Para-Religious Movements

Virtual Tour of DSO's    Amway profile    List of DSO links

    Defining religion is not a simple task and drawing a clear line between the sacred and the secular is simply impossible. Many sociologists argue that religion involves anything dealing with an "ultimate meaning." These definitions (commonly referred to as functionalist definitions) allow us to look at beliefs and practices which are not commonly referred to as religious but share many similarities with religion. The problem with functionalist definitions, however, is they are often so broad that they can make the concept of religion meaningless. Other definitions (substantive definitions) refer to religion as involving something "supernatural." These definitions are more traditional and they narrow down the number of religions for investigation. Substantive definitions, however, often limit the scope of religion too much and they limit our abilities to investigate similarites between things generally accepted as sacred or secular.

    The arguement over defining religion has made it necesary to study things which do not seem to be either purely "secular" nor "sacred." Arthur Greil uses the term "para-religion" to "refer to phenomena which seem to share features with religious phenomena but which do not make explicit reference to a supernatural or superempirical realm." By make a category of "para-religious," we can begin to explore the similiarities between generally accepted sacred and secular concepts.

    Currently this page focuses on Direct Selling Organizations to introduce the concept of the para-religious. Direct Selling Organizations have often been accused of using "cult-like" practices to make money, but ultimately they are a business having the secular goal of making money. The following pages will hopefully provide you with a good insight into many religious aspects which can often be found in the "secular" world and will hopefully show the large overlap between the religious and the secular.

    The first part of my page is a Virtual Tour of DSO's. The purpose of this page is to visually show many religious aspects of different Direct Selling Organizations by taking you to their various web pages. The second part is a more detailed look at the Amway corporation. Amway is probably the most known Direct Selling Organization and has also faced a large amount of accusations of "cult-like" practices. Finally, I provided a list of links to many DSO web sights.

    These pages are a work in progress and hopefully in the future, it will expand beyond Direct Selling Organizations. I welcome any of your comments, suggestions for links, or anything else you may want to add to help with this project. Please enjoy.

    Created by  Christopher Smith.
    For Soc 257: New Religious Movements
    Spring Term, 1998.
    University of Virginia