Modern Religious Movements

Many people share the same negative connotation for the word “cult.”  Colloquially, cults are often described as being smaller in size and/or more recent, but all world religions started off small and were very recent when they began gaining followers.  Defining cults, or religions for that matter, based on size and recency would be arbitrary.  The actual English dictionary definition of “cult” boils down to just a set of individuals whose distinctive social relationships are based explicitly on their common acceptance of a religious leader’s supernatural claim (Steadman and Palmer 2007).  In other words, a religion.  So, by definition, there is nothing separating a religion from a cult.  This isn’t to say that there aren’t religions and/or cults that use manipulative or authoritative tactics on their members, but when objectively defining these behaviors, following a more encompassing dictionary definition is needed.

But, how do these religions and cults start?  Prophets.  A prophet is an individual who creates a new set of cooperating individuals by making new supernatural claims.  They claim or are claimed to be supernatural or have supernatural powers (Steadman and Palmer 2007).  Rather than inheriting a set of traditions and already cooperating individuals like religious leaders do, prophets create new traditions and a new set of cooperating individuals by making new supernatural claims.  Jesus, Buddha, Joseph Smith the founder of the Latter-Day Saints, and John Wesley the creator of the Methodist church are all examples of prophets.  Jesus made the new supernatural claim that he was the son of God, Buddha made new claims about enlightenment, Joseph Smith wrote an entire book of new supernatural claims, and John Wesley claims he was “saved” twice by direct intervention from God.  Like all successful prophets, these people created new “families,” and their followers continue these families today.