Cult

:This article does not discuss "cult" in its original sense of "religious practice"; for that usage see Cult (religion). See Cult (disambiguation) for more meanings of the term "cult".

Definitions of "cult"

In English-speaking countries since about the 1960s, especially in North America, the term cult has taken on a pejorative and sometimes offensive connotation. This largely originated with highly publicized cults which purportedly exploited their members psychologically and financially, or which allegedly utilized group-based persuasion and conversion techniques. These techniques may include "brainwashing", "thought reform", "love bombing", and "mind control", whose scientific validity, modern and historical use, and effectiveness (for religious conversion) are discussed within the linked articles.

Related Topics:
1960s - North America - Persuasion - Conversion - Brainwashing - Thought reform - Love bombing - Mind control - Religious conversion

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The literal and traditional meanings of the word cult is derived from the Latin cultus, meaning "care" or "adoration", as "a system of religious belief or ritual; or: the body of adherents to same"{{fn|32}}. This usage is more fully explored in the entry Cult (religion).

Related Topics:
Latin - Ritual - Cult (religion)

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In French or Spanish, culte or culto simply means "worship" or "religious attendance"; thus an association cultuelle is an association whose goal is to organize religious worship and practices. The word for "cult" in the popular English meaning is secte (French) or secta (Spanish). (See false cognate.)

Related Topics:
French - Spanish - False cognate

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In German the usual word used for the english cult is Sekte, which also has other definitions. A similar cases is the Russian word sekta

Related Topics:
German - Russian

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In formal English use, and in non-English European terms, the cognates of the English word "cult" are neutral, and refer mainly to divisions within a single faith, a case where English speakers might use the word "sect". Hence Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism are cults within Christianity. In English, it remains perfectly neutral to refer to the "cult of Artemis at Ephesus" and the "cult figures" that accompanied it, or to "the importance of the Ave Maria in the cult of the Virgin."

Related Topics:
Sect - Roman Catholicism - Eastern Orthodoxy - Protestantism - Christianity - Artemis - Ephesus - Virgin

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Understandably, most groups, if not all that are called "cults" deny this qualification. Some groups called "cults" by some critics may consider themselves not to be "cults", but may consider some other groups to be "cults".

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Definition of "cult" in dictionaries

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary lists five different meanings of the word "cult"{{fn|32}}:

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• formal religious veneration. Worship.
• system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents
• a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents
• a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator
• a: great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad
  b: a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion

Similarly, the Random house dictionary lists:

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• a particular system of religion, especially with referring to its rites and ceremonies
• a group that devotes itself or venerates a person, ideal, fad, etc.
• a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist
• the members of such a religion or sect

In both cases, the third definition is the one applying to this article, in Random house, also the fourth.

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Definition by the Christian countercult movement

Walter Martin, the pioneer of the Christian countercult movement gave in his 1955 book the following definition of a cult:

Related Topics:
Walter Martin - Christian countercult movement

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:"By cultism we mean the adherence to doctrines which are pointedly contradictory to orthodox Christianity and which yet claim the distinction of either tracing their origin to orthodox sources or of being in essential harmony with those sources. Cultism, in short, is any major deviation from orthodox Christianity relative to the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith."

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Robert Bowman defines cult as

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:"A religious group originating as a heretical sect and maintaining fervent commitment to heresy. Adj.: "cultic" (may be used with reference to tendencies as well as full cult status)." {{fn|33}}

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Definition by secular cult opposition

In the secular cult opposition, a cult is defined as a religious or non-religious group which tends to manipulate, exploit and control its members. Here two definitions by Michael Langone and Louis Jolyon West, scholars who are widely recognized among the secular cult opposition:

Related Topics:
Michael Langone - Louis Jolyon West

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:Cults are groups that often exploit members psychologically and/or financially, typically by making members comply with leadership's demands through certain types of psychological manipulation, popularly called mind control, and through the inculcation of deep-seated anxious dependency on the group and its leaders.{{fn|1}}

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:"A cult is a group or movement exhibiting a great or excessive devotion or dedication to some person, idea or thing and employing unethically manipulative techniques of persuasion and control (e.g. isolation from former friends and family, debilitation, use of special methods to heighten suggestibility and subservience, powerful group pressures, information management, suspension of individuality or critical judgement, promotion of total dependency on the group and fear of leaving it, etc) designed to advance the goals of the group's leaders to the actual or possible detriment of members, their families, or the community." {{fn|8}}

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Points of view regarding definitions

According to Professor Timothy Miller from the University of Kansas, in his 2003 Religious Movements in the United States, during the controversies over the new religious movements in the 1960s, the term ?cult? came to mean something sinister, generally used to describe a movement that was at least potentially destructive to its members or to society, or that took advantage of its members and engaged in unethical practices. But he argues that no one yet has been able to define ?cult? in a way that enables the term to identify only problematic groups. Millers asserts that ?cults? are usually defined by anticultists by a list of attributes they possess (see cult checklist), but that such attributes are perfectly capable of belonging to groups that few would consider ?cultic?, such as Catholic religious orders or many evangelical Protestant churches. Miller further argues that if the term does not enable the distiction between a pathological group and a legitimate one, then it has no value and it is in fact the religious equivalent of ?nigger?, it conveys disdain and prejudice without having any valuable content.{{fn|31}}

Related Topics:
Timothy Miller - University of Kansas - Anticultists - Cult checklist - Catholic - Evangelical - Protestant - Nigger

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Due to the usually pejorative connotation of the word "cult", new religious movements (NRMs) and other purported cults often find the word highly offensive. Some purported cults have been known to insist that other similar groups are cults but that they themselves are not. On the other hand, some skeptics have questioned the distinction between a cult and a mainstream religion. They say that the only difference between a cult and a religion is that the latter is older and has more followers and, therefore, seems less controversial because society has become used to it. See also anti-cult movement and Opposition to cults and new religious movements.

Related Topics:
Skeptics - Religion - Anti-cult movement - Opposition to cults and new religious movements

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Unification Church member Lloyd Eby calls the third definition of Merriam-Webster problematic, because:

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:"...then we must ask: regarded as spurious or unorthodox by whom? Who has or was given this authority to decide what beliefs or practices are orthodox or genuine, and what are unorthodox or spurious? In the realm of religion and belief, one person's or group's norm is another's anathema, and what is regarded as false or counterfeit by one person or group is regarded as genuine and authentic by another.... This definition is entirely subjective: it means that if you think a religion is unorthodox, then you will call it a cult."{{fn|28}}

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