The Cultivation of Conformity

Towards a General Theory of Internal Secularisation

Pink Dandelion

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781138740198
• eBook ISBN:
  9781351728874
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Religion, Politics & State
• Index: Social Sciences

This book explores the inter-relationship between religious groups and wider society and examines the way religious groups change in relation to societal norms, potentially to the point of undergoing processes of 'internal secularisation' within secular and secularist cultures. Received sociological wisdom suggests that over time religious groups moderate their claims. This comes with the potential loss of new adherents, for theorists of secularisation suggest unique or universal, rather than moderate, truth claims appear attractive to would-be recruits. At the same time, religious groups need to appear equivalent, in terms of harmlessness, to state-sanctioned religious expression in order to secure rights. Thus, religious organisations face a perpetual conundrum. Using British Quakers as a case study as they moved from a counter-cultural group to an accepted and accepting part of twentieth- and twenty-first-century society, the author builds on models of religion and non-religion in terms of flows and explores the consequences of religious assimilation when the process of constructing both distinctive appeal and 'harmlessness' in pursuit of rights is played out in a secular culture. A major contribution to the sociology of religion, The Cultivation of Conformity presents a new theory of internal secularisation as the ultimate stage of the cultivation of conformity, and a model of the way sects and society inter-relate.

PART I

Theoretical context: the conundrum facing religious groups

1

ORGANISATIONAL TYPES AND THE INCLINATION TO CONFORM

Religious organisations continually position themselves in self-selected places in relation to the Nation State and wider culture, taking different forms at different times. In a book on religious conformity, these kinds of choices and the sensibilities that underpin them are a key part of the theoretical map we need to draw on and this chapter reviews the scholarly literature (of this part of the map), from the work of Max Weber and Ernst Troeltsch onwards on ‘sect’ and ‘church’ as ‘ideal types’ of religious group, also exploring David Martin’s seminal work on denomination as a third form. As we shall see, church and sect types have different kinds of relationship with the Nation-State and of interest here is how and when these relationships change, when for example a group might move from a sectarian position to a church or denominational stance. As such, Richard Niebuhr’s theory of the process of ‘denominationalisation’ is also introduced and the way in which groups move from their sectarian origins to denominational composition with the second or later generation, moderating their claims and moderating their antagonism to the host culture. Roy Wallis’ work on world-rejecting and world-affirming groups is explored as well as John Walliss’ idea of ‘world ambivalence’. All of these typologies tend to suggest a shift over time from a counter-cultural position to a culture-accepting one.

Church and sect

Max Weber first delineated the differences between a church and a sect as different organisational types. He claimed: ‘a sect is not an institution (Anstadt) like a church, but a community of the religiously qualified’ (Toennies et al. 1973: 141). The mode of membership was central to Weber’s distinction: he claimed that ‘The “church” [operated] as a compulsory association for the administration of grace and … the sect as a voluntary association of religiously qualified persons’ (Weber 2011: 139)

Everything which arose later from sects is linked in the decisive points to the demand for purity, the ecclesia pura – a community consisting only of those members whose mode of conduct and life style do not carry public signs of heavenly disfavour, but proclaim the glory of God. The churches, in contrast, permit their light to shine on the just and the unjust alike, according to the Calvinist and the Catholic, as well as the Lutheran doctrine. According to the Calvinist doctrine of predestination, for example, it is the church’s task to coerce even those who are irredeemably damned to all eternity, into external conformity to the church. The formation of the ‘sect’ type of community occurs first, as was said, outside. (Weber 2011: 142, my emphasis)

Ernst Troeltsch developed Weber’s typology, shifting the focus from organisational type to behaviour. He discussed two forms of Christian organisation, sect and church, but three forms of religiosity including also ‘mysticism’ as a form of religious expression existing outside organisational forms.

Sects, to Troeltsch, comprised those who felt themselves outside the church and were a response to the dominant religious form expressed by the church type: ‘Thus that element which could not be completely expressed within the ecclesiastical unity of civilisation and of society made a place for itself within the sects, whence it had a reflex influence upon the church itself’ (1931: 330).

The Church is that type of organisation which is overwhelmingly conservative, which to a certain extent accepts the secular order, and dominates the masses; in principle, therefore, it is universal, i.e. its desires to cover the whole of humanity. The sects on the other hand, are comparatively small groups; they aspire after personal inward perfection, and they aim at direct personal fellowship between the members of each group. From the very beginning, therefore, they are forced to organise themselves in small groups, and to renounce the idea of dominating the world. Their attitude towards the world, the State, and Society may be indifferent, tolerant, or hostile, since they have no desire to control and incorporate these forms of social life; on the contrary, they tend to avoid them; their aim is usually either to tolerate their presence alongside of their own body, or even to replace these social institutions by their own society. (Troeltsch 1931: 331)

Thus, the church type creates a universal canopy under which society operates:

The Church relates the whole of the secular order as a means and preparation to the supernatural aim of life, and it incorporates genuine asceticism into its structure as one element in this preparation under the very definite direction of the Church. The sects refer their members directly to the supernatural aim of life, and in them the individualistic, directly religious character of asceticism, as a means of union with God, is developed more strongly and fully. (Troeltsch 1931: 331–332)

