The Modern Search FIRST ENCOUNTER You learn from your university’s newspaper that your campus will be hosting a large gathering of religious leaders for three days. There will be large and small meetings, some of them open to students and the general public. At the end of each day there will be a nondenominational service in a nearby church or temple, and at the end of the conference there will be a large meeting that everyone may attend. You decide to go to the final conference meeting. The gathering is in a modern auditorium, which is usually used by the theater department. Upon entering, you see a stage full of people in bright-colored clothes. Among them you notice Sikh representatives in white, Hindus in orange, Buddhists in gray and orange, Muslims in brown, Christians in black and purple, and Native Americans in various-colored tribal dress. To open the session, a cantor sings a Jewish festival song and a Native American chants a song in praise of the sun. Page 508 After the music, the president of the university thanks everyone for attending. Next, the keynote speaker sums up the ideas discussed at the various meetings held over the three days. After his remarks, he opens the floor to questions and asks the audience members to please use the microphones standing in the aisles, so that everyone can hear. People line up quickly. The first question is a bit startling and provokes laughter. “Why are most of you men?” a faculty member asks the keynote speaker. “I see only a few women among you. Where are all the female religious leaders?” Before answering, one of the representatives pauses to collect his thoughts. The silence is uncomfortable. “Women ministers and religious leaders do exist,” he says at last. “In fact, some religious groups, like Christian Science, were begun by women. But I admit that most religious traditions are only beginning to appreciate gender as an issue, and many religions are still closed to the idea of female clergy. Fortunately, some religious schools are now training female candidates. Although leaders in most religions are still male, we can expect in the future that more leaders will be women.” Nice try, you think. The people around you do not seem convinced either. A man on the far left of the auditorium comments, “Religious leaders have been getting together to engage in dialogue for years. But has it really led to anything substantial? For example, have any religions come together to help survivors of catastrophes, such as the people of Haiti and Japan whose lives were devastated by earthquakes?” A Buddhist monk answers. He speaks about the relief-work groups from Asia, like the Tzu Chi Foundation in Taiwan and the Ruamkatanyu Foundation in Thailand. But he concedes that their work has been done primarily in coordination with other organizations of the same religion. “It is hard to get religions to work together on global matters. I wish I knew why.” A Christian bishop adds information about Chr ...

1. The Modern Search
FIRST ENCOUNTER
You learn from your university’s newspaper that your campus
will be hosting a large gathering of religious leaders for three
days. There will be large and small meetings, some of them
open to students and the general public. At the end of each day
there will be a nondenominational service in a nearby church or
temple, and at the end of the conference there will be a large
meeting that everyone may attend. You decide to go to the final
conference meeting.
The gathering is in a modern auditorium, which is usually used
by the theater department. Upon entering, you see a stage full of
people in bright-colored clothes. Among them you notice Sikh
representatives in white, Hindus in orange, Buddhists in gray
and orange, Muslims in brown, Christians in black and purple,
and Native Americans in various-colored tribal dress. To open
the session, a cantor sings a Jewish festival song and a Native
American chants a song in praise of the sun.
Page 508
After the music, the president of the university thanks everyone
for attending. Next, the keynote speaker sums up the ideas
discussed at the various meetings held over the three days. After
his remarks, he opens the floor to questions and asks the
audience members to please use the microphones standing in the
aisles, so that everyone can hear. People line up quickly.
The first question is a bit startling and provokes laughter.
“Why are most of you men?” a faculty member asks the keynote
speaker. “I see only a few women among you. Where are all the
female religious leaders?”

2. Before answering, one of the representatives pauses to collect
his thoughts. The silence is uncomfortable.
“Women ministers and religious leaders do exist,” he says at
last. “In fact, some religious groups, like Christian Science,
were begun by women. But I admit that most religious traditions
are only beginning to appreciate gender as an issue, and many
religions are still closed to the idea of female clergy.
Fortunately, some religious schools are now training female
candidates. Although leaders in most religions are still male, we
can expect in the future that more leaders will be women.”
Nice try, you think. The people around you do not seem
convinced either.
A man on the far left of the auditorium comments, “Religious
leaders have been getting together to engage in dialogue for
years. But has it really led to anything substantial? For
example, have any religions come together to help survivors of
catastrophes, such as the people of Haiti and Japan whose lives
were devastated by earthquakes?”
A Buddhist monk answers. He speaks about the relief-work
groups from Asia, like the Tzu Chi Foundation in Taiwan and
the Ruamkatanyu Foundation in Thailand. But he concedes that
their work has been done primarily in coordination with other
organizations of the same religion. “It is hard to get religions to
work together on global matters. I wish I knew why.” A
Christian bishop adds information about Christian welfare
groups, such as Catholic Relief Services and World Vision, but
he admits the same problem of getting different religions to
work together. “And there’s always the issue of sensitivity to
the local religions of the countries needing assistance.
Sometimes they don’t want our help.”
Another audience member asks about the future of religions.

