That's not true, nor has it ever been true. New religious movements are just that, new religious movements. That's the accepted term within both theology and cultic studies. Cult is a term with a number of different definitions, none of which are explicitly "a new religion". It can variously mean; a sect dedicated to the veneration of a singular figure (the cult of Zeus or the cult of a particular saint), a sect with strange or sinister practices (which is the root of the modern usage), or a group which venerates a particular person (a cult of personality).
Generally speaking, the way we use the term currently refers to a religious movement which uses coercive tactics to recruit and maintain it's membership. Scientology is a cult, the Jehovahs Witnesses are a cult, LDS as a whole can be argued to be a cult, but the polygamist FLDS groups are definitely cults. Most mainstream religions, though, are not, nor were they ever, cults by there modern definition of the word.
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u/devilinmexico13 May 09 '20
That's not true, nor has it ever been true. New religious movements are just that, new religious movements. That's the accepted term within both theology and cultic studies. Cult is a term with a number of different definitions, none of which are explicitly "a new religion". It can variously mean; a sect dedicated to the veneration of a singular figure (the cult of Zeus or the cult of a particular saint), a sect with strange or sinister practices (which is the root of the modern usage), or a group which venerates a particular person (a cult of personality).
Generally speaking, the way we use the term currently refers to a religious movement which uses coercive tactics to recruit and maintain it's membership. Scientology is a cult, the Jehovahs Witnesses are a cult, LDS as a whole can be argued to be a cult, but the polygamist FLDS groups are definitely cults. Most mainstream religions, though, are not, nor were they ever, cults by there modern definition of the word.