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A new religious movement (NRM) is a religious community or spiritual group of modern origins, which has a peripheral place within its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or part of a wider religion, in which case they are distinct from pre-existing denominations. Religious studies scholars contextualize the rise of NRMs in modernity, relating it as a product of and answer to modern processes of secularization, globalization, detraditionalization, fragmentation, reflexivity, and individualization. Some NRMs deal with the challenges posed by the modernizing world by embracing individualism whereas others seek tightly knit collective means.〔Clarke, Peter B. 2006. New Religions in Global Perspective: A Study of Religious Change in the Modern World. New York: Routledge.〕 Many scholars studying the sociology of religion prefer to use the term "New Religious Movement" as a neutral alternative to the word ''cult'', which is often considered derogatory.〔Sreenivasan, J. 2008. Utopias in American History: ABC-CLIO.〕〔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〕 Scholars continue to try to reach definitions and define boundaries. Scholars have estimated that NRMs now number in the tens of thousands world-wide, with most of their members living in Asia and Africa. Most have only a few members, some have thousands, and only very few have more than one million members.〔Eileen Barker, 1999, "New Religious Movements: their incidence and significance", ''New Religious Movements: challenge and response'', Bryan Wilson and Jamie Cresswell editors, Routledge ISBN 0415200504〕 ==Definitions== Although there is no one criterion or set of criteria for describing a group as a 'new religious movement', use of the term usually requires that the group be both ''of recent origin'' and ''different from existing religions''.〔 Some scholars also have a more restricted approach to what counts as 'different from existing religions'. For them, 'difference' applies to a faith that, although it may be seen as part of an existing religion, meets with rejection from that religion for not sharing the same basic creed, or declares itself either separate from the existing religion or even 'the only right' faith. Other scholars expand their measurement of difference, considering religious movements new when, taken from their traditional cultural context, they appear in new places, perhaps in modified forms. NRMs do not necessarily share a set of particular attributes, but have been "assigned to the fringe of the dominant religious culture", and "exist in a relatively contested space within society as a whole".〔The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements, (Oxford University Press, 2008) 17〕 NRMs vary in terms of leadership; authority; concepts of the individual, family, and gender; teachings; organizational structures; and in other ways. These variations have presented a challenge to social scientists in their attempts to formulate a comprehensive and clear set of criteria for classifying NRMs.〔''Religion in the Modern World'', p. 270, Retrieved 22 November 2006.〕 Generally, Christian denominations are not seen as new religious movements; nevertheless, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science, and the Shakers have been studied as NRMs.〔Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition, ''New Religious Movements''〕〔Paul J. Olson, ''Public Perception of "Cults" and "New Religious Movements"'', Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2006, 45 (1): 97-106〕 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「new religious movement」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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