RE265 - Cults, Sects And New Religious Movements Syllabus
Fall 2008
Instructor:
Dr. Mark Chapman
Room:
Email:
Office:
Office Hours:
mchapman@wlu.ca
2-127
MW 7:00-8:00 pm
Time:
Phone:
BA209 (Bricker Academic
Bldg.)
Mon. & Wed. evenings,
5:00 – 6:50 pm
(519) 884-0710 ext. 4340
Course Description:
Cults, or what sociologists prefer to call new religious movements, are often in the news.
However, the picture presented by the popular media is only one side of the story. This course
explores new religious movements in North America from the perspective of social science.
It will begin by examining how to study new religious movements, what new religious movements
are, and their historical and sociological context. The body of the course will build on this
foundation to explore important themes of relevance to the study of new religious movements such
as conversion, commitment, conflict, and charismatic leadership. It will use examples from a large
number of different groups to explore these themes but will specifically illustrate each theme with a
smaller number of in-depth case studies. The course ends with a discussion of the significance of
new religious movements in North America society.
Course Objectives:
1 To develop a social scientific understanding of new religious movements
2 To develop an understanding of the role that new religious movements play in society
3 To increase the understanding of and interest in some key theories and themes in the study of new
religious movements
Texts:
Required:
Dawson, L. L. 2006. Comprehending Cults: The Sociology of New Religious Movements Toronto:
Oxford University Press.
Journal articles and websites as specified
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Recommended (one of these survey texts):
Melton, J. Gordon. 1992. The Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America. 2nd revised edition,
New York: Garland. (Out of Print)
Miller, Timothy. 1995. America's Alternative Religions. Albany: State University of New York
Press. ($33)
Partridge, Christopher H. 2004. New Religions : A Guide : New Religious Movements, Sects, and
Alternative Spiritualities. New York: Oxford University Press. ($50) – Preferred
Lectures will assume that required readings have been completed before class. Regular aid will be
provided for working through and learning from the readings and to aid in integrating the readings
with the class material.
Course Requirements:
Assignment
Participation
Description
• Class, online and group discussion
• Students are expected to attend all class sessions
Essay Outline • Include a thesis statement, introduction, outline, and bibliography
• 2 pages Maximum
Mid-term
• 50-70 multiple choice and/or true/false questions
• Covers ALL material from the lectures, videos and the readings
• 1 hour
Research
• Choose one example of a new religious movement in the popular
Project
media (newspapers, TV, radio, pamphlets, popular songs, movies,
etc.). Sources must be from within the last 12 months
• Find a social scientific description of the same organization
• Compare the two descriptions
• Evaluate the reasons for differences between the two descriptions
• Can be presented as a traditional essay, a website, a drama, or
another format of your choosing
• Projects will be posted on the course website for other class
members to read
• 1200 word Maximum
• Absolutely no extensions
Final Exam
• 50-70 multiple choice and/or true/false questions
• Short essay questions
• Covers ALL material from the lectures, videos and readings
• 2 hours
Due
Oct.
1
Oct.
15
Value
5%
Bonus
5%
25%
Nov.
10
30%
TBA
40%
Exam and Assignment Notes:
Format:
 All assignments are to be written in standard essay format (introduction, body, conclusion).
 All assignments MUST follow a recognized Style Manual (e.g., departmental style manuals,
MLA, Chicago, etc.)
 All assignments must be typed, double-spaced, have at least 1 inch margins, and use a 12 pt
RE265 - Cults, Sects And New Religious Movements
Syllabus Page - 3 -
font
Academic Responsibility:
 Academic dishonestly consists of misrepresentation by deception or by other fraudulent means
and can result in serious consequences. For example, the grade of zero on an assignment, loss
of credit with a notation on the transcript (notation reads: “Grade of F assigned for academic
dishonesty”), and/or suspension or expulsion from the university.
 It is your responsibility to understand what constitutes academic dishonesty. For information on
the various kinds of academic dishonesty please refer to the Academic Integrity Policy (located
at http://www.wlu.ca/academicintegrity)
 The following illustrates only three forms of academic dishonesty:
1. Plagiarism. For example, the submission of work that is not one’s own or for which other
credit has been obtained.
