Sect, Sectarianism

(Lat. secta, "party, school, faction," perhaps deriving from the past participle either of secare, "to cut, to separate," or of sequi, "to follow"). A group whose identity partially consists of belonging to a larger social body, typically a religious body. The sect's identity is further derived from its principal leader or from a distinctive teaching or practice. The term has regularly been applied to groups that break away from existing religious bodies, such as the early Christians who separated from Judaism or the Protestants who separated from Roman Catholicism. The term has also been applied to such groups as maintain their identity without separating from the larger religious body, for example, the Pharisees among the Jews or the Puritans in the Church of England. In the broadest sense even an unorganized popular religious movement can be called a sect. Occasionally some condemnation or criticism of the group so named may be implied.

"Sectarianism" in a narrow sense denotes zeal for, or attachment to, a sect. Likewise, it connotes an excessively zealous and doctrinaire narrow - mindedness that would quickly judge and condemn those who disagree. In a broader sense, however, "sectarianism" denotes the historical process by which all the divisions in major world religions have come about. In the history of Christianity, for example, sectarianism is a prevalent theme from the Judaizers and Nicolaitans of the NT to the many new denominations emerging in recent times.

Sociologists of religion have appropriated the term "sect" as a label for a specific type of religious movement. In the typology of religious movements that has developed from the pioneering work of Ernst Troeltsch, the sect is a formally organized religious body that arises in protest against and competition with the pervasive religion of a society.

The pervasive religion, whether Jewish, Islamic, or Christian, is classified as a "church" or "denomination." The pervasive religion is highly organized and deeply integrated into the society's social and economic structure, but it makes few demands on members for active participation or personal commitment. The sect, however, demands a high degree of participation and a suitable display of individual loyalty and spiritual commitment. While the church has compromised and accommodated its doctrines and practices to the secular society, the sect rejects all such accommodations or compromises and sets itself against both church and secular society to defend a purer doctrine and practice. Comparative study of the many Christian sects has led scholars to suggest several different categories of sect types such as the conversionist, the adventist, and the gnostic. The organization and government of most sects are more democratic than that of a church or denomination; likewise, the leadership is frequently less experienced and nonprofessional.

The life span of a sect is usually short. Many, but not all, sects gradually lose their sectarian character and acquire the status of a church after a generation or two. Thus, modern Protestant denominations began as sects. Yet, not all sects mature into churches. The so - called established sect manages to avoid accommodation and compromise and keeps its spirit of religious protest and opposition to secular society viable indefinitely.

H K Gallatin
(Elwell Evangelical Dictionary)

Bibliography
R K Mac Master, N C E , XIII; T F O'Dea, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, XIV; H R Niebuhr, Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, XIII, and The Social Sources of Denominationalism; W J Warner, A Dictionary of the Social Sciences; W J Whalen, N C E , XIII; W T Whitley, H E R E , XI; E Troeltsch, The Social Teachings of the Christian Churches; B R Wilson, Sects and Society: A Sociological Study of the Elim Tabernacle, Christian Science, and Christadelphians; J Wilson, Religion in American Society: The Effective Presence; J M Yinger, Religion in the Struggle for Power.