A new religious movement
(NRM) is a
religious community or ethical, spiritual, or philosophical group of modern
origin, which has a peripheral place within the dominant religious culture.
NRMs may be novel in origin or they may be part of a wider religion, in which
case they will be distinct from pre-existing denominations.
Although there is no one criterion or set of
criteria for describing a group as a "new religious movement," use of
the term usually requires that the group be both of recent origin and different
from existing religions.
The
study of New Religions emerged in Japan after an increase in religious
innovation following the Second World War. "New religions" is a calque (a word-for-word translation)
of shinshūkyō, which Japanese sociologists
coined to refer to this phenomenon. This term, amongst others, was adopted by
Western scholars as an alternative to cult. "Cult" had emerged
in the 1890s, but by the 1970s it had acquired a pejorative connotation, and
was subsequently used indiscriminately by lay critics to disparage groups whose
doctrines they opposed.
