Cult vs Sect

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Esdra

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Hi,

I’ve often read here the term “cult”.
So, first, before I ask my question, a linguistical question beforehand, as I am not a native-speaker of English:
What’s the difference between “cult” and “sect”?***

When I hear the term cult, I am thinking of prechristian pagan religions, like the Germanic gods, or the Celtic, the Greek or Romans. (But this could be, as “Kult” in German means exactly that. And the German term is never used in context with Christianity. Only with prechristian Religions, Esotericism and Occultism etc.).
**
So know the real porpuse of this thread:**

Isn’t it very subjective to call a religion or denomination (especially a denomination) a cult/sect (?)?
What makes a denomination to a cult?

Yours, in Christ,
 
A cult is something other people belong to. No one ever says, “I belong to a cult,” or “My cult is realy cool.” I have neve met anyone who admits to belonging to a cult.

I would regard a sect as a subdivision or an offshoot of another group.
 
Zenas said:
A cult is something other people belong to. No one ever says, “I belong to a cult,” or “My cult is really cool.” I have never met anyone who admits belonging to a cult.

I would regard a sect as a subdivision or an offshoot of another group.
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I see. But this doesn’t really explain the difference between cult and sect.

I mean in German “Sekte” means the same as you have just above written about “cult”.
 
Esdra said:
I mean in German “Sekte” means the same as you have just above written about “cult”.
Click to expand...

“Sekte” meinte ursprünglich einfach die Abspaltung einer religiösen Gemeinschaft von einer anderen. Heute ist der Begriff weitgehend negativ konnotiert und meint Gruppierungen, die darauf aus sind, ihre Mitglieder mit psychologischen Zwänge nan sich zu binden und/oder finanziell auszupressen.
“Kult” hat einen ähnlichen Bedeutungswandel vollzogen. In der Antike war ein Kult einfach eine religiöse Gemeinschaft, die eine zentrale Kulthandlung besaß. Heute versteht man darunter eher obskure und okkulte Gruppen.
Wenn man die wertfreien antiken Bedeutungen benutzt, war Christuntum damals sowohl Sekte als auch Kult. Es war aus dem Judentum abgespalten und hat eine zentrale Kulthandlung, die Eucharistie.
Scientology z.B. ist im heutigen Sinne eine Sekte (“Psychosekte”) aber kein Kult (keine Kulthandlungen whatsoever).
Nach antiker Lesung ist es weder das eine noch das andere, denn es wurde von nichts abgespalten.​

“Sect” origianlly meant a religious group that had separated itself from some other. Today it has a negative connotation and meansan organization working with psychologically and financially exploiting their members.
“Cult” in ancient times just meant a religious group with a central ritual act. Today it means obscure and occult groups.
If one takes the ancient meanings (without any negative connotation) Christiany was a sect and a cult. It was separated from judaism and has a central ritual act, the Eucharist.
 
When I think cult, cult is short for culture. Sect not so much, Sect is short for section, there I sorta see people following a larger belief system be it right or wrong, but mostly through there own free will.

Cult seems to take on darker side, are there Good cults? I don’t know, I’m asking? Off the top of my head I can’t think of one. I feel control and following through acceptance, peers etc. much more with Cult. I could be wrong, just saying.🤷
 
GaryTaylor said:
Cult seems to take on darker side, are there Good cults? I don’t know, I’m asking? Off the top of my head I can’t think of one.
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I guess, those are all long gone. I don’t know if they are nowadays reconstructed like all the neopagan movements.

I can think of: Isis, Demeter, Mithras, Dionysos, …
 
Esdra said:
I see. But this doesn’t really explain the difference between cult and sect.

I mean in German “Sekte” means the same as you have just above written about “cult”.
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Heresies in Greek originally meant an off-shoot or a splintering, almost always and with certainty focused around the cult of a personality. The two are similar.

Catholics certainly do belong to a cult. Our cult is Jesus Christ ; i.e., His Personality, and is centred upon or focused on Him ; not surprisingly, when people draw away from this focus of our cult, they become known as heretics, as they usually supplant their own personalities or the personalities of others for His, intentionally or not. Hence the famous rebuke from the Illustrious Apostle St. Paul mocking those who clung to a particular Apostle or presbyter or bishop, he asking (rhetorically), “Were you baptized in the name of Paul ? Or in the name of Peter ?” Etc.

Someone above, again, said no one confesses to belonging to a cult. This is silly (on the one confessing it) for that would mean they do not - and cannot possibly - have or belong to a culture.

Today, the mainstream or predominent culture is almost always defined by and centered around the cult of celebrity personalities, even if they be totally fictional ; hence, we have a celebrity culture, a cult of celebrity (popularity). Not surprising for a democratic society. We dress, talk, act like and emulate them ; whereas, (for example,) the Christian culture places Christ and His Saints as those we should emulate, and thus has the mark of being counter-culture, and thus the current predominant culture finds this foreign, alien, etc., and does not like it.

Pax Christi,
Tim
 
Heres the usages of the words cult and sect
CULT

The word cult has two primary meanings which diverged based on a change of usage over time.

**The older meaning **is of the external observances and rituals of a religion. This is the one used in descriptions of ancient religious practices and used in descriptions of various observances in modern religions (although less often nowadays because of the more common secondary meaning) such as in the term “cult of the saints” referring to devotional practices in veneration of the saints.