3. “Will the future just bring more of the same—the same
religions, the same rituals, the same beliefs? Or is it possible
that religions will influence each other and even blend? Can
new beliefs emerge from the old religions? Could there be
entirely new religions?”
A Shinto leader from the West Coast answers. “Some religions
and denominations are very open to new ideas. My own religion
of Shinto has many modern offshoots, like Tenrikyo and Omoto,
which try to address the problems of the modern world. And
there are branches of old religions that deliberately reject
prescribed beliefs—among them are the Unity Church, the
Unitarians, and some forms of Judaism. They want to be open to
new ideas. For example, they seek new understandings of what
God might be and of what revelation means.”
Page 509
Another representative adds that interfaith meetings like this
really are having an effect on belief and practice. “Some
Christian groups now practice meditation and silent prayer.
These new practices have been influenced by Hinduism and
Buddhism. And, in turn, Hinduism and Buddhism have taken
ideas from other religions, such as the need for social
involvement and welfare work. Maybe we are only at the
beginning of our dialogue. I wish I could be here a hundred
years from now to see what comes about.”
The questions and discussion go on for another half hour. At
last, the keynote speaker makes his closing comments from the
stage. Many of the leaders say a final prayer, and the conference
is adjourned.
You walk out with Marianne, a friend from one of your classes.
“What do you think?” you ask.
“I’m not quite sure,” she says. “I’m thinking about it, though,

4. because I have to write a paper about the conference. What
about you?”
“I think it was ‘same old same old.’ My parents are regular
churchgoers, and they hear the same teachings as they did when
they were children. I stopped following their religion, but I did
try several others for a while. Right now I’m still looking.
Maybe I’ll have to invent my own! What about you? What are
you going to write?”
“I think I’m going to write about where religions could be
headed in the future. Bringing women into leadership positions
is inevitable, and it will change religions. I think it could make
them more tolerant. And I also think that new religions will
emerge. Maybe they already have—but we don’t see them as
religions yet. People will always need a moral code. But maybe
morality needs rethinking.”
Marianne and I make plans to meet again and to talk more about
what we’ve learned. As I walk away after saying good-bye, I
wonder, What new religions will emerge? What will the future
bring?
MODERN INFLUENCES ON THE FUTURE OF RELIGION
It is obvious that religions in the modern world face both
challenge and inevitable change. Numerous social and
technological developments are responsible for bringing about
change. Women are demanding roles in arenas traditionally
dominated by males—including institutional religions.
Scientific advances in such areas as reproduction, genetics, and
organ transplantation pose ethical questions that people in
earlier times never had to answer. Many Western cities are
homes to religions, such as Hinduism and Islam, that not too
long ago were considered exotic and foreign. Finally, television,
the Internet, cell phones, immigration, and travel expose human
beings worldwide to new cultures and religions.
Change is happening so quickly that we must wonder about the

5. future of religion. What if we could return to earth a few
hundred years from now? Would the religions that we know now
have changed a great deal? What religions would even still
exist? Would there be new great religions?
.
After years of thinking about traveling to Asia, you finally take
the plunge. Following a tour of the major cities of China, you
are now in Vietnam on your own. During your first days there,
you explore Hanoi, a beautiful city of two-story pink and yellow
buildings, red-pillared temples, lakes, and large old trees. You
visit its Confucian Temple of Literature, where a genial statue
of Confucius seems to focus its glass eyes directly on you.
Afterward, you fly south to Hué, a former royal city that sits
beside the Song Huong River, whose slow-moving water is so
thick with brown silt that it looks like chocolate pudding. When
you visit Hué’s square of old palaces, you are amazed by the
extent to which its royal enclosure was patterned after the
Forbidden City of Beijing. Clearly, you think, China has had a
profound influence on Vietnam.
Eventually you arrive in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon. In
your hotel lobby, you see a poster advertising tours to the
underground tunnels at Cu Chi that were used by the North
Vietnamese soldiers during the Vietnam War. You walk over to
talk with the agent at the tour desk, and she tries to interest you
in additional tours. “Have you heard of Cao Dai?” she asks. You
hadn’t till now. “It is a big religion here in Vietnam,” she
explains. “Its cathedral is not far from the tunnels, and there is
a Mass every day at noon. Why don’t you go there, too?”
Page 472
At 11:30 the next morning, you arrive at Tay Ninh, a quiet town
of yellow stucco buildings, gravel roads, and people dressed in

