Sectarianism

Social Sources of Denominationalism

In his classic study of sectarianism in the United States, theologian H. Richard Niebuhr (1929) identified five factors that caused denominations to come into existence and remain separate from one another:

• 1.
  Emotional religious sects came into being to serve the special needs of the poor and disinherited, whereas staid, respectable denominations cultivated the middle class.
• 2.
  Different ethnic groups and immigrants from different nations tended to have their own denominations; for example, Norwegian Lutherans kept themselves distinct from German Lutherans.
• 3.
  Different regions of the country became dominated by different denominations, especially in the divides between North and South or old East and frontier West.
• 4.
  Racial divisions were important even within a single denominational tradition, often with separate black and white churches.
• 5.
  As differences of ethnicity and region moderated over time, denominations often did not merge with each other as we might expect, but increased their superficial differences in beliefs and practices, so they could justify their existence as independent organizations.

The first four of these points explain that religion will reflect the economic, social and cultural divisions that already exist in society. The fifth point, however, suggests that there may be other dynamic forces at work creating and sustaining religious divisions. Niebuhr was more interested in the processes that work against sectarianism, and he noted that successful sects tend to reduce the intensity of their religion over time, some of them evolving into moderate denominations. Later scholars looked more closely at the processes that bring new sects into being, and they developed a general model of sectarianism.

Niebuhr believed that disadvantaged members of society tend to prefer an intense, emotional style of religion that compensates them psychologically for their poverty and powerlessness. They believe so strongly because they need so badly. Such people are ready converts to a sect. Over time, they may become more prosperous, if, for example, the material austerity and demanding norms of the sect cause them to [Page 1216]lead vice-free lives and to work hard, or if the moral and material support of fellow believers helps them get through hard times. The children born into the sect will tend to be less deprived as adults than their parents were. Thus, the sect will come to contain more and more members who are not especially deprived, and it often happens that relatively well educated and prosperous members will come to dominate the group. As the membership and leadership change, they will be less comfortable with the emotionally intense heritage of the sect, and they may transform it into a middle-class denomination.

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