New Religions

Definitions and Classifications

Perhaps the most important point to be made about new religions is that it is impossible to generalize about them. Possibly, the only characteristic that they have in common is that they have been referred to as a new religion, cult, or sect. They differ from each other in their beliefs, practices, lifestyles, organization, finances, leadership, and attitudes toward women and children and in the degree to which they are considered benign or harmful. All religions were of course new at some point, and all those religions that are now considered mainstream or traditional have historically undergone schismatic movements that kept some of their features while introducing others that were different—although those who initiated such movements might claim that they were simply returning to the religion's pure form. New religions have drawn not only from traditional religions but also from a variety of ideologies, philosophies, and psychologies. They include UFO cults, which claim to be in touch with aliens from other planets, and virtual religions that exist only on the Internet. Other movements that can be classified as new religions include Wicca, witchcraft, and the various pagan groups (and solitary practitioners) that have become popular, particularly in the United States and parts of northern Europe. Sometimes associated with such groups, but more often distinguishable from them, are the numerous New Age groups, ranging from spiritual communities such the 1960s founders of Findhorn in the north of Scotland and Esalen at Big Sur in California, to the production of sacred, spiritual, and/or magic objects (e.g., the crystals, angel cards, horoscopes, and runes on offer in specialist bookshops), to the hundreds of practices in which both the committed and the curious partake at places such as Glastonbury (southwest England), Turin (northern Italy), Sedona (Arizona), Santa Fe (New Mexico), or Ojai (California).

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