9/14 American Religious History

1. Albanese Ch 7
Visions of Paradise Planted

2. New Religious Movements
(NRM’s)
Cults, Sects, Denominations,
Movements, Dissenters - What
are we to think?

3. “Cults, “Sects, “ New Religions and
New Religious Movements (NRM’s)
(1)
Cult, from cultus (cultivate, culture) meaning ritual practice.
– Pejorative word, esp. after 1970’s
– Usually small groups, isolated, under control of a charismatic leader, with highly
structured lifestyle.
"Cults are claimed to be deceitful. They are claimed to be harmful to their members. They
are claimed to be undermining American values. Cults are claimed to be just about
every bad thing in the book these days, and with the pervasive images of Manson and
Jim Jones hanging over us, any group that is called a cult is immediately associated
with those two people."
-- J. Gordon Melton.

4. “Cults”, “Sects”, “New Religions” and
New Religious Movements (NRM’s)
(2)
• Sect, related to dissect and section, means “division”
• Used in 19th century by theologians to describe a threat or a
dissident group.
• Now used by scholars to designate an offshoot or branch that
emerged from an established religion.
• A Sect regards itself as the true Church - it sets itself apart and
is exclusive.
• Cult -> Sect -> Church -> Denomination

5. “Cults”, “Sects”, “New Religions” and
New Religious Movements (NRM’s)
(3)
• New Religions is a relative term, implies an
opposition to an older religious establishment and the
creation of a new one.
• New Religious Movement (NRM) is a generally
accepted term among scholars designating a wide
variety of difficult-to-classify spiritual or religious
groups with varying degrees of organization and
relationship to previous religions.

6. Religious Innovation/Experimentation
• Denominationalism: Dissenting Brethren of the
Westminister Assembly of Divines, 1643 - One
Church, many groupings.
• “All societies who profess Christianity and retain the
foundational principles thereof, notwithstanding their
different denominations and diversity of sentiments in
smaller things, are in reality but one Church of Christ,
but several branches (more or less pure in minuter
points) of one visible kingdom of the Messiah.” -
Gilbert Tennent

7. Popular Usage of “Cult”
• "My working definition of a
cult is a group that you don't
like, and I say that somewhat
facetiously, but at the same
time, in fact, that is my
working definition of a cult. It
is a group that somebody
doesn't like. It is a
derogatory term, and I have
never seen it redeemed from
the derogatory connotations
that it picked up in the
sociological literature in the
1930s." -- J. Gordon Melton.

8. Radical Reformation
• “Spiritual practice groups”
• Ordinances
• Amish
• Hutterites
• Restorationism
• Millllennialism
• Distinct tradition from
mainstream Protestantism
or Evangelical Christianity
in America
• Emphasis on community
and practice

9. New Religious Visions
1. The Shakers
2. Oneida
3. Mormons
4. Millerites
5. Christian Science

10. 1. The Shakers
• Mother Ann Lee (1736-1784)
- from England, all her 4
children died in infancy, was
a “shaking quaker”
• 1770 - Revelation that the
root of human depravity is
the act of sex.
• “As lust conceived by the
Fall/Hath more or less
infected all; So we believe
’tis only this/That keepeth
souls from perfect bliss.”

11. Shaker Life
• Seen as Christ in “second
appearing”, performed miracles,
inaugurated the beginning of
millennium
• Joseph Meacham, 1787, organizes
United Society of Believers in
Christ’s Second Appearing
• By 1825, 20 communities of 6,000
members.
• Pacifists, celibate, communal
property, some vegetarian, furniture
and architecture as worship.
• After 1837 - excesses of spirit
communication leads to decline.
• Pleasant Hill, Kentucky - 12
members.

13. 2. The Oneida Community
• John Humphrey Noyes
(1811-1886) - preached
against the “Sin system,
the Marriage system,
the Work system, and
the Death system” -
regeneration of society,
not just the soul.
• Asserted that
conversion brought
total, complete release
from sin.

14. Oneida Life
• 3 Doctrines:
– Total security from sin (still need for
discipline and improvement0
– Millennium happened in 70 A.D.
– Christian communism, including
“complex marriage”
• “Sexual communion differs only in
its superior intensity and beauty
from other acts of love.”
• “special love” is unsocial,
“organized love” helps perfect the
community
• 1879 - after 30 years, joint stock
company formed from community
assets under pressure from outside.

