Religions and Cultures (RLCT) - Cults and New Religious Movements

RLCT 2117  Cults and New Religious Movements

Prerequisites:

Any 18 credits completed.

Antirequisites:

RLCT 2067 if taken in Winter 2014

Hours:

Three hours of lecture per week for one term.

Credits:

3

Description:

This course examines the phenomenon of New Religious Movements and their social implications. Is there a difference between cults and sects and NRMs? How do NRMs connect to secularism, cultural pluralism, feminism and environmentalism? How do we make sense of Neo-paganism or neo-shamanism in the 21st century West? And finally, can we, or should we, feel at liberty to take fragments from different traditions to cater to contemporary tastes, such as yoga in the gym or virtual sanghas/meditation communities?