Element contents
Communal Societies and New Religious Movements
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 December 2023
Summary
Popular understanding of communal societies tends to focus on the 1960s hippie colonies and ignores the rich and long history of communalism in the United States. This Element corrects that misperception by exploring the synergy between new religious movements and communal living, including the benefits and challenges that grow out of this connection. It introduces definitions of key terms and vocabulary in the fields of new religious movements and communal studies. Discussion of major theories of communal success and the role of religion follows. The Element includes historical examples to demonstrate the ways in which new religious movements used communalism as a safe space to grow and develop their religion. The Element also analyzes why these groups have tended to experience conflicts with mainstream society.
- Type
- Element
- Information
- Online ISBN: 9781009357357Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication: 01 February 2024
References
Andelson, J. (1985). The gift to be single: Celibacy and religious enthusiasm in the community of true inspiration. Communal Societies 5, 1–32.Google Scholar
Arndt, K. J. R. (1965). George Rapp’s Harmony Society, 1785–1847. Vancouver, BC: Fairleigh Dickinson.Google Scholar
Arndt, K. J. R. (1978). A Documentary History of the Indiana Decade of the Harmony Society, 1814–1824, Volume II, 1820–1824. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana Historical Society.Google Scholar
Arndt, K. J. R. (1980). Harmony on the Connoquenessing: George Rapp’s First American Harmony, A Documentary History. Worcester, MA: Harmony Society Press.Google Scholar
Arndt, K. J. R. (1984). Economy on the Ohio, 1826–1834: George Rapp’s Third Harmony, A Documentary History. Worcester, MA: Harmony Society Press.Google Scholar
Arndt, K. J. R. (1993). George Rapp’s Re-established Harmony Society: Letters and Documents of the Baker-Henrici Trusteeship, 1848–1868. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Barker, E. (2004). Perspective: What are we studying? Nova Religio 8(1), 88–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barker, E. (2014). The not-so-new religious movements: Changes in “the cult scene” over the past forty years. Temenos 50(2), 235–56.Google Scholar
Barthel, D. L. (1984). Amana: From Pietist Sect to American Community. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Brown, D. (1990). Lectures at Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist studies. https://pietistschoolman.com/2011/07/27/anabaptist-and-pietist/.Google Scholar
Bruderhof community website. Heritage – Our founding. www.bruderhof.com/foundations/heritage.Google Scholar
Cornelli, G., & McKirahan, R. (2013). In Search of Pythagoreanism: Pythagoreanism as an Historiographical Category. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Davenport, S. (2022). Sex and Sects: The Story of Mormon Polygamy, Shaker Celibacy, and Oneida Complex Marriage. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press.Google Scholar
Donahue, P., host. (2022). “On beyond jealousy,” interview with Kerista members. Phil Donahue Show, July 1. Transcript on Kerista commune website, www.kerista.com/kerdocs/donahue.html accessed 9/21/2022.Google Scholar
Durnbaugh, D. (1991). Relocation of the German Bruderhof to England, South America and North America. Communal Societies 11, 62–77.Google Scholar
Fike, R., ed. (1998). Voices from the Farm: Adventures in Community Living. Summertown, TN: The Book.Google Scholar
Foster, L. (1991). Religion and Sexuality: The Shakers, the Mormons and the Oneida Community Champagne, IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Furchgott, E. (undated Kerista document). Multiple Parenting: The First Four Years. Center for Communal Studies, University of Southern Indiana, Kerista CS349-2-5.Google Scholar
Gaskin, S. (1976). This Season’s People: A Book of Spiritual Teachings. Summertown, TN: The Book.Google Scholar
Gehrtz, C. (2011). Anabaptist and pietist. https://pietistschoolman.com/2011/07/27/anabaptist-and-pietist/accessed 17/01/2023.Google Scholar
Grossmann, W. (1984). The origins of the true inspired at Amana. Communal Societies 4, 133–49.Google Scholar
Hoehnle, P. A. (1998). “The great change”: The reorganization of the Amana society, 1931–1933. PhD dissertation, Iowa State University.Google Scholar
Hoehnle, P. (2003). The Amana People: The History of a Religious Community. Iowa City, IA: Penfield Books.Google Scholar
