Being Human: Symbolic Orientation in New Religious Movements

Abstract

The emergence of new religious movements in the western world, and particularly in the United States, has served to call into question basic notions of human identity. New religious forms and practices, whether imports from other cultures, products of indigenous experi- mentation, or some amalgamation of foreign and domestic elements, directly challenge long-standing assumptions of what a human being is and how a human being is related to the larger environment of social and interpersonal relations. In America, the traditional post-industrial ethic, and ethos, of "utilitarian individualism" - the conviction that things are to be used and people are to be useful-has been challenged by new religious movements of both the therapeutic and totalitarian varieties.! Even when effective administrative, mass-marketing and promotional techniques are employed, they seem to be used for a different agenda of human values than simply utility or economic advantage. The individual is called upon to play a different role in a dramatically different set of social relations. Whether it is "human potential" or "god-realization" there is a different range of experience.