious Movements and Globalization”, in New Religious Movements in the 21st Century, Abingdon and New York: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-96576-4, page 208:

     The prospect of a new global order is also central to many variants of the Human Potential and New Age movements and Scientology. All these very different kinds of NRM nevertheless share a conviction that human beings have, perhaps for the first time, come into possession of the knowledge required to free them from traditional structures of thought and action. Hence, the confidence of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation, and of Werner Erhard, the founder of est (now largely reconfigured as the Landmark Trust), that the state of the entire world would improve if a sufficient number of people became sufficiently energetic and disciplined about their spiritual practice.

   • 2004, James R. Lewis, The Encyclopedic Sourcebook of New Age Religions, Prometheus Books, ISBN 1591020409, page 187:

     These two opposing strategies of new religious movements for delivering compensators I will term 'compensation delivery systems' (CDS). The gradual CDS can best be described as religion as a multi-level marketing (MLM) tactic - a term I take from the business world. ... Exemplars of new religious movements with a gradual CDS are Scientology and Erhard Seminar Training in its various manifestations.

   • 2005, Barker, Eileen, “New Religious Movements in Europe”, in Encyclopedia of Religion, Detroit: Macmillan Reference, ISBN 9780028657431, page 6568:

     The majority of NRMs are, however, not indigenous to Europe. Many can be traced to the United States (frequently to California), including offshoots of the Jesus Movement (such as the Children of God, later known as the Family); the Way International; International Churches of Christ; the Church Universal and Triumphant (known as Summit Lighthouse in England); and much of the human potential movement (such as est, which gave rise to the Landmark Forum, and various practices developed through the Esalen Institute).

   • 2006, George D. Chryssides, The A to Z of New Religious Movements, Scarecrow Press, ISBN 0810855887, page 121:

     Although est and the Forum are frequently characterized as NRMs or 'cults' (q.v.), leaders and participants have typically denied that undergoing the seminars involves following a religion.

Quotations

• For more examples of usage of this term, see Citations:new religious movement.

See also

• brainwashing
• cognitive dissonance
• cult
• mind control
• psychology
• religion

References

• 2005, Barker, Eileen, “New Religious Movements in Europe”, in Encyclopedia of Religion, Detroit: Macmillan Reference, ISBN 9780028657431, page 6568:
• 2004, Beckford, James A., “New Religious Movements and Globalization”, in New Religious Movements in the 21st Century, Abingdon and New York: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-96576-4, page 208:
• 1987, James A. Beckford, New Religious Movements and Rapid Social Change, SAGE Publications Ltd, ISBN 0803985916, page 44:
• 2006, George D. Chryssides, The A to Z of New Religious Movements, Scarecrow Press, ISBN 0810855887, page 121:
• 1999, Jamie Cresswell and Bryan Wilson, editors, New Religious Movements, Routledge, ISBN 0415200504, page 35:
• 2003, John A. Saliba, Understanding New Religious Movements, AltaMira Press, ISBN 0759103569, page 88: