PART III From the Religion of the Crescent to the Religion of the Cross Transitions from Islam to Christianity in the 9th-10th Centuries According to Arabic Chronicles There is an opinion that Islam is considered an "irreversible" religion, but this is only partly true. Less common opinion about

Alexander Men' History of Religion. In search of the way, truth and life. Volume 1. Origins of Religion

Alexander Men' History of Religion. In search of the way, truth and life. Volume 1. The Origins of Religion You created us for Yourself and our heart is restless until we rest in You Augustine

Religions that arose relatively recently - in the 20th century, are called non-traditional, and in this sense they are not religious beliefs that are familiar to us, which have a long tradition in world culture. The phenomenon of non-traditional religions has not yet been sufficiently studied. On the one hand, non-traditional religions are seen as inhumane, anti-social, hostile, harmful and alien to human interests. On the other hand, representatives of non-traditional cults perceive their religion as the only way to save humanity.

Why do people today join new religions? Because faith facilitates and enlightens, faith is able to turn fear into calmness, and confusion into confidence. The reason that pushes young people in the first place into the arms of numerous modern cults is disappointment with the official values ​​of the consumer society, unemployment, poverty, social disorder, fear of tomorrow. All this is a socio-psychological factor in the search for a new system of values, a new “science of life”. In addition, the creators of new cults are sensitive to changes in public sentiment. They preach equality and brotherhood, promise their followers heaven on earth, eternal bliss, deliverance from diseases and other hardships. In the new religions, people are attracted by a clear organization, strict moral and behavioral rules of life, an atmosphere of solidarity and mutual assistance. New religions, in contrast to traditional ones, develop energetic propaganda activities. Each believer feels like a missionary. Members of the new communities are people who are thirsty for spiritual, religious activity.

How are new religions different from traditional religions? As a rule, they have the following common features.

2. Eclecticism of dogma and cult. The founders of new religions synthesize the original pagan religious ideas, Christianity, Eastern religions, occultism and scientific achievements.

3. The specificity of the social composition. In the new cults, the majority are middle-class youth, usually well educated.

4. Opposition to traditional religions. New religions are almost completely unrelated to existing religious beliefs. They ignore traditional churches.

5. Rigid regulation of religious life. Members of new communities often give up their own property and change their place of residence. A peculiar technique of mental manipulation and control over behavior is applied to them. New believers are often spiritually and physically isolated from society.

Non-traditional beliefs can be roughly grouped into eight areas:

1. Neo-Christian direction- "the newest version of Christianity." Their doctrine is a product of the individual creativity of the founders of the direction.

2. neo-orientalist direction- cults, which are Eastern religions, transplanted into the soil of the West. These groups are usually founded by various gurus, yogis, maharajas and other immigrant preachers. Common to the doctrine of these groups is the position that everything that exists is illusory, behind it is hidden a sincere divine nature, which is harmonious and fair. The task is to merge with this true nature using various methods of meditation. Among these religions in Russia, the most significant is the Society for Krishna Consciousness.

3. Synthetic direction, which is characterized by the unification, connection, fusion of elements of various traditional religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam). But this is not just eclecticism, but the creation of new own teachings, a system of ritual actions, a church organization, claiming the status of supra-religions. The classic version of synthetic religions can be considered the Organization of the Bahai Faith (Bahaism), the Great White Brotherhood, the Church of Unity (or Unification), etc.

4. Scientist direction. It includes the so-called "near-scientific cults". They are born in the depths of modernist passion for certain areas of theoretical knowledge. Speculating on certain achievements of science, on its capabilities, the newly-minted prophets create new beliefs, where scientific superstitions are elevated to the rank of "the last divine miracle."

5. Mystical health direction. Religious and healing elements are used in the teachings and actions of this direction.

6. neopagan direction. Its main goal is to rehabilitate the religions that existed in antiquity in certain territories. And since such ancient religions are called pagan, then this direction was called "neopaganism", that is, modern paganism.

7. Satanic Direction. It is characterized by semi-religious currents that glorify evil and violence, preach communication with the mystical sources of evil: demons and Satan. Satan is the main adversary of God and the enemy of the salvation of mankind. He did not want to obey God, and he expelled him from heaven. That's why the devil is supposed to work miracles and people need him.

8. totalitarian direction. It combines cults with an open destructive orientation of its activities. The most active and dangerous religion against which the public is fighting in many countries is Aum Shinrikyo. It was established in Japan in 1981. On May 16, 1995, 100 leaders of the organization were arrested on suspicion of organizing massacres. In court, their involvement in the production of chemical weapons and their use for terrorist purposes was established, and their guilt in carrying out a number of murders of the organization's novices, as well as its active opponents, was proved. The court of first instance decided to deprive the status of a religious organization, seize property and dissolve Aum Shinrikyo. However, the organization still exists. There are also a few semi-underground groups of Aum Shinrikyo followers in Russia. Officially, they are denied registration, although they strive to distance themselves from Japanese centers.

Introduction

In recent years, our society is going through one of the most dramatic periods in its history. In a crisis situation that has engulfed all areas of the economy, social relations, culture, many people see a way out in religious searches. Under these conditions, non-traditional religions from Western Europe and the USA begin to penetrate into Russia in large numbers. Penetrating into our country, non-traditional sects and cults create a new, hitherto unprecedented panorama of religious life. If earlier on the territory of the USSR, and then on the territory of Russia, there were several traditional religions (Orthodoxy, Islam, Lamaism and some others, including Protestant sects), and a person’s belonging to one of them was determined by the cultural and spiritual traditions of his habitat, then now a person is placed in a situation of religious pluralism, i.e., the choice of religion for confession. Under these conditions, the relevance of the theoretical consideration of the problem of the emergence and development of non-traditional movements also increases.

The object of the study undertaken in this work is religion in general. The subject of research is non-traditional movements.

The purpose of this work is to reveal the essence and specificity of the phenomenon of non-traditional religiosity, to find out its difference from traditional religiosity. The implementation of this goal in the work requires the solution of the following tasks:

consider the concept and causes of non-traditional movements;

try to give a classification of non-traditional movements;

identify signs of non-traditional movements;

consider some modern non-traditional religions.

The state of scientific development of the problem. World experience in the study of non-traditional religions was first accumulated by Anglo-American and West German religious scholars, who spoke about the "collapse of religion", about the emergence of "religions without a church." In the classic works of E. Benz, J. Needleman, T. Robbins and D. Anthony, R.S. Ellwood for the first time traced the amazing diversity of modern non-traditional religions, called the "religious kaleidoscope". The assessments of the role and significance of non-traditional religions among religious scholars in Western countries were often very different: some, like E. Toffler or D. Bell, saw the inevitability of their appearance, but treated them with restraint and even wariness; others like T. Rozzak, T. Leary and many others greeted them enthusiastically. P. Berger and T. Lukman regarded non-traditional religions as a natural result of the process of secularization and saw them as evidence of the democratization of the bourgeois system and its spiritual healing through the awakening of spiritual feelings and needs and the rejection of a materialistic worldview. Still others, mostly employees of confessional centers for combating "destructive cults", launched a broad propaganda offensive against new religious associations.

In domestic religious studies, the problem of non-traditional religions has been given much attention over the past decades, while the researchers relied on the general philosophical and methodological approaches to the study of religion, which were developed in the works of V.I. Garadzhi, M.P. Mchedlova, D.M. Ugrinovich, I.N. Yablokova, Yu.A. Kimeleva. It is usually assumed that interest in non-traditional religions in Russian science appeared a decade after the first serious studies of this phenomenon in the United States and Germany, which began in 1970 following the wide spread of new sects and cults in the Western world at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. In fact, domestic historians and orientalists turned their attention to the emergence of non-traditional religious associations a few years earlier, when they studied the massive spread of new sects in post-war Japan.

A much larger circle of domestic scientists took up the problems of non-traditional religions ten to fifteen years later. This was due to two main reasons. Firstly, at the end of the 1970s, religious-mystical and sectarian sentiments spread among the youth protest movement in Western countries, which before this circumstance had high hopes in terms of political struggle against the “power of capital”. E.G. wrote about this. Balagushkin, P.S. Gurevich, A.Yu. Melville, K. Myalo, L. Timoshin. Secondly, the interest in non-traditional religions was caused by the exact opposite circumstance: their expanding influence was regarded by communist ideologists (in tune with the voices of many Western sociologists and culturologists) as evidence of a deepening crisis in the Western capitalist system itself. I.Ya. wrote about this. Kanterov, B.Z. Nikiforova, D.E. Furman.

The novelty of this work is the analysis of approaches to the study of non-traditional religions.

Methods used in the work - analysis, deduction, generalization method.

The work consists of an introduction, two chapters and a conclusion. The first chapter discusses the concept of non-traditional movements, their causes, signs and classifications. The second chapter deals with two non-traditional modern movements - Moon's "Unification Church" and Vissarion's "One Faith Church".

1. The concept and causes of the emergence of non-traditional religions

World religions, along with national-state religions, cover the majority of the believing population of the globe with their influence. However, the process of formation of religious systems continues in our time. Religious scholars have established a certain relationship between the nature of a particular era and the religions emerging in this era. Each era, in accordance with its specific features, gives rise to its own varieties of religion. This idea is based on the classification of religions, created by the largest American sociologist R. Bella. According to R. Bell in the XX century. a new stage in the evolution of religion begins. This stage is characterized by the weakening of the influence and authority of traditional forms of religion and the emergence of a significant number of new religious movements, organizations, and cults.

Dmitry Rozet in his work "Definitions and signs of a cult" offers four approaches to the definition of a cult:

· Popular approach: This is the approach of journalists and politicians. Not being experts in this issue and pursuing populist goals, adherents of this approach act on the principle: "A cult is everything with whom I disagree."

· Psychological approach: At the heart of the psychological approach to the problem is the belief that cults forcefully change a person's thinking, and that any person, under certain conditions, can become a victim of such influence.

Most often, within the framework of the psychological approach, two terms are used: a destructive cult and a totalitarian sect.

A totalitarian sect is a group with strict authoritarian control, deliberately separating a person from society and limiting his freedom of choice and independence of thought.

A destructive cult is a group whose teachings and actions harm the physical or mental health of a person, negatively affect his social, family and personal life.

· Sociological approach: a cult in this typology is also a young energetic group, but unlike a sect, it does not have historical ties with any of the churches that previously existed in this society. A cult is a religious innovation, either imported from some other culture or self-developed within that culture.

· The theological approach to the definition of worship is based on the concept of Christian orthodoxy or historical Christianity.

Dr. Michael Langone defines a cult as a group that displays excessive attachment to a person, idea, or thing; uses a mind-altering program to persuade, control, and socialize its members (i.e., bring them into the circle of the group's intrinsic relationships, beliefs, values, and customs); systematically generates in the members a state of psychological dependence; exploits members in order to achieve the goals set by management; harms members, their families and society.

Researcher L.N. Mitrokhin suggested calling the religious denominations that arose in our century the religions of the "New Age". Sometimes they are called "non-denominational non-canonical beliefs", "alternative cults", "youth religions". In a broad sense, non-traditional religions mean "all religious movements that have arisen in modern times, from about the middle of the 19th century" (R. Flachet). M.Yu. Smirnov speaks of non-traditional movements as religions that do not have a long existence in the historical past of any people and are professed by limited groups of the population in the main territory of residence of this people. In his work “Religious tolerance in the light of traditional and non-traditional religions”, he writes: “The concept of non-traditional religion does not have an unambiguous application. Outside of scientific discourse, it is most often used in a derogatory sense, as an indication of the dangerous presence of alien religious influences or quasi-religions, undermining the traditional spiritual foundations of society. The normativity of this sound gives a negative meaning to all the characteristics of non-traditional religion. Any manifestation of non-traditional religion is seen as hostile to "true religious faith".

According to Professor Eileen Barker, a non-traditional movement is "a religious, ethnic or spiritual group that has not received (or has not yet received) public recognition as a denomination or church - especially if it has a non-traditional creed and is not a sect."

Non-traditional religions have been spreading in the USA and Europe since the late 1950s, and in the CIS countries since the late 1980s. Many researchers see the reasons for the emergence of non-traditional religions in the crisis of post-industrial culture (materialistic in nature): large-scale value transformations after the Second World War; secularization gives a backlash in the form of mass sacralization when traditional religiosity is replaced by a quasi-religious consciousness; aggravated sense of tragedy from the futility of resolving growing problems (environmental crisis, political extremism, nuclear threat, etc.); the phenomenon of social robinsonade of the individual: the growth of a person's feeling of loneliness, alienation, impotence. V. Frankl generalized these reasons as an existential vacuum, i.e., the loss of meaning-forming values ​​of life by people, the loss of the moral and social orientation of the individual. According to Toffler's concept, the mass emergence of new religions, sects and cults is a consequence of the largest civilizational shift, which means the entry of Western countries into the post-industrial phase of social development.

So, the term non-traditional movements encompasses a wide range of movements, from those based on new approaches to religion and spirituality and granting free membership to their followers, to community organizations that require their followers to be significantly in line with other members of the group and social identity. what separates them from the rest of society.

The reason for the emergence of non-traditional religions is considered to be the existential vacuum in which many Western societies found themselves in the 1940s-1950s, their spiritual crisis and their loss of high standards of valuable life meanings, the loss of the moral and social orientation of the individual. Their origins lie in the decline of an inherently materialistic post-industrial culture - large-scale transformations of values ​​after the Second World War; back reaction to secularization in the form of mass sacralization of non-sacred objects and replacement of traditional religiosity by quasi-religious consciousness; exacerbation of the feeling of tragedy from the growth of global threats (environmental and other challenges, political extremism, nuclear danger, etc.); the growth of feelings of loneliness, alienation and powerlessness of a person in the face of a wave of problems that have fallen upon him.

1.1 Classification of non-traditional religions

The classification of non-traditional movements is one of the most difficult topics. Let us touch upon various approaches to this apparently insoluble problem. Unfortunately, none of them can be called either completely exhaustive or completely adequate.

Specialists in religious studies from the whole variety of cults conventionally distinguish five varieties of non-traditional religions.

Neo-Christian associations. These include the following religious sects common in the CIS: "International Church of Unification", "Children of God", "Church of the Body of Christ", "Our Lady Brotherhood", "White Brotherhood", etc. They are characterized by the desire to combine Christian doctrines with elements of Eastern religions.

Scientology branch. The name comes from the English word sience - science. The direction unites various "cosmic religions" (a typical representative is Ron Hubbard's "Church of Scientology"), which scientifically and mystically interpret various unexplored phenomena of the human psyche and the surrounding nature, for example, the connection of the Earth and higher cosmic forces, contacts with unidentified flying objects.

neo-orientalist cults. These include the Society for Krishna Consciousness, the Pacific Zen Buddhist Center, the Divine Light Mission, Maharai Ji, and others. These are creeds of Eastern origin, representing the Western incarnation of Hindu and Buddhist cultures. Their characteristic feature is an anti-rationalist orientation, as well as ways of psychophysical influence on a person.

Satanic groups. Among them are the "Church of Satan", the cults of the devil and other varieties of sinister associations. They exalt the meaning of evil and violence, preach communication with the mystical sources of evil - demons, Satan. Their activity is distinguished by the special cruelty and mystery of the rituals of initiation and worship.

Religious and mystical cults. It's about about the spread of occult teachings, new magic, spiritualism, astrology, witchcraft, healing and other phenomena. As noted by sociologists, in recent years in Russia, such organizations have been confidently leading and gaining quite wide popularity among the population.

Non-traditional religions are formed as a variety of charismatic cults. A generalized description of the main features of new religious denominations gives L. N. Mitrokhin in his work "Religious Cults in the USA", M., 1984.

At the head is a charismatic leader who claims to have a unique new "revelation" regarding God and reality.

2.The leader creates a special "family" or commune in which he is called "father".

3.The leader sets absolute rules of behavior binding on everyone, but does not necessarily follow them himself.

.The group adheres to a catastrophic-apocalyptic view of the world. Members of the organization often give up all property, change their place of residence.

.A certain technique is used to control the behavior of converts, usually involving isolation from the outside world.

.The cult in these new organizations is preferably collective, using the "technique" of psychological manipulation, psychotherapy, special attention is paid to new converts, their adaptation to the group.

Dvorkin A.L. In the work “Sectology. Totalitarian sects" writes that all new religious movements are divided into "Christian" (for example, the Church of Christ, "Bessarionists", Mormons, "Family", Moonies, etc.), "Eastern" (for example, Hare Krishnas, "Aum Shinrikyo”, “Transcendental Meditation”, “Ananda Marga”, etc.), “psychological-therapeutic” (for example, Scientology, “Life Spring”, “ECT”, etc.) and the “New Age” (“New Era” movement) ). The weakness of this classification is that only very few sects fit into one of these categories. For example, such a commonly referred to Christian a sect, like the Mormons, is actually basically a gnostic-pagan system, and another sect from the same group - munism - is a purely oriental mixture of shamanism, Shintoism, Confucianism and spiritualism framed by several Christian terms.

Margaret Theler Singer suggests the following classification:

1.Neo-Christian religious groups

2.Hindu and Eastern religious groups

.Occult, witchcraft and satanic groups

.Spiritist groups

.Zen and other groups with a Chinese-Japanese philosophical-mystical orientation

.Racial groups

.Groups around UFOs and other extraterrestrial phenomena

.Psychological or psychotherapeutic groups

.Political groups

10. Systems of self-improvement, self-realization or self-development

Classification of non-traditional religions according to Ronald Enroth:

1.Eastern mystic groups

2.Pseudo-Christian groups

.Spiritual-psychological groups and self-improvement groups

.Eclectic and syncretic groups

.Parapsychological, occult and astral groups

Classification according to Michael Langone:

1.Eastern meditation

2.Movements based on the Bible and Christianity

.Occultism, Satanism, witchcraft, black magic

.Political terrorism

.Psychotherapy / self-realization

.Drug addiction recovery groups

E.G. Balagushkin takes as the basis for the typology of non-traditional religions their attitude to social reality, according to which all religions can be defined as belonging to one of the following types: renovationist, oppositional, alternative and adapted.

B. Falikov points out that there are four types of non-traditional religions. The researcher refers to them religious associations imported from other cultural areas; non-traditional religions resulting from tradition; movements based on the occult tradition; syncretic non-traditional religions.

O.A. Bogdanov's classification of non-traditional religions is based on their relationship to traditional Christianity, based on this, the researcher identifies pseudo-Christian, non-Christian and anti-Christian religions.

So, the complexity of any classification is that, in essence, all modern totalitarian sects are branches of a single occult tree. With their fluidity and eclecticism, it is in principle impossible to create an unambiguous classification.

1.2 Signs of non-traditional religions

Each non-traditional religion claims the universality and exclusivity of its teachings. Each of the leaders proves that his religion is the most just and best, and he himself is a living earthly god or a prophet of the Most High, whom believers should respect. It is the cult of the earthly god that is one of the characteristic features of non-traditional religions.

The main features of non-traditional religions according to N. Porublev:

The religious community is led by a charismatic leader who believes that he seems to have received a new unique “announcement” from a supernatural power, God, and is called to play the role of a new messiah. Everyone who does not share his views is deeply mistaken and is a follower of Satan.

The leader creates his own religious community, which he calls a family, commune, mission, colony or center. In this religious community, the leader is called the father or teacher. He has unlimited power.

The leader, as the main head of the religious community, establishes binding rules and norms for the behavior of members of the community, which are proclaimed sacred. The leader himself does not have to adhere to established rules and lives in much better conditions than his followers.

The religious community adheres, as a rule, to apocalyptic views of the world. Its members give up their own property in favor of a religious group, change their place of residence, and their own names.

5.Members of a religious community are basically isolated from the outside world with the help of all sorts of techniques to control the behavior of believers. This is achieved by the most intense program of various group events that are held throughout the day. Participation in these events is considered by believers and their mentors as an example of high religious discipline. In the scientific literature, this has become known as brainwashing.

Domestic sectarian A.L. Dvorkin in his work “Sect Studies” writes: “Organizations of the personnel type have many characteristic features: a single language (sectarian jargon), separation from the entire outside world, a black and white perception of the world, a change in the value system, when only intragroup values.

Eryshev A.A. identifies three types of specific features of non-traditional religions: the first type - organizational features, the second - personnel, the third - doctrinal.

Organizational ones include: worship of a living deity (deification of the leader); the most severe centralization of management and severe discipline; active missionary work; active material donation or complete renunciation of property by the believer in favor of his community (i.e., in favor of the leader).

Personnel features of non-traditional religion: a general focus on a rapid and radical change in the consciousness of a convert; aggressive methods of attracting and retaining their supporters, based on the psychological processing of the individual; the requirement of unconditional acceptance of the dogma and the fulfillment of cult prescriptions; complete destruction of the social ties of the individual and inclusion only in the structure of a group of co-religionists; unification of the believer's personality to the type of "fanatic" or "zombie".

Doctrine features: the absence of a dogmatic and ritual tradition (doctrine and cult are in the process of formation, clarification); pronounced anti-Christianity and neo-paganism (up to idolatry); synthesis and eclecticism of dogma, in which one can find Christian, Eastern, theosophical, and scientific concepts, symbols and motifs; such compilability of dogma allows him to claim the possession of absolute truth as a result of the "universal synthesis" of the spiritual tradition of mankind; the doctrine and ritual are of a pronounced mystical nature, rooted in a system of esoteric ideas and attitudes.

The peculiarities of non-traditional religions include methods of recruiting supporters, methods of processing a neophyte: “bombing with love” (you are the center of attention, admiration, love); information comfort (you get answers to all questions); isolation (communication only with fellow believers); strict regimen (restriction of sleep and food, exhausting spiritual practices, hard physical labor). These methods are inherent, first of all, in totalitarian (destructive) sects, which put under complete control the consciousness and behavior of the adept, destroying his personality.

