Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Prologue
- 1 Violence and Religion in Perspective
- 2 Dramatic Denouements
- 3 Challenging Misconceptions about the New Religions–Violence Connection
- 4 Sources of Volatility in Religious Movements
- 5 Crises of Charismatic Legitimacy and Violent Behavior in New Religious Movements
- 6 Public Agency Involvement in Government–Religious Movement Confrontations
- 7 Watching for Violence: A Comparative Analysis of the Roles of Five Types of Cult-Watching Groups
- 8 Mass Suicide and the Branch Davidians
- 9 Occult Masters and the Temple of Doom: The Fiery End of the Solar Temple
- 10 Dramatic Confrontations: Aum Shinrikyô against the World
- 11 Making Sense of the Heaven's Gate Suicides
- 12 Lessons from the Past, Perspective for the Future
- Index
- References
4 - Sources of Volatility in Religious Movements
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 July 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Prologue
- 1 Violence and Religion in Perspective
- 2 Dramatic Denouements
- 3 Challenging Misconceptions about the New Religions–Violence Connection
- 4 Sources of Volatility in Religious Movements
- 5 Crises of Charismatic Legitimacy and Violent Behavior in New Religious Movements
- 6 Public Agency Involvement in Government–Religious Movement Confrontations
- 7 Watching for Violence: A Comparative Analysis of the Roles of Five Types of Cult-Watching Groups
- 8 Mass Suicide and the Branch Davidians
- 9 Occult Masters and the Temple of Doom: The Fiery End of the Solar Temple
- 10 Dramatic Confrontations: Aum Shinrikyô against the World
- 11 Making Sense of the Heaven's Gate Suicides
- 12 Lessons from the Past, Perspective for the Future
- Index
- References
Summary
There are several factors operating with respect to novel, noninstitutionalized religious movements that tend to enhance volatility and the potential for violence. Some of these factors are fairly easy to enumerate (e.g., Robbins and Anthony 1995; Robbins and Palmer 1997; Dawson 1998: 128–157). However, such enumerations do not at this time allow us to predict which militant sects and esoteric cults will become involved in episodes of mass suicide, or mass murder, or in violent confrontations with authorities. Movements such as the Peoples Temple, the Branch Davidians, Aum Shinrikyô, Heaven's Gate, and the Order of the Solar Temple, which have become involved in sensational episodes of extreme violence, do tend to share certain characteristics. Unfortunately, many other movements that have heretofore been nonviolent also share many of these elements and even share some of the combinations of elements that have been identified in certifiably tumultuous groups.
The vast majority of unconventional and relatively noninstitutionalized “alternative religions” or “cults” are not explosively violent. The most that can probably be said at this time is that certain ideological, organizational, and tactical features of a movement such as apocalyptic worldviews, charismatic leadership, or a “totalistic” milieu (and particular variations on these features) may represent necessary but not sufficient conditions for the more spectacular kinds of violent altercations (Robbins and Anthony 1995; Dawson 1998).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Cults, Religion, and Violence , pp. 57 - 79Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002
References
Anderson, Susan. “Identifying Coercion and Deception in Social Systems.” In Scientific Research on New Religions, edited by Brock Kilbourne. Proceedings of the Annual Meetings of the Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science jointly with the Rocky Mountain Division, Logan, Utah. AAAS, 1985: 12–23
Anthony, Dick, and Thomas Robbins. “Religious Totalism, Exemplary Dualism and the Waco Tragedy.” In Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem, edited by Thomas Robbins and Susan Palmer. New York: Routledge, 1997: 261–284
Anthony, Dick, and Thomas Robbins. “Religious Totalism, Violence and Exemplary Dualism.”Terrorism and Political Violence 7 (1995): 10–50CrossRef
Anthony, Dick, and Thomas Robbins. “Law, Social Science and the ‘Brainwashing’ Exception to the First Amendment.”Behavioral Science and the Law 10 (1992): 5–30CrossRef
Anthony, Dick, and Thomas Robbins. “The Effect of Detente on the Growth of New Religions: Reverend Moon and the Unification Church.” In Understanding New Religions, edited by Jacob Needleman and George Baker. New York: Seabury, 1978: 80–100