2. Improper collaboration in group work.
3. Copying or using unauthorized aids in tests and examinations.
 Additional help with essay writing is available from the Laurier Writing Centre
<http://www.wlu.ca/homepage.php?grp_id=306>
Late Penalties:
 No assignments will be accepted after the due date.
 All assignments are due at the by MIDNIGHT on the date they are due
 Assignments handed in after MIDNIGHT will be assessed late penalties (1% per day for the
first 3 days, 5% per day thereafter)
 It is your responsibility to make yourself available for the exams regardless of when they are
scheduled.
 Exceptions can only be made in cases of medical or family emergencies with appropriate
documentation from a doctor, counselor, or funeral director. Even with such a letter extension
times must be reasonable.
Other Notes:
 Papers occasionally get lost. You are required to retain a copy of your paper. Do not hand in
your only copy.
Course Outline:
Date
Topic(s)
Introduction
Sept. 8, Administration
10
How do we study religion social scientifically?
What are new religious movements?
Sept. 15 Sociological Context
To
Sept. 24 Historical Context
Reading(s)
Dawson 1-38
Richardson
Dawson 39-70
Barker 1995a
Dawson 39-70
Roof
RE265 - Cults, Sects And New Religious Movements
Body
Sept.
Conversion
29, Oct.
• Who joins new religious movements?
1
• Why do people join new religious movements?
Outline Due
Oct. 6, Unification Church (i.e., Moonies)
8
Oct. 15 Mid-Term
Oct. 10, Brainwashing and Commitment:
22
• Can conversion be coerced?
• Why do people stay in new religious movements?
Oct. 27 International Society for Krishna Consciousness
Oct. 29 Conflict:
to
• What causes religious violence?
Nov. 10
• Societal reaction: the anti-cult movement
Essay Due
Nov.
Leadership:
12, 17
• Who leads new religious movements?
• How do new religious movements develop?
Scientology
Nov.
19, 24
Sexuality and Gender
• Why are new religious movements sexually deviant
• What are the different roles for women in new
religious movements?
Conclusion
Nov. 26 The Significance of New Religious Movements:
- Dec. 1
• What impact do new religious movements have on
culture?
• What is the future of new religious movements?
Summary
TBA
Syllabus Page - 4 -
Dawson 71-94
Neufeld
www.unification.org
Dawson 95-124
Bozeman
www.iskcon.com
Dawson 142-178
Cowan, Shterin
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/fr
ontline/waco/
Palmer
Urban
www.scientology.com
Dawson, 125-141
Shepherd
Dawson 179-199
Johnson
Final Exam
Class Readings (Can be found in online databases or in books on reserve)
Barker, Eileen. 1995. The Scientific Study of Religion ? You Must be Joking!. Journal for the
Scientific Study of Religion 34 (3): 287-310.
Bozeman, John M. 2000. ISKCON’s Extensive Reform Efforts. Nova religio 3 (2): 383-87.
Cowan, Douglas E., and Jeffrey K. Hadden. 2004. God, Guns, and Grist for Media's Mill: Constructing
the Narratives of New Religious Movements and Violence. Nova religio 8 (2): 64-82.
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Johnson, Benton. 1987. A Sociologist of Religion Looks At the Future of New Religious Movements. In
The Future of New Religious Movements, edited by David G. Bromley, and Phillip E.
Hammond. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press.
Neufeld, K. Gordon. 2008. Where Have All the Moonies Gone? First Things: A Monthly Journal of
Religion & Public Life (181): 16-18.
Palmer, Susan J. 1988. Charisma and Abdication: A Study of the Leadership of Bhagwan Shree
Rajneesh. Sociological Analysis 49 (2): 119-35.
Richardson, James T. 1993. Definitions of Cult: Form Sociological-Technical to Popular-Negative.
Review of Religious Research 34 (4): 348.
Roof, Wade Clark. 1996. A Time When Mountains Were Moving. In Cults in Context: Readings in the
Study of New Religious Movements, edited by Lorne L. Dawson. Toronto: Canadian Scholars
Press.
Shepherd, Gary, and Gordon Shepherd. 2005. Accommodation and Reformation in the
Family/Children of God. Nova religio 9 (1): 67-92.