Sects, on the other hand, accommodate the dispossessed, those outside the dominant ruling order. They emphasise spiritual capital, individual merit, and a particular stance, often one of resistance, to church and societal structures, doctrines and sensibilities. Troeltsch claimed that sectarian asceticism often involves ‘renunciation of or hostility to the world … detachment from the world … expressed in the refusal to use the law, to swear in a court of justice, to own property, to exercise dominion over others, or to take part in war’ (1931: 332). Sects are fuelled by the sense of purity and emphasise fundamental and original faith and do not represent the universalising tendency of mainstream Christianity (Troeltsch 1931: 334)

Troeltsch placed his theorisation within the whole history of Christian expression, using the biblical timeline of the New Testament as a way of understanding church organisational life and form. The Christian scriptures suggest that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ initiated a new sense of spiritual possibility. It was the first instalment of the promise of a realignment of heaven and earth, lost at the time of creation, a time ahead that would be heralded by the second coming of Christ and the building of the new Jerusalem, as outlined in the letters of the apostle Paul and the book of Revelation. Christianity has been established in the ‘meantime’ between the first and second coming of Christ, helping its adherents wait faithfully for the fulfilment of the endtime (Dandelion 2005: Chapter 1). As Troeltsch comments:

the more that the eschatological horizon dimmed and the more the Church needed to construct a kingdom of its own making, ‘the more was it forced to make its Divine and Christian character independent of the subjective character and service of believers; henceforth it sought to concentrate all its emphasis upon the objective possession of religious truth and religious power …’. (1931: 335)

He adds that ‘Under these circumstances, however, the Church found it impossible to avoid making a compromise with the State, with the social order, and with economic conditions’ (Troeltsch 1931: 335). Thus the universalising meantime establishment of a universalising organisational type found it needed to negotiate with the secular powers:

… the radical individualism of the Gospel, with its urge towards the utmost personal achievement, its radical fellowship of love, uniting all in the most personal centre of life, with its heroic indifference towards the world, the State and civilisation, with its mistrust of the spiritual danger of distraction and error inherent in the possession of or the desire for greater possessions, has been given a secondary place, or even given up altogether. (Troeltsch 1931: 336)

For Troeltsch, the formation of sects then becomes explicable as an organic reaction to the compromise of established religion. In this way, the ideal of primitive Christianity is preserved but moves from one group to another.

Like Weber, Troeltsch made the mode of membership a key distinction between church and sect: people are born into churches (every individual can and therefore should come under its influence), whereas the sect is voluntary community in which the adherent proves their entitlement, a gathering of the elect (1931: 338–339). Troeltsch claimed that ‘the sect renounces universalism’ (1931: 380), but this does not mean that sects do not make universal truth claims or see themselves as potentially universal, the new and true church.

As mentioned above, Troeltsch also identified a religiosity of mysticism or what he termed ‘spiritual religion’ (1931: 729) running outside ecclesiastical Christianity: ‘a religious individualism which has no external organisation, and which has a very independent attitude, with widely differing views on the central truths of Christianity’ (Troeltsch 1931: 381). He defined mysticism as ‘simply the insistence upon a direct inward and present religious experience’ (Troeltsch 1931: 730), and saw it as a reaction to ‘objective practices’ or a ‘supplementing of traditional forms of worship’. This strand of mysticism is about the individual relationship with God rather than the community-orientation of the sect: it is ahistorical and formless. without ‘a common centre of worship, history, and authority’ (Troeltsch 1931: 743). Truth is inward and relative (Troeltsch 1931: 999), mysticism is non-doctrinal and may spiritualise Christ or move away from Christianity: mystical religion breaks down the separation between Christian and non-Christian (Troeltsch 1931: 750). It creates an invisible and tolerant fellowship in which liberty of conscience is preserved rather than it being a right desired by the sect type from the State. Troeltsch termed this mystical religiosity as ‘the secret religion of the educated classes’ (1931: 794) and, hinting at the secularisation evident in the early part of the twentieth century, commented that ‘the modern educated classes understand nothing but mysticism’ (1931: 798).

In summary, Troeltsch identified three types of Christian thought: (a) the church as an institution, objective rather than subjective, adaptable, oriented towards the masses, (b) the Sect as a voluntary association, its members bound to each other through experience of ‘new birth’, and (c) mysticism. Within the sect, ‘“Believers” live apart from the world, are limited to small groups, emphasise the law instead of grace, and in varying degrees within their own circle set up the Christian order, based on love; all this is done in preparation for and expectation of the coming kingdom of God’ (Troeltsch 1931: 993). Mystical spirituality lies outside organised religion, an individualist popular religiosity that counters ecclesiastical form and rite.

Types of sect

Scholars since Troeltsch have worked on broadening the understanding of different types of sect or of religious organisation.