6. white. You can’t miss the cathedral; it is an immense yellow
building with two tall towers that face the main road. Upon
entering the building, you are directed up a long flight of stairs
to a narrow visitors’ gallery that runs along three sides of the
interior. Looking down from the observation gallery to the front
of the church’s interior, you see a huge eye painted on a large
blue globe that seems to hover in the sanctuary. Around you,
decorative green dragons climb tall pillars to the sky-blue
ceiling. Just before noon, people dressed in robes of red, blue,
yellow, and white take their places in groups on the shining
marble floor below. Chanting starts. The service begins.
What, you wonder, does the large eye represent? What are the
people chanting, and what is the significance of the variously
colored robes? Why are there Chinese dragons on the pillars
inside a building that looks like a Christian cathedral? Why do
they call their service a “Mass”?ORIGINS OF NEW
RELIGIONS
One of the most fascinating things about religions is that, like
all forms of life and culture, they are constantly changing.
Change occurs for many reasons. Sometimes followers of one
religion move to another culture, and their religion mixes with a
locally established religion, thereby producing a hybrid faith.
Sometimes social problems lead to the emergence of a new
religion, one that helps people cope with the new social issues
they face. Sometimes followers of an older religion argue with
each other and then separate, creating a new branch or,
occasionally, an entirely new religion. And sometimes
individuals have lifechanging insights, attract followers, and
create a new religion around themselves. We should recognize
that many of the major religions and denominations began in
similar ways—as new, small, and sometimes persecuted
religious movements. In this chapter, we will look at some of
the vital new religious movements that are currently small but
that might someday become venerable old religions, after
growing and changing for one or two thousand years. (The

7. vitality of these new religious movements is apparent from their
many Web sites.)
In the religions that we examined in previous chapters, we
sometimes saw the emergence of a religious variant that was
close enough to its origin to be considered a modern
interpretation of an older religion. As we learned, from Shinto
emerged the New Religions of Tenrikyo and Omoto; from
Christianity, Mormonism and Christian Science; and from
Buddhism, Soka Gakkai.
Page 473
Contemporary Issues
“CULTS,” “SECTS,” AND “NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS”
Because they are small and unfamiliar, new religious
movements are often looked at suspiciously. Critics may accuse
them of hurting society or endangering their followers. The
words sect and cult are sometimes applied to these movements.
The word sect (Latin: “to cut”) usually has no negative
meaning. But the word cult (Latin: “to cultivate”) brings to
mind a charismatic, overly powerful leader, docile followers,
and separation from society.
We might recall that early Christianity was once viewed as a
dangerous import into Roman society and that Buddhism was
once viewed as a dangerous import from India into China.
Because of the emotional overtones of some words that are used
to describe small and new religious groups, scholars now try to
use emotionally neutral terms. One of the most common is “new
religious movement,” often referred to by its abbreviation NRM.
There are, however, some movements that emerge from one
religion and take on such independent forms that they ultimately
constitute new, even if small, religions: Baha’i, which in the

8. nineteenth century grew out of Shiite Islam, is a good example.
And then there are other movements that emerge independently
of established religions and eventually are recognized as
distinct religions; Scientology is an example of such a religion.
Quite often, a new religious movement is syncretic—a blend of
religions. The Vietnamese religion of Cao Dai, for example,
blends Christianity with Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism.
Santeria and other related religions, prominent in the Caribbean,
mix Christianity with elements from West African religions. We
also see syncretism in religious movements that have grown out
of Shinto, Buddhism, and Hinduism.
In this chapter we will consider some of the most significant
new religious movements, along with a few older alternatives
that are generating new interest. We will begin with religious
movements that share features with indigenous religions
(Contemporary Paganism and the Yoruba-tradition religions)
and then proceed to religions that appear to have elements of
Indian spirituality (such as Theosophy and Scientology). Next,
we will take a look at religions that are close to traditional
Chinese religions (Falun Gong and Cao Dai) and then end with
religions that have some roots in Christianity and Islam
(Rastafarianism and Baha’i).CONTEMPORARY PAGANISM:
WICCA AND DRUIDISM
The past hundred years have seen both a great growth in world
population and a depletion of natural resources. As a result,
many people sense an urgent need to reestablish harmonious
relationships with the global environment. At the same time,
developments in genetics, anthropology, and psychology have
brought human beings to a clearer understanding of their
closeness to the animal world. Perhaps for these reasons, new
religious movements that reclaim ancient nature-based religions
or that promote new environmental sensitivity are attracting
many followers. Some of these followers are reacting against
the insensitivity to native cultures and values that some

9. mainstream religions exhibit. Others find the philosophies of
these old-yet-new religious movements to be more compatible
with their views on various social issues, including gender
equality and environmentalism.