Sekten en nieuwe religieuze bewegingen in België

Abstract

In this paper, the authors study eight religious movements in Belgium, only one being originally Belgian: Antoinism. Baha'ism, Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses emerged in the last century; the Unification Church, Scientology, Rajneeshism and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness are new religious movements. These groups, with the exception of Jehovah's Witnesses, have had a very limited success in Belgium. The particular characteristics of the Belgian society have almost no impact on the recruitment or the social structure of these movements. The new religious movements and Baha'ism recruit especially among the junior managerial staff of the service sector {schools, hospitals, social work, etc.); the others among the working class and the clerical staff of the productive sector. The article analyses, among other things, the different social functions which these groups have for these different social categories of people.