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RELN 214

I. Course Title: Cults and Unconventional Religions (GE)

II. Course Number: RELN 214

III. Credit Hours: 3 credits

IV. Prerequisites: None

V. Course Description: 

Investigates unconventional religious groups, from colonial Quakers and Puritans to contemporary movements like the Church of Scientology, the Church of Satan, Aum Shinrikyo and the Order of the Solar Temple (among others). Lectures will survey mainline religious and cultural trends salient to the appearance of sects and cults. Students will evaluate social/scientific theories on topics such as brainwashing theory, cult-related violence, conversion and defection, and law enforcement approaches to unconventional religions.

Note(s): General Education and Humanistic or Artistic Expression designated course.

VI. Detailed Description of Content of the Course:

This course examines unconventional religious groups. Emphasis falls upon organizations founded in recent decades, the so-called "New Religions" (Scientology, ISKCON, the People's Temple, the Family); however, older sects and cults (e.g., Quakers, Shakers, Spiritualists) will be surveyed in lectures and researched in student projects. Social-scientific theories on the formation and survival of religious groups, charismatic leadership, conversion, religious disengagement, religion and mental health, religion and social protest, religion and violence, and secularization will be invoked to illuminate historical and contemporary data.

The course engages students in several specialized problems in religious studies. The first is a theoretical controversy in the study of unconventional religions: Are the social and psychic dynamics that generate and sustain unconventional religions essentially different from those underlying conventional or mainline religion? Are sects and cults aberrant by-products of social crises and/or mental pathology, or of processes that generally produce religion, or both?

Outline of topics:

  1. The problem of definition: how to conceptualize "deviance" in religion.
  2. The disestablishment of religion and the growth of religious pluralism.
  3. Models of sect/cult formation: crisis and pathology, socio-economic deprivation, entrepreneurialism. The effectiveness of religion as a means of social protest.
  4. Leadership and authority in unconventional religions.
  5. Joining and leaving unconventional religions and the personal antecedents and consequences of sect/cult membership.
  6. Unconventional religions and violence.
  7. Recent "cult controversy" (brainwashing accusations, deprogramming, the Satanism scare).
  8. Historical survey of unconventional religions.

VII. Detailed Description of Conduct of Course:

Among the learning activities students can expect, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Lecture and discussion led by the instructor
  • Small group discussion
  • Formal or informal debates
  • Individual and group oral presentations
  • Informal and formal writing assignments
  • Journals
  • Individual and collaborative research activities involving library and Internet searches
  • Written and oral analysis of cases and/or texts
  • Written summaries/evaluations of out-of-class events
  • Guest lecturers/presenters
  • Field trips and ethnography

VIII. Goals and Objectives of the Course:

  1. Critique the term cult as an adequate descriptor for unconventional religions.
  2. Evaluate brainwashing as an explanation for recruitment in unconventional religions.
  3. Examine social and political conditions that lead to the formation of unconventional religions.
  4. Analyze popular social perceptions of unconventional religious movements.
  5. Evaluate issues related to unconventional religious movements and violence.
  6. Describe the history of various unconventional religious groups.

IX. Assessment Measures:

A variety of assessment tools will be used.  These may include quizzes/exams, writing assignments, presentations, and research papers, among others.  

Review and Approval

DATE ACTION REVIEWED BY
February 15, 1996 New Course Approved by VPAA
January 27, 1997 Number Change Approved by VPAA
April 17, 1998 Reviewed Kim Kipling
September 25, 2001 Reviewed Kim Kipling

August 2020

March 01, 2021

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