The Cultural Significance of New Religious Movements: The Case of Soka Gakkai.

From: Sociology of Religion | Date: September 22, 2001| Author: Dawson, Lorne L. | Copyright information

Lorne L. Dawson [*]

This paper advances previous arguments I have made about assessing the cultural significance of new religious movements (Dawson 998a, 1 998b) using the example of Soka Gakkai. An examination of this Japanese-based, but now world-wide, new religion highlights two things: (1) it demonstrates that there is an intimate relationship between the investigation of the "success" and the "significance" of a new religious movement, though the two concerns arc n...

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