Howard Becker delineated a cult-sect-denomination-ecclesia model (1932) and later Yinger extended Becker’s four types to six: cult, sect, established sect, class church/denomination, ecclesia, and universal church (1970). Yinger also developed a typology of sects that focused on relationship with the wider culture, distinguishing between a ‘sect movement’ and a ‘charismatic sect’, the former having a greater internal organisation (1970: 273–274). He also distinguished sects in terms of three responses to undesired situations: ‘accepting’, ‘aggressive [opposition]’ and ‘avoiding’ (Yinger 1970: 274). Yinger also used the typology of Ralph Turner and Lewis Killian to distinguish sectarian sensibilities (1957): ‘power-oriented’ (interested in the pursuit of power) ‘value-oriented’ (seeking the realisation of certain values) and ‘participation-oriented’ (gratifying the desires of its members).

‘Accepting’ groups are close to participation-oriented sects which accept the world’s goals but find new means to achieve their ends: not opposed to society but to individual behaviours which need to be changed. Yinger gave the example of Christian Science (1970: 275). Aggressive sects are power-oriented movements that wish to change the world, via conversion or divine intervention, or Yinger claimed, directly: for true religion to flourish, the social order needs to change (1970: 277). Avoidance sects devalue the social order rather than accepting it or trying to change it, and these sects withdraw from the world.

The development of the typology involved particular interest in the sect type within church-sect theorising, the most substantial contribution of which was that of Bryan Wilson (1959, 1967a, 1970). The result of this scholarship was to shift the focus of church-sect theory from a tool for comparative analysis toward a classificatory system to apply sociological understandings to religious organisations. Initially influenced by Troeltsch, the theorisation of sects moved the church-sect scholarship from typology to taxonomy (Swatos 1981).

Wilson defined a sect in the following way:

it is a voluntary association; membership is by proof to sect authorities of some claim to personal merit- such as knowledge of doctrine, affirmation of a conversion experience, or recommendation of members in good standing; exclusiveness is emphasized, and expulsion exercised against those who contravene doctrinal, moral, or organizational precepts; its self- conception is of an elect, a gathered remnant, possessing special enlightenment; personal perfection is the expected standard of aspiration, in whatever terms this is judged; it accepts, at least as an ideal, the priesthood of all believers; there is a high level of lay participation; there is opportunity for the member spontaneously to express his commitment; the sect is hostile or indifferent to the secular society and to the state. (1959: 4)

This is a more complex definition than Weber’s simple focus on voluntary association, filling out the characteristics of what this kind of voluntary association implies. We see clearly here the emphasis on ‘special entitlement’ and the high level of separation and the high demands of participation this implies.

Wilson defined in contrast a ‘denominational’ type:

it is formally a voluntary association; it accepts adherents without imposition of traditional prerequisites of entry, and employs purely formalized procedures of admission; breadth and tolerance are emphasized; since membership is laxly enrolled, expulsion is not a common device for dealing with the apathetic and the wayward; its self- conception is unclear and its doctrinal position unstressed; it is content to be one movement among others, all of which are thought to be acceptable in the sight of God; it accepts the standards and values of the pre- vailing culture and conventional morality; there is a trained professional ministry; lay participation occurs but is typically restricted to particular sections of the laity and to particular areas of activity; services are formalized and spontaneity is absent; education of the young is of greater concern than the evangelism of the outsider; additional activities are largely non-religious in character; individual commitment is not very intense; the denomination accepts the values of the secular society and the state; members are drawn from any section of the community, but within one church, or any one region, membership will tend to limit itself to those who are socially compatible (1959: 4–5)

Within the denominational form, commitment need not be high: nominal membership can bring about a voluntary degree of association and participation. Under Wilson’s rubric, sect and denomination typologies are mainly played out within the organisational life of the group and the individual relationship to it; for example, sects demand high lay participation, denominations far less. It is primarily their attitude to the State that reveals the public sensibility of either type. The sect is hostile or indifferent to secular society: the denomination accepts the values of secular society.

Wilson initially developed four types of sect based on types of mission they were involved in: ‘conversionist’ (seeking to convert), ‘adventist’ or ‘revolutionist’ (seeking to change a depraved world prior to drastic change), ‘introversionist’ (seeking to replace worldly values with higher inner values), and ‘gnostic’ (promoting new and optimistic means to achieve worldly goals).

What was important to Wilson was the idea that sects differ from one another – some have very strong community allegiance and identity, others utilise a developed organisational doctrinal or authority structure. The origins of sects also differ: some are based in new charismatic leadership, others in internal schism within an existing sect, or the revitalisation of an existing group, or revivalism. Sect organisation can be minimal but needs to include the ability to call, arrange, organise and define meetings. People need to make decisions about the material culture of the group; money; hiring premises etc.; to make decisions about belief and practice; about admission into membership; to discipline transgression; to socialise the new; to handle interaction with worldly agencies (Wilson 1967a: 14–15). Some sects disappea...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• PART I: Theoretical context: the conundrum facing religious groups
• PART II: Theoretical complexities: religion and ‘the world’
• PART III: New theory: a future of religiosity
• References
• Index