The Transformative Impact of the Study of New Religions on the Sociology of Religion

Abstract

This paper evaluates the impact of the explosion of research on new religious movements in the 1970's and 80's in the sociology of religion. The encounter with NRMs has been highly provocative in terms of an impetus to comparative analysis; a heightening of theoretical and epistemological ferment; the identification of interfaces between the sociology of religion and other areas of sociology such as social movements, deviance, social psychology, and medical sociology; the reconsideration of the secularization thesis and sect-church theory; and the reevaluation of the role of the sociologist of religion in terms of issues of objectivity and partisanship. The present heightened controversiality of religion renders its scientific study more precarious.