So, new religious movements can resemble classical ones: as a rule, they develop their own creed on the basis of a text recognized as sacred, there is a certain system of worship and ritual practice (most often simplified), religious buildings are created (kingdom halls, prayer houses), etc. A system of values ​​and rules of conduct that are obligatory for followers are certainly formed.

Unconventionality is manifested in the specifics of their teachings, ideas, moral attitudes, as well as in the lack of connection with the cultural and spiritual life of a particular society. Another sign of non-traditional religions is that they oppose traditional beliefs. Missionaries who have arrived from abroad declare that confessions with a long history cannot satisfy the spiritual needs of a person. Some new religions completely reject the old ones sacred texts, while others offer their new interpretation. In extreme forms, non-traditional movements can completely reject universal humanistic values ​​and moral requirements.

2. Non-traditional modern movements

.1 "Unification Church" Moon

The Unification Church is also known as the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. The organization was born in 1954 in South Korea by Reverend Sun Myung Moon. He claims that Christ appeared to him at the age of sixteen, calling him to service. Moon was imprisoned three times on various charges. He himself believes that he was persecuted for his faith, but in reality he was punished for sexual perversion and bigamy. Since 1972, Moon has been living in the USA, where he managed to develop missionary and commercial activities widely. The Moonies' headquarters is in New York.

Human history, according to Moon, is divided into three eras: the age of the Old Testament, the age of the New Testament, the age of the Completed Testament. The truth for the first and second ages is found in the Bible. However, by the twentieth century. The Bible is already outdated and has ceased to be the way to salvation. Therefore, Moon declared himself the messiah of the third age - the era of the Completed Testament, which is set out in his own books.

Moon's teaching is a contradictory and very different version of Christianity, combined with provisions borrowed from Eastern religions.

The "Unification Church" functions as a "family" throughout the world. Moon declared himself and his wife to be the true parents of all people. "Your physical parents are just tools to create you," he says. At the same time, Moonies entering a new "family" are required to leave their real families. Moon teaches that it is the people who make up the church that care for one another. Church members donate money and property to the religious community. Every follower seeks to gain the "new birth" and take an active part in building the kingdom of God. Moon calls for the creation of a worldwide "true state" by uniting all mankind under his leadership.

Life in Moonite communities consists of endless seminars, chants, exhausting free labor. The daily routine is strictly controlled: adherents are required to attend classes, work, participate in sports games or dances at the allotted time, while sleep time is limited. Rigid discipline is complemented by a system of total control over each other.

According to the teachings of the Unification Church, a person can achieve life harmony only in the right marriage. Therefore, Moon is personally involved in the formation of married couples from among potential brides and grooms. On the basis of photographs and questionnaires, future families are formed, and the marriage procedure takes place simultaneously for many newlyweds.

Moon's followers give up their land and property in favor of the sect, they are obliged to engage in active missionary work, work for free for the good of the church, collect donations and unquestioningly obey their mentors. Through the use of the free labor of believers, Moon generates multibillion-dollar incomes, and his church has grown into a giant corporation, including hundreds of businesses around the world.

Thanks to active preaching, the Moonies have created their communities in 160 countries, including Kazakhstan. To recruit adherents, they created a number of organizations with plausible names, including the World Association of Families for World Peace, the Federation of Students for World Peace, the Women's Federation for World Peace, the International Interreligious Federation for Peace all over the world”, etc. Such organizations are actively working with various categories of the population, including students and schoolchildren, and hold conferences.

Meanwhile, in many countries, Moon and his followers are accused of breaking the law. In the US, Moon was accused of tax evasion. He is banned from entering the UK and Germany. Trials in cases related to the activities of the Moonies took place in dozens of states.

2.2 "Church of the One Faith" of Vissarion.

unconventional movement church mun

Other names: "Church of the Last Testament", "Community of One Faith".

This is a pseudo-Christian totalitarian cult led by the "new messiah" - Vissarion.

The founder, head of the Church of the Last Testament and its highest clergyman - Sergei Anatolyevich Torop, born in 1961, former police officer in Minusinsk Krasnoyarsk Territory, better known under the cult name Vissarion. S. Torop claims that in January 1991 he was baptized by the heavenly Father, receiving a new name - Vissarion, and a "blessing" to create a single unifying faith, which is the embodiment of all existing religions.

Approximately in August 1991. he organized a sect. Believing in his teachings, several thousand people sold their apartments in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities, transferred significant amounts to the organization's cash desk and moved to the Krasnoyarsk Territory. In June 1994 they united into the "Community of One Faith", and in 1995 they re-registered as the "Church of the Last Testament".

In the second half of 1994, an initiative group of followers of Vissarion came up with a proposal to create an "experimental ecological settlement" in the Kuraginsky district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. To build the settlement, the district administration allocated 250 hectares of land from the forest fund. The settlement currently being designed is designed for 120 families.

According to the sectarians, in their community adhere, on the basis of "ethical and ideological principles", strict vegetarianism, and the diet consists exclusively of plant products. In reality, an "aggressive" diet is practiced, in which pregnant women and children are deprived of the necessary nutrients, and breastfeeding mothers are even forbidden to breastfeed their children. According to the testimony of doctors, there are several cases of exhaustion of the fanatical followers of Vissarion. Childbirth is practiced in water (in an ordinary barrel), it is not allowed to vaccinate children, resort to medicines in case of illness. The founder of the sect, S. Torop, confirmed the facts of suicides among his followers, which, however, from his point of view, is a completely acceptable way to die. According to experts, due to the failure of Vissarion's project to build a city of the elect and the impossibility of returning sect members to their former places of residence, mass suicides of cult followers may occur. The prerequisites for such a denouement are also created by some of Bessarion's "commandments" ("do not condemn the departing"), which justify suicide.