15. 3. Joseph Smith and
Mormonism
• “You don't know me--you never will. You never knew
my heart. No man knows my history. I cannot tell it; I
shall never undertake it. I don't blame anyone for not
believing my history. If I had not experienced what I
have, I could not have believed it myself.” - Joseph
Smith, April 7, 1844.

16. Joseph Smith
• 1805-1844 Charismatic, uneducated,
visionary, prophet.
• 1816 (age 10) in Palmyra, NY - Which
church is right?
• 1820 (age 14) Visions of God and
Jesus, then the Angel Moroni reveals
the Book of Mormon, published 1830.
• Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints
• From NY to Kirtland, Ohio then to
Missouri, then in 1839 to Nauvoo,
Illinois.

17. Unique History
• Nephites and Lamanites are descendants
of a lost tribe of Israel. Indians are
Lamanites, Mormon and his son Moroni are
last of the Nephites.
• Christ appeared among them after his
resurrection to establish proper church order.
• Records and histories of these ancient peoples
in Book of Mormon.
• John the Baptist appears and ordains Smith and
Oliver Cowdery to the Priesthood of Aaron -
establishing direct link with ancient Israel and
Christ’s Church
• Smith “called seer, a translator, a prophet, an
apostle of Jesus Christ, an elder of the church
through the will of God the Father and the grace
of your Lord Jesus Christ…[and] the church will
give heed unto all his words and
commandments…for his word shall ye receive
as if from mine own mouth.”

18. Persecution and “Zion in the
Wilderness”
• 1844 - Smith murdered by
angry Mob. Martyrdom.
• Brigham Young (1801-1877)
leads the community to Utah.
• “The exodus of the nation of the only true
Israel from these Unites States to a far
distant region of the west where bigotry,
intolerance, and insatiable oppression
lose their power over them, forms a new
epoch, not only in the history of the
church, but of this nation.”
• By 1870, over 140,000, many
converts from abroad.

19. 5. “Christians”
• “party names” seen as divisive among some Methodists
and Baptists
• Goal was to unite all Christians…
• Thomas Campbell (Irish) settles in W. Pennsylvania in
1807.
• “Christian Association of Washington County, Pa.” formed
in 1809
• Alexander Campbell (son) becomes leader of the
“Christians” or “Disciples of Christ” - by 1860, 200,000
members, 5th largest denomination.
• Methodist concerns for unity also inspire Philip William
Otterbein (German Reformed minister) to form the United
Bretheren in Christ Church in 1800.

20. 4. Millerites: William Miller (1782-1849)
• 1836: publication of Evidence
from Scripture and History of the
Second Coming of Christ
• Panic of 1837 - financial crisis
bringing renewed millennial
hopes.
• Joshua V. Himes becomes Miller’s
promoter.
• Predicted Christ’s Return in 1843
• Sets more specific period of
March 21, 1843 to March 21,
1844.
• Recalculates and is wrong again
with “the Tenth Day of the Seventh
Month”

21. Disappointment
• Miller is excommunicated from Baptist Church
• Some die-hards reorganize in Albany, NY in 1845
• Advent Christian Church
• Ellen Gould White (1827-1915) says failure was due to neglect
of proper sabbath observance and founds Seventh-day
Adventist church
– Church on Saturdays
– Diet and healing
– John Kellog

22. Significance of NRM’s
1. Outside traditional Protestantism
2. Religious Freedom / Space
3. Optimism of the Revolutionary Period
4. Crisis of Faith due to Enlightenment values
5. Ongoing importance of preaching
6. Preaching set the stage for creative enthusiasm:
• Revivals demanded an immediate confrontation with
God.
• Increasing stress on perfectionism, sanctification.
• Millennial expectation of a golden age to come.

23. More Significance
• Second Great Awakening prophets rebelled against
the learned rationalism of the ruling classes
• Insisted on more religious identity
• Modern ethos made available to people who had not
studied Descartes, Locke, Newton.
• Effects were successful and enduring
• Though bizarre at first, they lasted…
• Like some sects today (fundamentalists), they should
not be discounted…..