Short Essay on Sects, Cults and Denominations.
Sects, cults and denominations, manifest dissent within the parent Religion. For example, within the universal Church there are numerous Protestant sects, denominations, and cults. Sometimes, due to changes in the society and religion’s becoming stable agent of society, groups of dissent arise and interrogate the dogmas, Ritual and practices of the parent Religion.
(1) Characteristics of Sects, Cults and Denominations:
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The sects originate due to the dissent among certain sections of clergy and the community of believers. They may feel that the parent Religion has failed to articulate adequately the teachings of the founder or the prophet. Urge for change, reconstruction and reinterpretation gives birth to sects.
(2) Sects versus Church:
Church and the sect have different kinds of relationship to the worlds.
(i) Churches accept the social order and lend credibility to its state. Sects are marked by a motivation to dissociate from the existing social order. Sects are in a sense, non-conformist bodies.
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(ii) Sect has voluntary membership, but membership to the Church is natural, i.e. by birth.
(iii) Sects are more autonomous than the Church.
(iv) The Church stabilizes the social order. Sects generally are connected with lower classes, or at least, with those elements who are opposed to state and society.
Sect is an idealistic community, and is small in size comparatively. Members seek direct personal fellowship. After a certain stage sects may themselves be institutionalized and become denominations. Thus, denominations are sects in an advanced stage of development. Cult is centered around an individual living or dead. The emphasis on personal fellowship is minimal. Followers of the cult, seek personal ecstatic experience, salvation and comfort.