Shterin, Marat S., and James T. Richardson. 2000. Effects of the Western Anti-Cult Movement on
Development of Laws Concerning Religion in Post-Communist Russia. Journal of Church and
State 42 (2): 247-71.
Urban, Hugh B. 2006. Fair Game: Secrecy, Security, and the Church of Scientology in Cold War
America. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 74 (2): 356-89.
Other Useful Resources
Bainbridge, William Sims. 1992. The Sociology of Conversion. In Handbook of Religious Conversion,
eds. H. Newton Malony, and Samuel Southard, 178-191. Birmingham, Alabama: Religious
Education Press.
———. 1997. The Sociology of Religious Movements. New York and London: Routledge.
———. 2008. Researching New Religious Movements: Responses and Redefinitions. Sociology of
Religion 69(2) 2, no. 2: 236-238.
Barker, Eileen [Ed]. 1983. Of Gods And Men: New Religious Movements In The West. Macon, GA:
Mercer University Press.
Bromley, David G, and J. Gordon Melton. 2002. Cults, religion, and violence. Cambridge ; New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Bromley, David G, and Anson D Shupe. 1981. Strange gods : the great American cult scare. Boston:
Beacon Press.
Bromley, David G. and Phillip E. Hammond, eds. 1987. The Future of New Religious Movements.
Macon Georgia: Mercer University Press.
Carnes, Tony and Yang Fenggang, eds. 2004. Asian American Religions: the making and unmaking of
borders and boundaries. New York: New York University Press.
Chryssides, George D, and Margaret Z Wilkins. 2006. A reader in new religious movements. London ;
New York: Continuum.
Clarke, Peter B. 2006. Encyclopedia of new religious movements. London ; New York: Routledge.
———. 2006. New religions in global perspective : a study of religious change in the modern world.
London ; New York: Routledge.
Clarke, Peter B., ed. 2000. Japanese New Religions: In Global Perspective. books.google.com. Curzon
Press.
Clifton, Chas, and Graham Harvey. 2004. The Paganism reader. London ; New York: Routledge.
Daschke, Dereck and W. Michael Ashcraft, eds. 2005. New Religious Movements: A Documentary
RE265 - Cults, Sects And New Religious Movements
Syllabus Page - 6 -
Reader. New York: New York University Press.
David, W Machacek, and M Wilcox Melissa. 2008. Introduction: Queering the Study of New Religious
Movements. Nova Religio 11, no. 4: 3.
Dawson, Lorne L., ed. 1996. Cults in Context: Readings in the Study of New Religious Movements.
Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press.
———. 1998. Anti-Modernism, Modernism, and Postmodernism: Struggling With the Cultural
Significance of New Religious Movements. Sociology of Religion 59, no. 2: 131-156.
———. 1998. The Cultural Significance of New Religious Movements and Globalization: A
Theoretical Prolegomenon. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 37, no. 4: 580-595.
———. 2003. Cults and New Religious Movements: A Reader. Blackwell Publishers.
Dawson, Lorne, L., and Jenna Hennebry. 1999. New Religions and the Internet: Recruiting in a New
Public Space. Journal of Contemporary Religion 14, no. 1: 17-40.
Ellwood, Robert S, and Harry B Partin. 1988. Religious and spiritual groups in modern America.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice Hall.
Enroth, Ronald M. 2005. A guide to new religious movements. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press.
Gallagher, Eugene, V. 2004. The new religious movements experience in America. Westport, Conn.:
Greenwood Press.
Hexham, Irving. 2002. Pocket dictionary of new religious movements. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity
Press.
Hexham, Irving, and Karla Poewe. 1997. New Religious as Global Culture: The Sacralization of the
Human. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
Jenkins, Philip. 2000. Mystics and messiahs : cults and new religions in American history. Oxford ;
New York: Oxford University Press.
Lewis, James R. 2003. Encyclopedic sourcebook of UFO religions. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
———. 2003. Legitimating new religions. New Brunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press.
Lewis, James R, ed. 2004. The Oxford handbook of new religious movements. Oxford ; New York:
Oxford University Press.