**The younger and more well known meaning **which is now almost the exclusive meaning beyond academic circles in the english-speaking world is that of a cohesive group of devotees adhering to a corpus of practices considered strongly heterodox by the surrounding society. This also has sub-meanings in that the word also carries connotations of the group being abusive and holding destructive practices and dogmas.
SECT

The word sect likewise carries two connotations although the differentiation between the two meanings is less diverging than that of the word cult

**The first meaning of the word sect **is that set means a religious group which holds a particular and distinctive set of beliefs, practices and philosophical ideals. In this meaning any religious group is a sect. Indian law for example uses this meaning in that a sect is any organised religious group

The second meaning is that of a smaller group that has split off from another larger group. This meaning in some countries carries negative impressions such as in France for example where the word sect takes the place of the second meaning of the word cult. This is in line with historic usage in Christian societies (particularly catholic countries) where the word sect denotes groups that have split from the Universal Church to follow a heretical set of doctrines (ie protestants) although nowadays its more usually in reference to destructive movements in accord with the second usage of the word cult.
I hope that this explanation is useful for you:)
 
:rolleyes:
Jehoshua said:
Heres the usages of the words cult and sect
CULT

The word cult has two primary meanings which diverged based on a change of usage over time.
SECT

The word sect likewise carries two connotations although the differentiation between the two meanings is less diverging than that of the word cult
The second meaning is that of a smaller group that has split off from another larger group. This meaning in some countries carries negative impressions such as in France for example where the word sect takes the place of the second meaning of the word cult. This is in line with historic usage in Christian societies (particularly catholic countries) where the word sect denotes groups that have split from the Universal Church to follow a heretical set of doctrines (ie protestants) although nowadays its more usually in reference to destructive movements in accord with the second usage of the word cult.
I hope that this explanation is useful for you:)
Click to expand...
Yes it is useful. It’s like I said in Post #3, only a lot better. I have never met anyone who admitted to belonging to a cult. Even those who belong to obvious cults would say, “No, our group is not a cult, our group is enlightened.” :rolleyes:
 
Jehoshua said:
Heres the usages of the words cult and sect
CULT

The word cult has two primary meanings which diverged based on a change of usage over time.

**The older meaning **is of the external observances and rituals of a religion. This is the one used in descriptions of ancient religious practices and used in descriptions of various observances in modern religions (although less often nowadays because of the more common secondary meaning) such as in the term “cult of the saints” referring to devotional practices in veneration of the saints.

**The younger and more well known meaning **which is now almost the exclusive meaning beyond academic circles in the english-speaking world is that of a cohesive group of devotees adhering to a corpus of practices considered strongly heterodox by the surrounding society. This also has sub-meanings in that the word also carries connotations of the group being abusive and holding destructive practices and dogmas.
SECT

The word sect likewise carries two connotations although the differentiation between the two meanings is less diverging than that of the word cult

**The first meaning of the word sect **is that set means a religious group which holds a particular and distinctive set of beliefs, practices and philosophical ideals. In this meaning any religious group is a sect. Indian law for example uses this meaning in that a sect is any organised religious group

The second meaning is that of a smaller group that has split off from another larger group. This meaning in some countries carries negative impressions such as in France for example where the word sect takes the place of the second meaning of the word cult. This is in line with historic usage in Christian societies (particularly catholic countries) where the word sect denotes groups that have split from the Universal Church to follow a heretical set of doctrines (ie protestants) although nowadays its more usually in reference to destructive movements in accord with the second usage of the word cult.
I hope that this explanation is useful for you:)
Click to expand...
Hi

thank you all of you first of all. (² Anatheist, be aware, it’s not allowed to post in another language than English here! )

Now to you, Jehoshua.

Oh I see now the difference! 🙂
First of all you could more or less say sect and cult are synonymos.
Second, so Hare Krishna or Universal Living or the Moon-Sect would be a cult then by your definition,
whereas LDS or JWs would be a sect, right?

In German one doesn’t distinguish like above. Everything is called “Sekte” and never a “Kult” (expetion: Satanism is sometimes referred to be a cult, or other New Religious, Esoteric movements etc)
Well, and like one mentioned already here, in Catholic dominated countries (like in Austria) people label nearly everything, some even the Lutherans or Reformed Churches, as a sect. I know that this isn’t the official Catholic position! … in the meantime! ;))
 
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the words cult and sect are generally not synonymous in contemporary English usage since the perjorative (negative) association held with the second meaning of the word sect (a group that split off from another) is generally not implied in the English speaking world, that association is generally only common in continental europe. So generally in the anglosphere the word sect simply means a group that has split off from a larger group or more generally any subgroup of a larger religion. (say anglicanism as a sect of christianity)

The word cult as I said is the word generally used to refer to a group that holds to a set of beliefs considered strongly heteredox by the surrounding society. That is groups considered to be either completely bizzarre or alternatively destructive. So to this usage it generally depends on the society, so a group may not be considered a cult in one country yet in another they would be not be considered as such.

To the groups you did mention though, it depends on the society. But in my society (australia) generally Hare Krishna’s are considered a sect (a subgroup of hinduism) without negative association, Unitarian Universalists are considered a cult. Mormons and JW’s are varyingly considered as either cults(by most orthodox christians) as both sects(subdivision of larger religion) and cults by a significant proportion of people and by some as merely differing sects of christianity. This is of course holding to the meanings i mentioned earlier in this post.
 
At my college, a cult was a group which perverted the religion into something they wanted it to be. Also, members are often kept in the group by fear or mind control of some sort.

A sect is a group of a religion that believes the group is the only one going to Heaven.

A denomination is a group of a religion that believes it and other groups of the same religion can get to Heaven.
 
You know what? the culture is considered as one of the most important tool for a human being, in fact for us, to survive in this particular world. If we really go in depth of this particular term, then we see there is a huge number of books and literature regarding its history, existence, and even regarding its layers too. But one and the most important point to consider is that although it is very thin but we must not even try to scratch it.
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