One of the most important activities in the cult is the publication and distribution of video and audio cassettes with Vissarion's sermons, cult literature, through which new adherents are converted.

According to the leadership of the "church", it has about 50 thousand followers in 83 settlements of the Russian Federation and abroad. The real number of adherents is about 10 thousand people, half of whom live in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, and the other is engaged in proselytizing in many cities of Russia.

Vissarion compiled his "Last Testament" with humanity in order to accomplish the "Great Sacred Reunion" of all existing religions. In reality, the teachings of Vissarion are a mixture of cosmology, Christianity and yoga. He gives Christianity a central role, while actually perverting it.

Vissarion puts forward five basic postulates. The Creator of the Universe (Absolute) is material, there is neither good nor evil in him. The Creator of the human soul - the Heavenly Father - the creator of goodness, the source of the Spirit of Life, which, having merged with the energy of the Heart of Mother Earth, gave birth to the Son of God. There is both hell and heaven. The doctrine of the transmigration of the soul is taken from Hinduism. Souls that have fulfilled their destiny, developed spiritually, are in paradise. Those incapable of spiritual growth end up in hell. A person incarnates on earth up to ten times and each time receives an opportunity for spiritual growth. There is a virus of evil that lives only on Earth and only among people. He is the devil. The devil was born by people, more precisely, by their sinful thoughts. A person's thought is material, it does not disappear anywhere, and evil thoughts gave rise to evil spirits.

So, I believe that the mass of ordinary believers fell victim not so much to Vissarion, Munn and others, but to the entire dramatic turning point in the country. Not wanting to quietly die out one by one, people challenged society.

Conclusion

Non-traditional religions, which have become the most noticeable phenomenon in the public life of Russia since the last decade of the 20th century, are a controversial cultural and historical phenomenon, various forms of manifestation of which can be found throughout history, especially during periods of deep and acute changes in public life. The modern surge of interest in them is largely caused by the entire course of development of modern civilization, since in their doctrines non-traditional religions in a mystified form reflect the most urgent, acute problems caused by the scientific and technological revolution, its consequences and costs.

The current stage in the understanding of non-traditional religions as a cultural and historical social phenomenon is characterized, first of all, by the development and accumulation of initial historical material and the creation of hypotheses of an integral systemic concept. A significant step has been taken in creating a typology of non-traditional religions, and certain results have been achieved in identifying the causes of its emergence, spread and reproduction.

The spread of non-traditional religions is largely the result of sharp and profound sociocultural changes in the late 1980s and early 1990s. As a result of "perestroika", in a very short period of time, Russia, a great world power, moved from one historical period to another. These socio-cultural changes gave rise to a feeling of pessimism, the futility of life, the psychological feeling of the fragility of the world around us, the impossibility of achieving harmony in society, of implementing humanistic ideals in it. The crisis of humanism, destructive for the existence of man and culture, has become common for a certain part of the population.

In the conditions of the Russian crisis, which relentlessly accompanies our society throughout the transition period, it is difficult to raise the issue of civil religion in the way that is typical for highly developed countries of the world, where positive experience has been accumulated over many decades in establishing a socio-political consensus with new religions and their assimilation with the dominant cultural and historical tradition.

So, the ideal religious situation in the country, which it is advisable for Russian society to strive for in its development, is determined by the unity of three components: secular state(guaranteeing freedom of conscience to its citizens), religious pluralismAnd civil religion,aimed at a positive, interested and active-creative attitude towards social reality. These three conditions will be the key to religious tolerance between people, will contribute to overcoming the split of society according to religious beliefs and its internal unity due to orientation towards democratic, humanistic and patriotic priorities.

Bibliography

1.Balagushkin E.G. Non-traditional religions in the capitalist countries of the West and their influence on youth. M., 1980.

2.Balagushkin E.G. Non-traditional religions in modern Russia. - M., 1999.

.Kuznetsova T.N. Moonism: the creed, religious practice and way of life of the followers of Sun Myung Moon. M., 1999.

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.Yablokov H.H. Fundamentals of theoretical religious studies. M., 1994.

.Dvorkin A.L. Sectology. totalitarian sects. N.-Novgorod. 2003.

8.Porublev N. Cults and world religions. M., 1994.

9.Walter Martin. Kingdom of cults. SPb. 1992.

10.Eryshev A. A. Religious Studies: Proc. allowance. - 3rd ed., stereotype. - K.: MAUP, 2003. - 280 p.

11.Rosette D. Definitions and signs of a cult http://www.apologetika.ru/win/index.php3?razd=1&id1=41

Works similar to Modern non-traditional movements in religion

Topic 12. Non-traditional religions

1. The concept, characteristics and varieties of non-traditional religions

2. Neo-Christian associations: Moon's "Unification Church" and Vissarion's "One Faith Church"

3. Faith, cult and organization of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness

1. The concept, characteristics and varieties of non-traditional religions

World religions, along with national-state religions, cover the majority of the believing population of the globe with their influence. However, the process of formation of religious systems continues in our time. Religious scholars have established a certain relationship between the nature of a particular era and the religions emerging in this era. Each era, in accordance with its specific features, gives rise to its own varieties of religion. This idea is the basis of the classification of religions, created by the largest American sociologist R. Bella (see Table 1). According to R. Bell in the XX century. a new stage in the evolution of religion begins. This stage is characterized by the weakening of the influence and authority of traditional forms of religion and the emergence of a significant number of new religious movements, organizations, cults, which in our domestic literature are often called non-traditional religions.

