Pseudoreligion or pseudotheology is a pejorative for a non-mainstream belief-system or philosophy which is functionally similar to a religious movement, typically having a founder, principal text, liturgy and faith-based beliefs.[1][2]

Belief systems such as Christian Science[3] or Nation of Islam[4] have been referred to as pseudoreligions, as have various New Age religions, as well as political ideologies such as Nazism and Positive Christianity.[5]

Examples of marginal movements with founding figures, liturgies and recently invented traditions that have been studied as legitimate social practices include various New Age movements,[6] and millennaristic movements such as the Ghost Dance and South Pacific cargo cults.[7]

Difference with religion

Quasi-religions

In 1963, German-American philosopher Paul Tillich introduced a distinction between pseudo-religions and quasi-religions. He described pseudo-religions as movements which intentionally deceive adherents through their similarities with mainstream religions, while quasi-religions are non-religious movements which have unintended similarities to religions.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Biever, Bruce (1976). Religion, Culture and Values: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Motivational Factors in Native Irish and American Irish Catholicism. Arno Press, a New York Times Company. p. 165. ISBN 0-405-09319-5.
  2. ↑ Nasr, Seyyed Hossein (1993). The Need for a Sacred Science. SUNY Press. p. 61. ISBN 0-7914-1517-1.
  3. ↑ Olston, Albert B. (1 February 2003). Facts and Fables of Christian Science. Kessinger Publishing. p. 303. ISBN 978-0-7661-2991-7. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
  4. ↑ McCloud, Sean (1 March 2004). "Monitoring the Marginal Masses". Making the American Religious Fringe: Exotics, Subversives, and Journalists, 1955–1993. UNC Press. ISBN 0-8078-5496-4. William Buckley's more conservative National Review dubbed the group a "pseudo-religion." Writing in Ebony, Hans J. Massaquoi concurred, calling the Nation of Islam a "quasi-religion."
  5. ↑ Grunberger, Richard (1995). The 12-Year Reich: A Social History of Nazi Germany 1933–1945. Da Capo Press. pp. 72–75. ISBN 0-306-80660-6.
  6. ↑ MacDonald, Jeffery L. (December 1995). "Inventing Traditions for the New Age: A Case Study of the Earth Energy Tradition". Anthropology of Consciousness. 6 (4): 31–45. doi:10.1525/ac.1995.6.4.31.
  7. ↑ Errington, Frederick (May 1974). "Indigenous Ideas of Order, Time, and Transition in a New Guinea Cargo Movement". American Ethnologist. 1 (2): 255–267. doi:10.1525/ae.1974.1.2.02a00030.
  8. ↑ Tillich, Paul (1963). "Christianity and the Encounter of the World Religions". In Scharlemann, Robert P. (ed.). ReSchriften [Religious writings]. Hauptwerke. Vol. 5. Walter de Gruyter (published 1988). p. 293. ISBN 9780899253817. Retrieved 26 December 2013. Sometimes, what I call quasi-religions are called pseudo-religions, but this is as imprecise as it is unfair. 'Pseudo' indicates an intended but deceptive similarity; 'quasi' indicates a genuine similarity, not intended, but based on points of identity, and this, certainly, is the situation in cases like Fascism and Communism, the most extreme examples of quasi-religions today.
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