Cracks in the Network Conversion Paradigm
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.v3i2.143Keywords:
Social Networks, New Religious Movements, conversion, Paganism, Hare Krishna Movement, Longitudinal ApproachesAbstract
One of the standard generalizations about new religions is that people convert to NRMs primarily through preexisting social networks. The present paper examines data on a variety of new religions which demonstrates that social networks are not always the dominant point of contact for new converts. Additionally, recruitment patterns change over time so that different factors become dominant at different points in a movement’s development. Two reasons why this variability has escaped the attention of most researchers is an unconscious tendency to assume that the sociological profiles of members of different NRMs are essentially similar, and the fact that such groups are typically studied synchronically rather than diachronically.
References
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----- 2001 “Who Serves Satan? A Demographic and Ideological Profile.” Marburg Journal of Religion 6: 1–25.
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----- 1985 Hare Krishna in America, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
----- 1982 “Recruitment Strategies, Ideology, and Organization in the Hare Krishna Movement.” Social Problems 29: 399–410. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/800029
Schmidt, Joachim. 1992 Satanismus: Mythos und Wirklichkeit. Diagonal Verlag.
Shepherd, Gordon, and Gary Shepherd. 2010 Talking with the Children of God: Prophecy and Transformation in a Radical Religious Group. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.
Snow, David A., and Richard Machalek. 1984 “The Sociology of Conversion.” Annual Review of Sociology 10: 167–190. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.10.080184.001123
Snow, David A., Louis A. Zurcher, Jr. and Sheldon Ekland-Olson. 1980 “Social Networks and Social Movements: A Microstructural Approach to Differential Recruitment.” American Sociological Review 45: 787–801. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2094895
Stark, Rodney, and William Sims Bainbridge. 1980 “Networks of Faith: Interpersonal Bonds and Recruitment to Cults and Sects.” The American Journal of Sociology 85: 1376–1395. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/227169
Barker, Eileen. 1984 The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing? Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Berger, Helen A., Evan A. Leach, and Leigh S. Schaffer. 2003 Voices from the Pagan Census: A National Survey of Witches and Neo-Pagans in the United States. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.
Bibby, Reginald W. and Merlin B. Brinkerhoff. 1974 “When Proselytizing Fails: An Organizational Analysis.” Sociology of Religion 35:189–200.
Cowan, Douglas E. 2009 “Researching Scientology: Perceptions, Premises, Promises, and Problematics.” In Scientology, edited by James R. Lewis, 54–79. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331493.003.0004
Dawson, Lorne L. 2003 “Who Joins New Religions and Why: Twenty Years of Research and What Have We Learned?” In Cults and New Religions: A Reader, edited by Lorne L. Dawson, 116–130. Oxford: Blackwell.
----- 1998 Comprehending Cults: The Sociology of New Religious Movements. Ontario, CA: Oxford University Press.
Gooren, Henri. 2010 Religious Conversion and Disaffiliation: Tracing Patterns of Change in Faith Practices. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Hardyck, Jane Allyn, and Marcia Braden. 1962 “Prophecy Fails Again: A Report of a Failure to Replicate.” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 65: 136–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0048636
Harvey, Graham. 1995 “Satanism in Britain Today.” Journal of Contemporary Religion 10: 283–296. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13537909508580747
Lewis, James R. 2013 “The Youth Crisis Model of Conversion: An Idea Whose Time has Passed?” Numen: International Review for the History of Religions, forthcoming.
----- 2012 “Conversion to Satanism.” In The Devil’s Party: Satanism in Modernity, edited by Jesper Aagaard Petersen and Per Faxneld, 145–166. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
----- 2011 “The Devil’s Demographics: Changes in the Satanic Milieu, 2001–2009.” Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review 2(2): 248–286.
----- 2010 “Fit for the Devil: Toward an Understanding of ‘Conversion’ to Satanism.” International Journal for the Study of New Religions 1: 117–138.
----- 2006 “New Data on Who Joins NRMs and Why: A Case Study of the Order of Christ/Sophia.” Journal of Alternative Spiritualities and New Age Studies 2: 91–104.
----- 2001 “Who Serves Satan? A Demographic and Ideological Profile.” Marburg Journal of Religion 6: 1–25.
Lewis, James R., and Andreas Bauman. 2011 “New Religions and the New Zealand Census: Are Meaningful Generalizations About NRM Members Still Possible?” International Journal for the Study of New Religions 2: 179–200.
Lewis, James R., and Nicholas M. Levine. 2010 Children of Jesus and Mary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lofland, John, and Rodney Stark. 1965 “Becoming a World-Saver: A Theory of Conversion to a Deviant Perspective.” American Sociological Review 30: 862–875. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2090965
Moody, Edward J. 1974 “Magical Therapy: An Anthropological Investigation of Contemporary Satanism.” In Religious Movements in Contemporary America, edited by Irving I. Zaretsky and Mark P. Leone, 355–382. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Nordquist, Ted A. 1978 Ananda Cooperative Village. Uppsala: Borgstroms.
Petersen, Jesper Aagard. 2013 “From Book to Bit: Enacting Satanism Online.” In Contemporary Esotericism, edited by Kennet Granholm and Egil Asprem, forthcoming. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.
----- 2009a “Satanists and Nuts: The Role of Schisms in Modern Satanism.” In Sacred Schisms: How Religions Divide, edited by James R. Lewis and Sarah M. Lewis, 218–247. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511581038.011
----- 2009b Contemporary Religious Satanism. Farnham: Ashgate.
Reitman, Janet. 2011 Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Rigal-Cellard, Bernadette. 2009 “Scientology Missions International: An Immutable Model of Technological Missionary Activity.” In Scientology, edited by James R. Lewis, 325–334. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331493.003.0017
Rochford, E. Burke. 2007 Hare Krishna Transformed, New York: New York University Press.
----- 1985 Hare Krishna in America, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
----- 1982 “Recruitment Strategies, Ideology, and Organization in the Hare Krishna Movement.” Social Problems 29: 399–410. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/800029
Schmidt, Joachim. 1992 Satanismus: Mythos und Wirklichkeit. Diagonal Verlag.
Shepherd, Gordon, and Gary Shepherd. 2010 Talking with the Children of God: Prophecy and Transformation in a Radical Religious Group. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.
Snow, David A., and Richard Machalek. 1984 “The Sociology of Conversion.” Annual Review of Sociology 10: 167–190. http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.10.080184.001123
Snow, David A., Louis A. Zurcher, Jr. and Sheldon Ekland-Olson. 1980 “Social Networks and Social Movements: A Microstructural Approach to Differential Recruitment.” American Sociological Review 45: 787–801. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2094895
Stark, Rodney, and William Sims Bainbridge. 1980 “Networks of Faith: Interpersonal Bonds and Recruitment to Cults and Sects.” The American Journal of Sociology 85: 1376–1395. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/227169
Published
2012-12-31
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Lewis, J. (2012). Cracks in the Network Conversion Paradigm. International Journal for the Study of New Religions, 3(2), 143-162. https://doi.org/10.1558/ijsnr.v3i2.143
