Why Religious Movements Succeed or Fail:

A Revised General Model By Rodney Stark

ISKCON Congregational Development Ministry

Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences - Baylor University, Waco, Texas

Co-Director - Institute for Studies of Religion

Founding Editor - Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion

Honorary Professor of Sociology - Peking University, Beijing, China

Rodney Stark

Every year, hundreds of new religious movements appear.

Some are formed by disgruntled members from older groups.

Some will start because someone created or discovered a new religious culture and convinced others of its authenticity.

Statistics:

Regardless of their origins, almost every new group will have one thing in common: eventual failure.

Roughly, one religious movement out of 1,000 will attract more than 100,000 followers and last for 100 years.

Even most movements that achieve these modest results will be no more than a footnote in the history of religions.

Other things being equal, religious movements will succeed to the degree that:

Ten Propositions:

They retain cultural continuity with the conventional faiths of the societies within which they seek converts.

1.

Their doctrines are non-empirical.

2.

They maintain a medium level of tension with their surrounding environment – are strict, but not too strict.

3.

They have legitimate leaders with adequate authority to be effective◦A. Adequate authority requires clear doctrinal justifications for an effective and legitimate leadership

◦B. Authority is regarded as more legitimate and gains in effectiveness to the degree that members perceive themselves as participants in the system of authority.

4.

They can generate a highly motivated, volunteer, religious labor force, including many willing to proselytize.

5.

They maintain a level of fertility sufficient to at least offset member mortality.

6.

They compete against weak, local conventional religious organizations within a relatively unregulated religious economy.

7.

They sustain strong internal attachments, while remaining an open social network, able to maintain and form ties to outsiders.

8.

They continue to maintain sufficient tension with their environment – remain sufficiently strict.

9.

They socialize the young sufficiently well as to minimize both defection and the appeal of reduced strictness.

10.

For more information, please contact the

ISKCON Congregational Development Ministry

Headquarters: Sridham Mayapur, Cakra Building no. 128

Phone: (+91) 03472 – 245619Website: namahatta.orgEmail: cdministry@namahatta.org