What types of religious organisation exist, and why are new movements growing?
Religious organisations, including churches, sects, denominations and cults, and the relationship to religious and spiritual movements, including the growth and appeal of new religious and New Age movements.
A focused answer to the AQA A-Level Sociology Beliefs topic on religious organisations, covering churches, denominations, sects and cults, the church-sect typology, new religious and New Age movements, and explanations for their growth.
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What this dot point is asking
AQA wants you to distinguish types of religious organisation (church, denomination, sect, cult), explain new religious and New Age movements, and explain why they grow and who joins them. Examiners reward precise use of the typologies (Troeltsch, Wallis, Stark and Bainbridge) rather than loose everyday use of words like "cult".
Types of religious organisation
- Church (Troeltsch): large, formal, bureaucratic, inclusive, often linked to the state, claiming a monopoly on truth and recruiting members at birth.
- Denomination: smaller than a church, tolerant of other faiths, not linked to the state, with fewer demands on members (for example Methodism). Niebuhr argued denominations often begin as sects that have "cooled down" over a generation.
- Sect: small, exclusive, demanding, in tension with wider society, often led by a charismatic leader and recruiting through conversion rather than birth.
- Cult: loose, individualistic, tolerant, with no fixed doctrine, often focused on personal experience and "this-worldly" benefits (health, wealth, self-improvement).
Classifying new religious movements
Stark and Bainbridge prefer to classify by the degree of organisation: audience cults (least organised, no formal membership, media and lecture based, such as astrology), client cults (a consultant-client service relationship, such as therapies and channelling), and cultic movements (the most organised and demanding, requiring exclusive membership).
New Age movements
New Age movements emphasise self-spirituality and individual seeking ("spiritual shopping"), drawing on alternative therapies, mysticism, astrology and personal growth. Heelas links them to a shift from religion (external obligation and authority) to spirituality (the authority of the inner self). Heelas and Woodhead's Kendal study describes a growing "holistic milieu" of such practices alongside a shrinking congregational sphere.
Why movements grow and who joins
- Marginality: Weber argued sects appeal to marginal groups through a "theodicy of disprivilege", a religious explanation and compensation for their suffering and lower status.
- Relative deprivation: people who feel deprived (spiritually, socially or morally) compared with others may break away to form or join sects (Stark and Bainbridge).
- Social change and anomie: rapid change creates uncertainty and normlessness, and movements offer meaning, community and clear answers (Bruce links the 1960s counter-culture to the growth of world-rejecting NRMs).
- World-affirming appeal: modern, achievement-oriented people are drawn to movements promising success and self-improvement without withdrawing from society (Bruce), which fits a consumerist, individualised culture.
Most sects are short-lived: the death of the charismatic leader, or the "second generation" born into the sect who lack the founders' zeal, often ends them or pushes them toward becoming a denomination (Niebuhr's "denominationalism").
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of AQA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AQA 201810 marksOutline and explain two reasons for the growth of new religious movements.Show worked answer →
Two developed paragraphs, no item, no conclusion.
Reason one: marginality and relative deprivation (Weber, Stark and Bainbridge). World-rejecting movements appeal to the marginal or to those feeling spiritually or socially deprived, offering a theodicy of disprivilege that explains and compensates for their position.
Reason two: social change, anomie and the appeal of world-affirming movements (Wallis, Bruce). Rapid social change creates uncertainty and a search for meaning; world-affirming NRMs and New Age movements offer success, self-improvement and personal growth to achievement-oriented modern individuals.
Markers reward two distinct, developed reasons naming sociologists and concepts.
AQA 202210 marksOutline and explain two differences between churches and sects as types of religious organisation.Show worked answer →
Two developed paragraphs comparing the two organisation types (Troeltsch).
Difference one: size, formality and relationship to the state. Churches are large, formal, bureaucratic and often linked to the state, claiming a monopoly on truth; sects are small, informal and in tension with wider society.
Difference two: membership and commitment. Churches are inclusive, claiming whole populations through birth and infant baptism; sects are exclusive, demand strong commitment and conversion, and are often led by a charismatic leader.
Markers reward two clearly distinct differences with the church-sect typology applied accurately.
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Sources & how we know this
- AQA A-level Sociology (7192) specification — AQA (2015)