Hostetler, J. A. (1974). Hutterite Society. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Ingram, W., host. (2017). “Turkey ritual” (transcript). Episode 2 in Study Religion podcast. Birmingham, AL: Department of Religious Studies, University of Alabama.Google Scholar
Janzen, R. (2005). The Hutterites and the Bruderhof: The relationship between old older religious society and a twentieth-century communal group. Mennonite Quarterly Review 79, 505–44.Google Scholar
Janzen, R. & Stanton, M. (2010). The Hutterites in North America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Kanter, R. M. (1972). Commitment and Community: Communes and Utopias in Sociological Perspective. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kanter, R. M. (1973). Communes: Creating and Managing the Collective Life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kerista Community. (n.d.). Social contract of Kerista’s tribe for children. Kerista Collection, Hamilton College Communal Societies Collection, Kerista Publications and Printed Materials Box 1.Google Scholar
Kerista Psycho Letters. (n.d.). Kerista collection CS349-2-13. Evansville, IN: Center for Communal Studies, University of Southern Indiana.Google Scholar
Lewis, J. R., ed. (2004). The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lockyer, J. (2009). From developmental communalism to transformative utopianism: an imagined conversation with Donald Pitzer. Communal Societies 29(1), 1–14.Google Scholar
Melton, J. G. (2004). Perspective: Toward a definition of “new religion.” Nova Religio 8(1), 73–87.Google Scholar
Miller, T. (1989). Identifying ‘cults’: Those lists of generalizations. Communities: Journal of Cooperative Living 88: 45–6.Google Scholar
Miller, T. (1990). A guide to the literature on the Hutterites. Communal Societies 10, 68–86.Google Scholar
Miller, T., ed. (1995a). America’s Alternative Religions. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Miller, T. (1999). The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, T. (2010). A matter of definition, just what is an intentional community? Communal Societies 30(1), 7–8.Google Scholar
Montero, R. (2019). The sources of early Christian communism. Church Life Journal, University of Notre Dame, https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/the-sources-of-early-christian-communism/.Google Scholar
Pitzer, D., ed. (1997). America’s Communal Utopias. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Randall, I. M. (2018). A Christian Peace Experiment: The Bruderhof Community in Britain, 1933–1942. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books.Google Scholar
Rettig, L. (1975). Amana Today: A History of the Amana Colonies from 1932 to the Present. Amana, IA: Amana Society.Google Scholar
Saliba, J. A. (1995). Understanding New Religious Movements. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans.Google Scholar
Shambaugh, B. M. H. (1931). Housebook, 18 June. Shambaugh family papers, box 22, folder 2. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Special Collections, University of Iowa Library.Google Scholar
Shambaugh, B. M. H. (1988). Amana: The Community of True Inspiration. Iowa City, IA: State Historical Society of Iowa.Google Scholar
Shantz, D. H. (2013). An Introduction to German Pietism: Protestant Renewal at the Dawn of Modern Europe. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Shupe, A., Bromley, D. G., & Darnell, S. E. (2004). The North American anti-cult movement: Vicissitudes of success and failure. In Lewis, J. R., ed., The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements, 184–206. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stevenson, D. (2014). The Farm Then and Now: A Model for Sustainable Living. Gabriola Island, British Columbia: New Society.Google Scholar
Stiriss, M. (2018). Voluntary Peasants: Life Inside the Ultimate American Commune: The Farm. Warwick, NY: New Beat Books.Google Scholar
Stuck, P., & Noe, W. (1931). Letter to members of the Amana society, June. Amana, IA: Collection of Amana Heritage Society.Google Scholar
Traugot, M. (1997). The “Great Changeover at the Farm”: What happens when a community doesn’t know its bottom line. Communities: Journal of Cooperative Living 54 (Spring): 56–60.Google Scholar
Tsomo, B. (1999). The history of Buddhist Monasticism and its Western adaptation. Excerpted from Blossoms of the Dharma: Living as a Buddhist Nun. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books. www.bhikkhuni.net/the-history-of-buddhist-monasticism-and-its-western-adaptation.Google Scholar
Way, B. (1979). The Odyssey of Kerista Village. Communities: Journal of Cooperative Living 36 (Jan/Feb): 17–21.Google Scholar
- 9
- Cited by