Editing Sociology of religion (section)

==Typology of religious groups==
{{Main|Sociological classifications of religious movements}}
[[File:Church-sect continuum.svg|right|thumb|400px|A diagram of the church-sect typology continuum including church, denomination, sect, cult, new religious movement, and institutionalized sect]]
One common [[wikt:typology|typology]] among sociologists, religious groups are classified as [[ecclesia (sociology of religion)|ecclesias]], [[religious denomination|denominations]], [[sect]]s, or [[cult]]s (now more commonly referred to in scholarship as [[new religious movement]]s).<ref name="Hampshire-Beckford">{{Cite journal |last1=Beckford |first1=James A. |last2=Hampshire |first2=Annette P. |author1-link=James A. Beckford |date=June 1983 |title=Religious Sects and the Concept of Deviance: The Mormons and the Moonies |journal=[[The British Journal of Sociology]] |volume=34 |issue=2 |location=[[Chichester|Chichester, West Sussex]] |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]] for the [[London School of Economics and Political Science]] |pages=208–229 |doi=10.2307/590736 |jstor=590736 |pmid=6883016 |s2cid=31493695}}</ref> The church-sect typology has its origins in the work of Max Weber. There is a basic premise continuum along which religions fall, ranging from the protest-like orientation of sects to the equilibrium maintaining churches. This continuum includes several additional types. Note that sociologists give these words precise definitions which differ from how they are commonly used. In particular, sociologists use the words 'cult' and 'sect' without negative connotations, even though the popular use of these words is often pejorative.<ref>
{{Citation
| last = Dawson
| first = Lorne L.
| author-link = Lorne L. Dawson
| editor-last = Clarke
| editor-first = Peter B.
| editor-link = Peter B. Clarke
| title = The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion| date = 2008
| contribution = Church-Sect-Cult: Constructing Typologies of Religious Groups
| series  = Oxford Handbooks in Religion and Theology
| publisher = Oxford University Press
| location = Oxford
| pages  = 525–544
| isbn = 9780199279791
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=iBsEiBtklMAC
| access-date  = 2013-02-03
}}
</ref>

Churches are the religious bodies that coexist in a relatively low state of tension with their social surrounding. They have mainstream "safe" beliefs and practices relative to those of the general population.<ref>{{Cite book|title=You May Ask Yourself|last=Conley|first=Dalton|publisher=W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library|year=2011|pages=651–652}}</ref> This type of religious bodies are more world affirming, so they try to peacefully coexist with the secular world and are low-tension organizations.

Sects are high-tension organizations that don't fit well within the existing social environment. They are usually most attractive to society's least privileged- outcasts, minorities, or the poor- because they downplay worldly pleasure by stressing otherworldly promises.<ref>{{Cite book|title=You May Ask Yourself|last=Cooley|first=Dalton|publisher=W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library|year=2011|pages=652}}</ref> When church leaders become too involved in secular issues, sects start to splinter off the existing church. They may end up forming their own sect and if over time the sect picks up a significant following, it almost inevitably transforms into its own church, ultimately becoming part of the mainstream.

A cult is a religious movement that makes some new claim about the supernatural and therefore does not easily fit within the sect-church cycle. All religions began as cults, and their leaders offer new insights, claiming that they are the word of God. They are often high-tension movements that antagonize their social world and/or are antagonized by it.<ref name="Hampshire-Beckford"/><ref>{{Cite book|title=You May Ask Yourself|last=Cooley|first=Dalton|publisher=W. Ross MacDonald School Resource Services Library|year=2011|pages=653}}</ref>

Denomination lies between the church and the sect on the continuum. They come into existence when churches lose their religious monopoly in a society. When churches or sects become denominations, there are also some changes in their characteristics.