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The New Religious Movements: Some Theological Reflections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2014

John A. Saliba
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Abstract

The rise and spread of new religious movements, like the Unification Church, the Children of God, and the Hari Krishnas, have brought a lot of reactions from Jews and Christians alike. This paper examines the problem of how Christians should react and respond to these proselytizing groups. It is stressed that ridiculing the so-called cults is hardly an academic procedure and much less a viable theological and pastoral solution. Two responses, one by the National Council of Churches and one by the Lutheran Church are briefly described and evaluated. Finally, some guidelines towards a Christian theological and pastoral approach to the cults are proposed.

Type
Open Forum and Reader Response
Information
Horizons , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , Spring 1979 , pp. 113 - 118
Copyright
Copyright © The College Theology Society 1979

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References

1 See, for example, Religious Movements in Contemporary America, ed. Zaretsky, Irving L. and Leone, Mark P. (Princeton University Press, 1974)Google Scholar, and The New Religious Consciousness, ed. Glock, Charles Y. and Bellah, Robert N. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976)Google Scholar.

2 By “cult” we mean a socially marginal group of people united together by religious devotion to a person and/or a set of beliefs and practices.

3 See especially the two editorials of Sadler, Albert W., “The New Religions,” and “Moon over Miami,” respectively in Horizons 2/2 (Fall, 1975), pp. 248–250CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and 4/2 (Fall, 1977), pp. 227–228.

4 In this context one is reminded of Tertullian's famous saying: “Semen est sanguis Christianorum” (Apof. 50.13).

5 The document, entitled “A Critique of the Theology of the Unification Church as Set Forth in the ‘Divine Principle,’” is not dated. But since it refers to the 1974 edition of the book Divine Principle as the latest edition, it is safe to assume that it came out in 1975.

6 Published for the first time in 1973 by the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (New York), a new edition has been published every year, the latest being the 5th (1977).

7 The document is issued from the Lutheran Church's Office for Research and Analysis in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

8 For other reactions to the cults, see Clements, R. D., God and the Gurus (Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter-Varsity Press. 1975)Google Scholar; Cox, Harvey, Turning East (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1977)Google Scholar; McBeth, LeonStrange New Religions (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1977)Google Scholar; Stoner, Carroll and Parke, Jo Ann, All Gods Children. The Cult Experience—Salvation or Slavery? (Radnor, PA: Chilton Book Company, 1977)Google Scholar; Beck, Hubert F., How to Respond to the Cults (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1977)Google Scholar; Gerberding, Kieth A., How to Respond to Transcendental Meditation (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1977)Google Scholar.

9 For many references dealing with approaches to world religions one can consult with profit A Reader's Guide to the Great Religions, ed. Adams, Charles (New York: Free Press, 2nd ed., 1977)Google Scholar.