Lewis, James R, and Jesper Aagaard Petersen. 2005. Controversial new religions. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Lewis, James R., ed. 2001. Odd Gods: New Religions & the Cult Controversy. Amherst, NY:
Prometheus Books.
Lewis, James R. 2004. Controversial New Religions. Oxford University Press.
Lynch, Gordon. 2007. The New Spirituality: An Introduction to Progressive Belief in the Twenty-first
Century. I. B. Tauris.
Melton, J. Gordon. 1992. The Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America. New York: Garland.
Miller, Timothy. 1995. America's alternative religions. Albany: State University of New York Press.
———. 1999. The 60s communes : hippies and beyond. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
Moore, R. Laurence. 1986. Religious Outsiders and the Making of Americans. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Palmer, Susan Jean. 1994. Moon Sisters, Krishna Mothers, Rajneesh Lovers: Women’s Roles in New
Religions. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press.
Partridge, Christopher H. 2004. New religions : a guide : new religious movements, sects, and
alternative spiritualities. New York: Oxford University Press.
Puttick, Elizabeth. 1999. Women in New Religious Movements. In New Religious Movements:
Challenge and Response, eds. Bryan R. Wilson, and Jamie Cresswell, 143-162. London and
New York: Routledge.
Saliba, John A. 2003. Understanding new religious movements. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
Stark, Rodney, ed. 1985. Religious Movements : Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers. New York: Paragon
RE265 - Cults, Sects And New Religious Movements
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House Publishers.
Wilson, Bryan R. and Jamie Cresswell, eds. 1999. New Religious Movements: Challenge and
Response. London and New York: Routledge.
Zablocki, Benjamin David and Thomas Robbins, eds. 2001. Misunderstanding cults : searching for
objectivity in a controversial field. Toronto ; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press.
Some Useful Web Sites: CHECK
Academic Info Site on new religious movements and alternative spiritualities
• http://academicinfo.net/nrms.html
Center for Studies on New Religions
• http://www.cesnur.org/
Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
• http://religioustolerance.org/1st_visi.htm
The Religious Movements Page
• http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/utilities/aboutus.htm
Sources For The Study Of Cults, Sects And New Religions
• http://www.ucalgary.ca/~nurelweb/
Statistics Canada: Canadian Statistics
• http://www.statcan.ca/
Some Movement Web Sites:
http://www.unification.org/
http://www.iskcon.com/
http://www.scientology.com/
http://www.rael.org/
http://www.osho.com/
http://www.tacf.org
http://www.jpusa.org/
Fall/Winter 2008-2009 Additional Information
1.
Student Awareness of the Accessible Learning Centre:
Students with disabilities or special needs are advised to contact Laurier’s Accessible Learning
Centre for information regarding its services and resources. Students are encouraged to review
the Calendar for information regarding all services available on campus. Guidelines regarding
the consideration of such students can be obtained by contacting the Accessible Learning
Centre, ext. 3086, www.mylaurier.ca/accessible.htm
2.
For Evening Classes:
“After class call 886-FOOT for a walk or drive home - No Walk is Too Short or Too Long!!!”
3.
Academic and Research Misconduct:
Academic misconduct is an act by a student, or by students working on a team project, which
may result in a false evaluation of the students(s), or which represents a deliberate attempt to
unfairly gain an academic advantage. Academic misconduct includes: please refer to web site:
www.wlu.ca/page.php?grp_id=158&p=8383&pv=1
RE265 - Cults, Sects And New Religious Movements
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Wilfrid Laurier University uses software that can check for plagiarism. Students may be
required to submit their written work in electronic form and have it checked for plagiarism.
4.
Examination Deferrals:
The academic date section of the 2008/2009 calendar, (web site:
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Students who are considering registering to write MCAT, LSAT or GMAT or a similar
examination, should select a time for those examinations that occurs outside the University
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For additional information that describes the special circumstances for examination deferment,
consult web site:
www.wlu.ca/calendars/section.php?cal=1&s=268&sp=800&ss=1142&y=33#Special_Examinat
ions of the 2008/2009 University on-line calendar.
The World Wide Web <http://www.wlu.ca> version is the up-to-date, official Academic
Calendar.