It should be noted that this term is somewhat vague, since all of these so-called "non-traditional religions" have the characteristic features of traditional religions. Their unconventionality is manifested not in some specificity, extravagance, but in the fact that they arose relatively recently, in modern times, and in this sense are not religious denominations familiar to us, having a long tradition in European or North American culture Researcher of this problem L N. Mitrokhin suggested calling the religious denominations that emerged in our century the religions of the "New Age". Sometimes they are called "non-denominational non-canonical beliefs", "alternative cults", "youth religions". Consider their characteristic features and varieties.

Non-traditional religions are formed as a variety charismatic cults. A generalized description of the main features of the new religious denominations is given by L. N. Mitrokhin in my work "Religious Cults in the USA", M., 1984.

1. Led by a charismatic leader who claims to have a unique new "revelation" regarding God and reality. 2. The leader creates a special "family" or commune in which he is called "father". 3. The leader establishes absolute rules of behavior that are mandatory for everyone, but does not necessarily follow them himself. 4. The group adheres to a catastrophic-apocalyptic view of the world. Members of the organization often give up all property, change their place of residence. 5. A certain technique is used to control the behavior of converts, usually involving isolation from the outside world. 6. The cult in these new organizations is preferably collective, using the "technique" of psychological manipulation, psychotherapy, special attention is paid to new converts, their adaptation to the group.

Researchers of non-traditional religions distinguish the following varieties:

1. Neo-Christian associations- “Unification Church”, “Children of God”, “Church of the Body of Christ”, etc. These denominations are characterized by the desire to combine Christian doctrine with elements of Eastern religions, scientific phraseology in the presentation of the doctrine, pronounced motives for the imminent end of the world and messianism, endowing the leader with the status the messenger of God, the "living God", informing people of a new revelation and the highest moral prescriptions.

2. Scientology(from English science - science) or scientific directions. The classic representative is R. L. Hubbard's "Church of Scientology". In these directions, various unexplored phenomena of nature and the human psyche receive a mystical interpretation.

3. Neo-orientalist cults:"Society for Krishna Consciousness", "Pacific Knot - Buddhist Center", "Mission of Divine Light", "Maha Rai Ji", etc. common feature of all these neo-orientalist (eastern) cults is an aggressive anti-intellectualist orientation, as well as methods of psychophysical influence on a person. They are called neo-Orientalist because they are borrowed from the East: they are Western editions of Hindu and Buddhist teachings.

4. Satanic groups- "Church of Satan" - proclaim themselves the conscious bearers of evil and the antipode of Christianity.

The division of non-traditional religions into these four groups is somewhat arbitrary, since there are no strict boundaries between them in terms of the content of creeds and cult activities. Neo-Christian denominations use many elements of Eastern teachings and cult practices; scientific phraseology is widely used to substantiate the doctrine. In turn, Orientalist cults are trying to find support in the Christian consciousness, to use Christian images and concepts familiar to Europeans and Americans.

NON-TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS

NON-TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS

Philosophy: Encyclopedic Dictionary. - M.: Gardariki. Edited by A.A. Ivina. 2004 .

NON-TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS

NON-TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS (“religions of the New Age”, religious “cults”, “new religions”, “totalitarian sects”) - general and sufficient symbol modern religious associations that oppose the official and dominant religions. Divisions and divisions within “traditional” churches are a characteristic feature of the development of religion, ultimately determined by the historically specific social situation in which these churches existed (for example, “schisms”, “heresies” and sects that constantly arose within Christianity). However, new religions today differ significantly from the forms of former religious dissidence (see Dissidents).

Non-traditional religious is a complex historical and cultural, in its own way reproducing the crisis of the foundations of modern civilization, growing during the 20th century: wars of extermination, aggravation of global problems, the collapse of liberal-progressive concepts, the rejection of Eurocentrism, the growth of anti-scientist and mystical doctrines, aggravated to mythology and esoteric knowledge. In a word, non-traditional religions are of the same mindset that was found in various irrational and anthropological philosophies, starting from con. 19th century (philosophy of life, personalism), as well as in literature and art (F. Kafka, "the theater of the absurd", etc.). Fixing radical shifts in religious consciousness, they also testify to the inability of the existing system of church organizations to satisfy the changed spiritual needs of believers (search for ways of personal identification and moral absolutes, solving the problem of the meaning of life and the purpose of the human race, etc.) in the “godless world” ( Heidegger), when in the minds of many the familiar and merciful “God is dead”. These phenomena cause deep concern in theological circles, an example of which is the emergence of dialectical theology in Protestantism, which turned to many ideas of existentialism, and the course towards renewal (“agiornamento”) of official Catholicism, which is increasingly assimilating anthropological and personalist doctrines. The emergence of non-traditional religions reflects the same reaction, but not of theologians, but of a spontaneously formed mass religious consciousness, striving to find its institutional forms. The marginalization of church consciousness, the growing number of bizarre syncretic religious forms is facilitated by the desire of the West (primarily the United States) to spread its own spiritual, including religious, values ​​as global ones. Naturally, depending on the specifics of cultural traditions and the socio-political situation, religious new formations take on various, often polar forms.

