Academic study of new religious movements information
Three basic questions have been paramount in orienting theory and research on NRMs [new religious movements]: what are the identifying markers of NRMs that distinguish them from other types of religious groups?; what are the different types of NRMs and how do these different types relate to the established institutional order of the host society?; and what are the most important ways that NRMs respond to the sociocultural dislocation that leads to their formation?
— Sociologist of religion David G. Bromley[1]
The academic study of new religious movements is known as new religions studies (NRS).[2]
The study draws from the disciplines of anthropology, psychiatry, history, psychology, sociology, religious studies, and theology.[3] Eileen Barker noted that there are five sources of information on new religious movements (NRMs): the information provided by such groups themselves, that provided by ex-members as well as the friends and relatives of members, organizations that collect information on NRMs, the mainstream media, and academics studying such phenomena.[4]
The study of new religions is unified by its topic of interest, rather than by its methodology, and is therefore interdisciplinary in nature.[5] A sizeable body of scholarly literature on new religions has been published, most of it produced by social scientists.[6] Among the disciplines that NRS uses are anthropology, history, psychology, religious studies, and sociology.[7] Of these approaches, sociology played a particularly prominent role in the development of the field,[7] resulting in it being initially confined largely to a narrow array of sociological questions.[8] This came to change in later scholarship, which began to apply theories and methods initially developed for examining more mainstream religions to the study of new ones.[8]
The majority of research has been directed toward those new religions which have attracted a greater deal of public controversy; less controversial NRMs have tended to be the subject of less scholarly research.[9] It has also been noted that scholars of new religions have often avoided researching certain movements which tend instead to be studied by scholars from other backgrounds; the feminist spirituality movement is usually examined by scholars of women's studies, African-American new religions by scholars of Africana studies, and Native American new religions by scholars of Native American studies.[10]
^Bromley 2012, p. 14.
^Bromley 2004, p. 83; Bromley 2012, p. 13.
^Sablia, John A. (2007). "Disciplinary Perspectives on New Religious Movements: Views of from the Humanities and Social Sciences". In David G. Bromley (ed.). Teaching New Religious Movements. Oxford University Press. pp. 41–63. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195177299.001.0001. ISBN 9780195177299. Retrieved March 17, 2014.
^Barker 1989, pp. vii–ix.
^Lewis 2004, p. 8; Melton 2004, p. 16.
^Bromley 2012, p. 13; Hammer & Rothstein 2012, p. 2.
^ abBromley 2012, p. 13.
^ abHammer & Rothstein 2012, p. 5.
^Melton 2004, p. 20.
^Lewis 2004, p. 8.
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