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:''For the original sense of "religious practice", see Cult (religious practice). For religious groups with modern origins see New religious movement and List of new religious movements. For other uses see Cult (disambiguation).'' In the sociological classifications of religious movements in English, a cult is a religious or social group with socially deviant or novel beliefs and practices. However, whether any particular group's beliefs and practices are sufficiently deviant or novel is often unclear, thus making a precise definition problematic.〔OED, citing ''American Journal of Sociology'' 85 (1980), p. 1377: "Cults(), like other deviant social movements, tend to recruit people with a grievance, people who suffer from a some variety of deprivation."〕〔Dr. Chuck Shaw – (Sects and Cults ) – Greenville Technical College – Retrieved 21 March 2013.〕 In the English speaking world, the word often carries derogatory connotations, but in other European languages, it is used as English-speakers use the word "religion", sometimes causing confusion for English-speakers reading material translated from other languages.〔T.L. Brink (2008) Psychology: A Student Friendly Approach. "Unit 13: Social Psychology". pp 320 ()〕〔Olson, Paul J. 2006. "The Public Perception of 'Cults' and 'New Religious Movements'." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 45 (1): 97–106〕 The word "cult" has always been controversial because it is (in a pejorative sense) considered a subjective term, used as an ''ad hominem'' attack against groups with differing doctrines or practices, which lacks a clear or consistent definition.〔Dr. Chuck Shaw - (Sects and Cults ) - Greenville Technical College - Retrieved 21 March 2013.〕〔Bromley, David Melton, J. Gordon 2002. Cults, Religion, and Violence. West Nyack, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press.〕 Beginning in the 1930s, cults became the object of sociological study in the context of the study of religious behavior.〔Erwin Fahlbusch, Geoffrey William Bromiley – (The Encyclopedia of Christianity: P-Sh, Volume 4 ) page 897. Retrieved 21 March 2013.〕 Certain groups have been labelled as cults and have been opposed by the Christian countercult movement for their unorthodox beliefs. Since the 1970s, some groups have been opposed by the anti-cult movement, partly motivated in reaction to acts of violence committed by members of some groups. Some of the claims by the anti-cult movement have been disputed by other scholars and by the news media, leading to further controversy. Public and governmental reactions to the cult issue have also been a source of controversy. ==Terminological history== The word "cult" was originally used not to describe a group of religionists, but for the act of worship or religious ceremony. It was first used in the early 17th century, borrowed via the French ''culte, ''from Latin ''cultus'' (worship). This, in turn, was derived from the adjective ''cultus'' (inhabited, cultivated, worshiped), based on the verb ''colere'' (care, cultivate).〔http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cult〕 The word "culture" is also derived from the Latin words ''cultura'' and ''cultus'', which in general terms refers to the customary beliefs, social forms and material traits of a religious or social group.〔(culture ) - Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 25 May 2014.〕 While the literal sense of the word in English is still in use, a derived sense of "excessive devotion" arose in the 19th century. The terms ''cult'' and ''cultist'' came to be used in medical literature in the United States in the 1930s for what would now be termed faith healing, especially for the US Holiness movement. This experienced a surge of popularity at the time, but extended to other forms of alternative medicine as well.〔In W. S. Taylor, 'Science and cult', ''Psychological Review'', Vol 37(2), March 1930, ''cultist'' is still used in the sense that would now be expressed by "religionist", i.e. anyone adopting a religious worldview as opposed to a scientific one. In the ''New York State Journal of Medicine'' of 1932, p. 84 (and other medical publications of the 1930s; e.g. Morris Fishbein, ''Fads and Quackery in Healing: An Analysis of the Foibles of the Healing Cults'', 1932), "cultist" is used of those adhering to what was then called "healing cults", and would now be referred to as faith healing, but also of other forms of alternative medicine ("cultist" (in quotes) of a chiropractor in ''United States naval medical bulletin'', Volume 28, 1930, p. 366). 〕 The concept of a "cult" as a sociological classification was introduced in 1932 by American sociologist Howard P. Becker as an expansion of German theologian Ernst Troeltsch's church-sect typology. Troeltsch's aim was to distinguish between three main types of religious behavior: churchly, sectarian and mystical. Becker created four categories out of Troeltsch's first two by splitting ''church'' into "ecclesia" and "denomination", and ''sect'' into "sect" and "cult". Like Troeltsch's "mystical religion", Becker's cults were small religious groups lacking in organization and emphasizing the private nature of personal beliefs. Later sociological formulations built on these characteristics, placing an additional emphasis on cults as deviant religious groups "deriving their inspiration from outside of the predominant religious culture".〔Richardson, 1993 p. 349〕 This is often thought to lead to a high degree of tension between the group and the more mainstream culture surrounding it, a characteristic shared with religious sects.〔Stark and Bainbridge, 1987 p. 25〕 In this sociological terminology, ''sects'' are products of religious schism and therefore maintain a continuity with traditional beliefs and practices, while ''cults'' arise spontaneously around novel beliefs and practices.〔Stark and Bainbridge, 1987 p. 124〕 By the late 1930s, the Christian countercult movement began using the term ''cult'' to what would formerly have been termed heresy.〔 ''The Chaos of Cults'', by J.K.van Baalen, 1938, 2nd revised and enlarged ed. (1956 ). "cult" in the sense of "heresy" is also found in J.Oswald Sanders, ''Heresies Ancient and Modern'' (1948). 〕 This usage became mainstream by the 1960s, via the best-selling ''The Kingdom of the Cults'' (1965). This terminological development, which had so far been characteristic of the religious sociology of the United States, entered international use with the "ritual abuse" moral panic of the 1980s, which originated in the United States. The late 1980s and early 1990s saw the international spread throughout most of the Anglosphere and some parts of Europe.〔A European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Sectarianism was set up in 1994.〕 Also from the 1990s, as part of the discrimination discourse at the height of the US "culture war", US neopagan religions, especially Wicca, began to protest through literature over the classification of these movements as cults as discriminatory,〔"This book tells you why the propaganda about and misrepresentation of Witches as evil, Satan-worshipping cultists is absolutely false" Scott Cunningham, ''The Truth about Witchcraft'' (1992).〕 because of this usage of "cult" began to be discouraged in favour of the neutral new religious movement in sociological literature.〔Paul J. Olson, The Public Perception of “Cults” and “New Religious Movements” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion; Mar2006, Vol. 45 Issue 1, 97-106〕 Proponents of such an approach within the study of new religious movements have in turn been denounced as "procult apologists" by adherents of the Christian anti-cult movement.〔so Margaret Singer, Janja Lalich, ''Cults in Our Midst'' (1995), in reference to Eileen Barker. See also Tim Stafford, "The Kingdom of the Cult Watchers", Christianity Today (October 7, 1991).〕 An anti-cult movement comparable to the one in the United States originated in Russia in the 1990s. In 2008, the Russian Interior Ministry prepared a list of "extremist groups", which included groups adhering to militant Islamism and "Pagan cults".〔''The new nobility : the restoration of Russia's security state and the enduring legacy of the KGB'', Author: Andreĭ Soldatov; I Borogan, Publisher: New York, NY : PublicAffairs, 2010. pages 65-66〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cult」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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