Barkun, Michael. “Millenarians and Violence: The Case of the Christian Identity Movement.” In Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem, edited by Thomas Robbins and Susan Palmer. New York: Routledge, 1997: 247–260
Baumgarten, Albert. “Betting on the Millennium.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Boston, 1999
Bird, Frederick. “Charisma and Leadership in New Religious Movements.” In Handbook of Cults and Sects in America (Vol. 3A, Religion and the Social Order), edited by David G. Bromley and Jeffrey Hadden. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1993: 75–92
Boyer, Paul. “A Brief History of the End of Time.” New Republic May 17, 1993: 30–33
Bromley, David G. “Constructing Apocalypticism.” In Millenium, Messiahs, and Mayhem, edited by Thomas Robbins and Susan Palmer. New York: Routledge, 1997: 31–46
Chidester, David. Salvation and Suicide. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1988
Cohn, Norman. Pursuit of the Millennium. London: Oxford University Press, 1961
Crummey, Robert. Old Believers in the World of Antichrist. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1970
Dawson, Lorne. Comprehending Cults. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1998
Ellwood, Robert. “Nazism as a Millennial Movement.” In Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence, edited by Catherine Wessinger. Syracuse, NY: University of Syracuse Press, 2000: 241–260
Galanter, Marc. Cults: Faith, Healing, and Coercion. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999
Gallagher, Eugene. “Theology Is Life and Death.” In Millenialism, Persecution and Violence, edited by Catherine Wessinger. Syracuse, NY: University of Syracuse Press, 2000: 82–100
Goffman, Erving. Asylums. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1961
Gorenberg, Gershom. “Tribulations.” New Republic June 14, 1999: 18–21
Hall, John. Gone from the Promised Land. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1987
Hall, John, and Philip Schuyler. “Apostasy, Apocalypse and Religious Violence.” In The Politics of Religious Apostasy, edited by David G. Bromley. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998: 141–170
Hall, John, and Philip Schuyler. “The Mystical Apocalypse of the Solar Temple.” In Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem, edited by Thomas Robbins and Susan Palmer. New York: Routledge, 1997: 247–260
Hall, John, Philip Schuyler, and Sylvaine Trinh. Apocalypse Observed. New York: Routledge, 2000
. “Dilemmas of Charismatic Leadership.”Sociological Analysis 40 (1979): 315–323CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Constance. “Exemplary Dualism and Authoritarianism at Jonestown.” In New Religious Movements, Mass Suicide, and the Peoples Temple, edited by Moore, Rebecca, and Fielding McGehee. Lewiston, ME: Edwin Mellen, 1989: 209–230
Kanter, Rosabeth. Commitment and Community. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972a
Kanter, Rosabeth. “Commitment and the Internal Organization of Millennial Movements.”American Behavioral Scientist 16 (1972b): 219–244CrossRef
Kanter, Rosabeth. “Commitment and Social Organization.”American Sociological Review 33 (1968): 499–517
Kaplan, Jeffrey. Radical Religion in America. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997
Kaplan, Jeffrey. “Absolute Rescue.”Terrorism and Political Violence 7 (1995): 128–163
Knox, Ronald. Enthusiasm. London: Oxford University Press, 1950
Lamy, Philip. The Millennium Rage. New York: Plenum, 1997
Lawson, Ronald. “The Persistence of Apocalypticism within a Denominationalizing Sect.” In Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem, edited by Thomas Robbins and Susan Palmer. New York: Routledge, 1997: 207–228
. “Millenarian Movements and Resocialization.”American Behavioral Scientist 16 (1972): 192–218CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Martha. “Environmental Apocalypse.” In Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem, edited by Thomas Robbins and Susan Palmer. New York: Routledge, 1997: 119–138
Lewis, James, ed. From the Ashes. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1994
Lifton, Robert J. Destroying the World to Save It. New York: Holt, 1999
Lifton, Robert J. Chinese Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism. New York: Norton, 1961
Loewe, Scott. “Western Millennial Ideology Goes East.” In Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence, edited by Catherine Wessinger. Syracuse, NY: University of Syracuse Press, 2000: 220–240
