Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction to new religious movements
- Part I Social science perspectives
- Part II Themes
- 4 History and the end of time in new religions
- 5 Charismatic leaders in new religions
- 6 Rituals in new religions
- 7 Canonical and extracanonical texts in new religions
- Part III New religious movements
- Index
- Other titles in the series
4 - History and the end of time in new religions
from Part II - Themes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Introduction to new religious movements
- Part I Social science perspectives
- Part II Themes
- 4 History and the end of time in new religions
- 5 Charismatic leaders in new religions
- 6 Rituals in new religions
- 7 Canonical and extracanonical texts in new religions
- Part III New religious movements
- Index
- Other titles in the series
Summary
FRAMING THE PAST AND FUTURE
Members of new religious movements (NRMs) typically share a heightened sense of cosmic significance by believing their activities are crucial for human history (“macro-history”), even its very culmination (“the End Times”). The term macro-history denotes the writing and envisaging of the past as a whole, and doing so usually entails explaining present conditions and presaging momentous events in the future. NRM leadership usually encourages adherents to locate themselves in (sacred) time and look forward to group vindication, renown, and salvation. Sometimes earthly events are viewed as incidental to huge cosmic processes, stressing a descending hierarchy of spiritual powers before matter and human beings appear, or conceiving us in a vast succession of worlds, in which cases we talk of cosmo-history. At other times myth or story dominates, to explain how current predicaments have arisen, making the denotations “myth-history” or “mythological macro-history” most appropriate. The most basic frames of macro-historical reference are progress; regress; recurrence; and unfolding towards eschatological consummation. Teachings or freer-floating ideas within NRMs respond to these paradigms in varied, often complex ways. When movements stress their own role in reclaiming some past glory, for example, they can at the same time lament decline yet optimistically believe that what has been lost can be recovered (by rebirth, reform, final progress, or apocalyptic perfection).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Companion to New Religious Movements , pp. 61 - 79Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012
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