On the religious identification of new religious communities: instrumentation problem

Abstract

The study is dedicated to the issue of identification of local religious communities that have emerged in recent decades and that seem to be syncretistic. The main research question of the article is how to establish basic identification criteria that could become the basis for compiling a classification or typology. Two strategies for identifying communities are explored: one is based on using a number of external markers, another one relies on self-identification of the bearers of religious consciousness and their internal definitions. The first strategy was chosen as the key one due to being less subjective; the second one was utilized as a means of additional verification. As research objects that can be defined as belonging to the same series, two local communities have been selected that arose at the end of the last century on the territory of the outer Kama region and evolved from Orthodox communities to another type of associations. Methodologically the study is based on the materials resulting from the author’s field research (participant observation, expert interviews, semi-structured interviews with former community members and its current leaders, excerpts from the author’s personal correspondence with believers), data from journalistic investigations, statutory documents and websites of both organizations in different periods of time. The doctrinal part of the teachings of both groups and lived rituals practiced by them were chosen as primary objects for analysis. The research shows that both communities in question cannot be defined as belonging to the Christian tradition due to the specifics of the dogma, the use of some magical practices, and the presence of elements of secular culture. The specificity of the ideas and rituals of each of the groups demonstrates that classifications and broad definitions are not applicable to associations of their kind. It seems more appropriate not to place these groups into a class of religious associations of a new type (new religious movements), but to define them as new social groups positioned at the junction of religious and non-religious spheres of public life.