Maaga, Mary. Hearing the Voices of Jonestown. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1998
. “Our Terrestrial Voyage Is Coming to an End: The Last Voyage of the Solar Temple.”Nova Religio 2 (1999): 172–196CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, Edgar. “Cult Extremism.” In Violence and Religious Commitment, edited by Kenneth Levi. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1982: 75–102
Mullins, Mark. “Aum Shinrikyô as an Apocalyptic Movement.” In Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem, edited by Thomas Robbins and Susan Palmer. New York: Routledge, 1997: 313–324
Oakes, Len. Prophetic Charisma. Syracuse, NY: University of Syracuse Press, 1998
O'Leary, Stephen. Arguing the Apocalypse. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994
Reader, Ian. Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000
Rich, Frank. “Heaven's Gate-gate.” New York Times Op-Ed section, April 17, 1997:
Richardson, James. “Violence and the New Religions.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Baltimore, 1981
Robbins, Thomas. “Apocalypse, Persecution and Self-Immolation.” In Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence, edited by Catherine Wessinger. Syracuse, NY: University of Syracuse Press, 2000: 205–219
Robbins, Thomas. “Religious Movements and Violence.”Nova Religio 1 (1997): 13–29
Robbins, Thomas. “Religious Mass Suicide Before Jonestown: The Russian Old Believers.”Sociological Analysis 44 (1986): 1–20
Robbins, Thomas, and Dick Anthony. “Sects and Violence.” In Armageddon in Waco, edited by Stuart Wright. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995: 236–262
Robbins, Thomas, and Susan Palmer. “Patterns of Contemporary Apocalypticism.” In Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem, edited by Thomas Robbins and Susan Palmer. New York: Routledge, 1997: 1–27
. “The Importance of the Analysis of Religion in Avoiding Violent Outcomes.”Nova Religio 1 (1997): 72–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenfeld, Jean. “Pai Marire, Peace and Violence in a New Zealand Millenarian Tradition.”Terrorism and Political Violence 7 (1995): 83–108CrossRef
Salter, Richard. “Time, Authority, and Ethics in the Khmer Rouge.” In Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence, edited by Catherine Wessinger. Syracuse, NY: University of Syracuse Press, 2000: 281–298
Shupe, Anson. “Christian Reconstructionism and the Angry Rhetoric of Neo-Postmillennialism.” In Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem, edited by Thomas Robbins and Susan Palmer. New York: Routledge, 1997: 195–206
Stone, Jacqueline. “Japanese Lotus Millennialism.” In Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence, edited by Catherine Wessinger. Syracuse, NY: University of Syracuse Press, 2000: 261–280
Stone, Jon, ed. Expecting Armageddon. New York: Routledge, 2000
Storrs, Anthony. Feet of Clay: A Study of Gurus. New York: Free Press, 1997
Tabor, James, and Eugene Gallagher. Why Waco? Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995
Underwood, Grant. “Millennialism, Persecution and violence: The Mormons.” In Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence, edited by Catherine Wessinger. Syracuse, NY: University of Syracuse Press, 2000: 43–61
Wallis, Roy, and Steve Bruce. “Sex, Violence, and Religion.” In Sociological Theory, Religion, and Collective Action, edited by Roy Wallis and Steve Bruce. Belfast, Northern Ireland: Queens University, 1986: 115–127
. “Religion and Violence in Japan Today.”Terrorism and Political Violence 10 (1998): 80–100CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wessinger, Catherine. “Interacting Dynamics of Millennial Beliefs, Persecution, and Violence.” In Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence, edited by Catherine Wessinger. Syracuse, NY: University of Syracuse Press, 2000: 3–42
Wessinger, Catherine. How the Millennium Comes Violently. Chappaqua, NY: Seven Bridges Press, 2000
Wessinger, Catherine. “Millennialism with and without Mayhem.” In Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem, edited by Thomas Robbins and Susan Palmer. New York: Routledge, 1997: 47–60
. “Anatomy of a Government Massacre,”Terrorism and Political Violence 11 (1999): 39–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, and . “The Charismatic Leader and the Violent Surrogate Family.”Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 347 (1980): 266–276CrossRefGoogle Scholar
. “Cult Violence and the Christian Identity Movement.”The Cultic Studies Journal 7 (1990): 150–157Google Scholar
- 4
- Cited by