Comparative Religion: New Religious Movements

New Religious Movements (NRMs) are a global phenomenon emerging primarily in the latter half of the 20th century. NRMs are also referred to as alternative or emerging religious movements rather than the older, less neutral descriptors such as "cults" or "sects." NRMS have been defined in a variety of ways: 

"New religious movements (NRMs) is the category that scholars use today to describe new, alternative, or nonmainstream religious groups." (Encyclopedia of Religion in America)

"A new religious movement (NRM), also known as alternative spirituality or a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or they can be part of a wider religion, in which case they are distinct from pre-existing denominations." (Wikipedia)

"The term “NRMs” applies to new forms of religion which developed during the 1960s in the Western world. Even though some of these groups, such as the Theosophical Society and various adherents of spiritualism, appeared in the 19th century—and are therefore “old NRMs”—they still remain within the confines of this appellation, as they “fully” emerged in the public sphere around this period." (Oxford Research Encyclopedia: Religion)

"The term new religious movements covers many types of religious movements and groups: religions that were introduced into a culture by missionary representatives from world religions abroad, such as the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON)... groups that evolved out of a more established tradition, such as the Branch Davidians, which emerged from Seventh-day Adventism; reconfigurations of religious themes in traditional religions, such as Kurozumikyō, Tenrikyō... revivals of suppressed religious traditions, such as contemporary Pagan movements in eastern Europe; creative mergings of diverse religious traditions, such as the African Independent Churches (AICs; often called African Initiated Churches), which combined Christianity with African beliefs and modes of worship, or the New Age movement's blend of different religions and spiritualities; imaginative and syncretistic re-creations of preexisting religious traditions, such as Neopaganism in North America; organizations that coalesced around new formulations of teachings found in alternative religious traditions, such as the Theosophical Society, which grew out of the Western Esoteric tradition and borrowed from virtually all the world's religions; or millennial movements that formed in response to new cultural conditions or oppression (such as the Ghost Dance movement among Plains Native Americans in the nineteenth century) or innovations (such as the UFO movement known as the Raelians)." (Encyclopedia of Religion)

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