Religious Studies   

Sociologists of religion provide a taxonomy for identifying religious groups beyond the normative title of ‘church’—specifically sects and cults. Sects provide an alternative religious society often derived from a larger religious entity. A cult is constellated around a seer or a new revelation specific to one or two individuals. This course will take these sociological identifiers and show how they look in the religious landscape of America. Specifically, we will consider five movements or sects and demonstrate the ways in which each fall within these sociological categories: Jehovah’s Witnesses, Church of Latter-Day Saints, Scientology, Westboro Baptist Church and the “Spiritual not Religious” adherents.