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Welcome to New Religious Movements
Welcome to New Religious Movements.
Every religion was once new. Christianity began as a small movement around a teacher in Galilee. Buddhism began with one man under a tree. Sikhism, the Bahá'í Faith, and the Latter-day Saints all began within the last six centuries. In their early years, each was misunderstood, mocked, and sometimes persecuted by its neighbors.
This course studies religions that have appeared in the last two centuries: what they believe, how they began, how they practice, and what controversies surround them. Some are now large, respected faiths. Some are small. A few caused terrible harm. You will learn to describe each one as its own members would, and then to look honestly at the record. For every faith, we also ask how it treats women: who may lead, teach, and decide, and whether women are honored, restricted, or harmed.
This course is a companion to Cults and High-Control Groups. That course teaches how manipulation works. This one teaches what people actually believe, so that you can tell the difference between a faith that is simply unfamiliar and a group that is harming its members.
How This Course Works
| Topic | Details |
|---|---|
| Prerequisite | None. Titles and degrees begin with ordination through the Ordination Orientation. |
| Pace | Self-paced. Most students finish in four to six weeks, studying about four to five hours a week. There are no deadlines. |
| Structure | Eight modules. Each module has a lesson, a reading assignment, and a ten-question quiz. |
| Book report | Read one of the books offered, pass its ten-question quiz, and write a one-paragraph summary, after Module 8. |
| Final exam | Fifteen multiple-choice questions and one essay of 1,500 to 2,000 words, taken after Module 8. |
| Credit | 3 credit hours toward further titles and degrees. |
| Companion course | Cults and High-Control Groups is recommended alongside this course, but not required. |
Grading
| Part | To pass |
|---|---|
| Module quizzes (8) | Pass each with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Book report quiz (10 questions) | Pass with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Book report summary (one paragraph) | Approved by the school |
| Final exam, Part 1 (multiple choice) | Pass with 70% or higher. Retakes allowed. |
| Final exam, Part 2 (one essay, 1,500 to 2,000 words) | Approved by the school |
Required texts
- Cults and New Religions: A Brief History, Douglas E. Cowan and David G. Bromley
- The New Religious Movements Experience in America, Eugene V. Gallagher
- New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration, Judith Weisenfeld
Many of these books are available from public libraries, used bookstores, and as ebooks.
What you will study
Module 1: What Makes a Religion New? Module 2: New American Faiths Module 3: End-Times Movements Module 4: Movements from Asia Module 5: Black Freedom Movements Module 6: Theosophy, the New Age, and UFO Religions Module 7: Self-Improvement Movements Module 8: Telling Them Apart: Fairness, Freedom, and Change
Book report choices
New World A-Coming, Judith Weisenfeld; Cults and New Religions: A Brief History, Douglas E. Cowan and David G. Bromley
Academic honesty
All written work must be your own. You may quote and discuss the course readings and other sources, but you must say where the words and ideas came from. Submitting work written by someone else, including work generated entirely by AI tools, is not permitted.