III. THE ''NEW RELIGIONS'' AND THE STUDY OF RELIGION

Some of the new religions were generally "new," for example, Scientology and the Prosperos. (See Robert Ellwood, Jr., Religious And Spiritual Groups in Modern America, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: 1973.) Yet we find, even in these cases, a rejection of absolute novelty when, for example, L. Ron Hubbard declares that Scientology is "a direct extension of the work of Gautama Siddhartha Buddha." (Volunteer Minister's Handbook) Thus, even in these cases, there are elements of belief, practice, inspiration, or ritual that have antecedents or parallels in older and/or other traditions.

Historians of religion remind us that "new religious movements" are always emerging. For example, historians pointed to 19th century America as a century in which "new religious movements" sprang up all across the country, or to 20th century Japan especially after WWII where a similar phenomenon was observed. Most of the 19th century American cases were variant readings of Christianity, but "new" nonetheless. (See Mary Farrell Bednarowski, New Religions and the Theological Imagination in America, Bloomington, IN: 1989.) There were Shakers and Quakers, Mormons and New Lights, Oneidians and New Harmonians, and a thousand others. In the Japanese case, most of the new religious movements had their roots in Buddhism, the most well known is Sokka Gakkai. This led these same historians to make the following correlations: (i) that while new religious movements are continually emerging, they generally have a very short life. Emerging around a charismatic or prophetic or revelatory figure, they often disappeared within 2-3 years. And (ii) the some few that did endure came to be recognized as fully legitimate religious traditions. Consider, for example, the Mormons, Church of Christ, Scientists, and Seventh-day Adventists, all of whom were widely attacked when they emerged in the 19th century, but are now considered "legitimate" religious communities. The Bahai community is a non-North American example of this same phenomenon as is Sokka Gakkai in Japan with its Buddhist roots.