Among dissident formations in religious studies, it is customary to distinguish between sectarianism, attributing the appearance of the latter to con. 16th century .. And, and sects arose within the dominant churches, going to break with them because of disagreement with the orthodox interpretation of the same sacred books. New religions, as a rule, arise independently, in parallel, rejecting the traditional churches as a whole. This is most clearly seen in the opposition of the own views of the founders of new religions to the Holy Scriptures. Here, however, it is difficult to draw a clear temporal dividing line. So, already in the theosophy of H. P. Blavatsky, in the teachings and activities of the Mormons, partly of the Jehovah's Witnesses, and others, the characteristic features of modern non-traditional religions appeared, making it possible to consider them as new religious associations that most adequately represent the religious con. 20th century Thus, the concept of "non-traditional religions" becomes extremely broad; it includes numerous versions of neo-orientalism, neo-paganism, theosophy, anthroposophy, cosmism, various healing cults, etc. Hence the illegitimacy of attributing the same characteristics to all new religions, identifying, for example, the followers of Ananda Marga and Satanists practicing inhuman rituals, with respectable Bahá'ís and harmless flying saucers. If church-dogmatic critics of non-traditional religions, defending their own “prayer space”, denounce them as a malicious “deviation” from the true faith, then for a serious religious scholar they represent obvious or transformed forms of a new type of religiosity, which has deep socio-ontological roots, and therefore historically natural.

Public to non-traditional religions arose after the self-liquidation of the "People's Temple" by D. Jones in 1978, when 914 Americans died. Since this tragedy became possible only because Jones managed to achieve his own veneration (cult) as a “living god”, organizations of this type received the accusatory name “cults”, which was established in American literature. At the same time, it turned out that since the 1960s. about 2 thousand unusual religious and quasi-religious

religious formations that have completely broken with the traditional churches. They also began to be called “cults” in the press, although most of them were amorphous and unstable groups of worshipers of spiritualism, parapsychology, telekinesis, flying saucers and various “health organizations”, which are more accurately referred to by a broader term, namely, “religions of the New Age”, or non-traditional religions.

The atmosphere typical for those years of American youth searching for alternative ways of social development and personal self-realization created a fertile ground for the activities of "heavenly messengers" pursuing purely material, selfish goals. The most famous, often scandalous, was the "Unification Church" by Sung Moon,

The problem of classifying non-traditional religions still causes sharp disagreement among specialists. First of all, it seems appropriate to single out “cults” (despite the disputability of the name itself) into a special group, since their specificity constantly gives rise to conflict situations.

In the 1970-80s. religious "cults" spread beyond North America especially in European countries. In the US, "cults" that often violated the law immediately faced active opposition from the authorities, traditional churches, and parents who actually lost their children. As a result, some organizations have lost their aggressiveness, others have transformed into spiritual transnational corporations that have branches around the world and conduct profitable financial activities. In this regard, the founder of the Unification Church, Sung Moon, was the most successful, owning multi-million dollar real estate, hotels, periodicals, weapons factories, ships, etc. The Church of Scientology was no less commercial. Over the past decades, the movement of non-traditional religions in the West has been mothballed, many "cults" have disintegrated or exist in the form of closed colonies and groups.

In the activities of the Russian new religions, the sincere spiritual searches of the young generation, caused by the painful state of society, are closely intertwined with the cynically prudent activities of individual “saviors” and “messiahs”, who either pursue purely mercantile goals, or seek to “satisfy their power and political ambitions. non-traditional religions (in our country they usually appear under the scientifically unacceptable names “totalitarian sects”, “destructive cults”) are met with sharp opposition from traditional religions, primarily Russian Orthodox Church. Due to the complexity of ι; and the dynamism of the described processes, the problems associated with non-traditional religions remain one of the most undeveloped in modern religious studies.

Lit .: Mitrokhin L. I. Religions of the “New Age”. M., 1985: He is. Religious "cults" in the USA. M., 1984; Balagushkin E. G. Criticism of modern non-traditional religions. M., 1984; He is. Non-traditional religions in modern Russia. M., 1999; "Non-traditional religions" in post-communist Russia (round table). - "VF", 1996, No. 12; BarkerA. New religious movements. SPb., 1998.

L. N. Mitrokhin

New Philosophical Encyclopedia: In 4 vols. M.: Thought. Edited by V. S. Stepin. 2001 .

See what "NON-TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS" is in other dictionaries:

NON-TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS- - religious movements and organizations created by them that have gone beyond the traditional national and world religions, but using their ideas, symbols and rituals. Appeared in the 60s - 70s of the 20th century. in the USA and Western Europe as a result of massive ... ... Eurasian wisdom from A to Z. Explanatory dictionary

Non-traditional religions and cults in Russia- ("new religious movements") In the 50-80s. 20th century in a number of Asian countries (Japan, India, South Korea, etc.), as well as in the USA, Western European countries (France, Germany, England, etc.), a lot of ... Religions of the peoples of modern Russia

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NON-TRADITIONAL CULTS- collect. concept used in modern religious sdch. lit. re to denote new religions. movements and cults that arose in the capitalist. countries (primarily in the USA) in the 60s and 70s. N. to. are one of the manifestations of modern. general crisis... Atheistic Dictionary

SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION- a branch of sociology that studies religion as a sphere of culture, as a social phenomenon. To the factors that caused the emergence of S.R. can be attributed: the ideology of the French Enlightenment, which formed a critical interest in religion as a social one ... ... Sociology: Encyclopedia

Request "NRD" redirects here; see also other meanings. New religious movement (abbr. NRM) (eng. New Religious Movement (NRM)), a new religious community, a new religion, non-traditional religion, non-traditional cult, religion ... ... Wikipedia

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Books

• Life-giving elixir or leper's opium? Non-traditional religions, sects and cults in modern Russia, Balagushkin E.G. The question in the title of the book involves readers in a heated discussion of recent decades about the nature of new religions, sects and cults that have spread widely in the Western world. What…