Citation

Harper B, Harper B. Sociol. Relig. 1993; 54(2): 171-192.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, Association for the Sociology of Religion)

DOI

10.2307/3712138

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article is about the movement-environment relationships of American marginal religious movements. It adds to the literature about the tensions surrounding contemporary movements by utilizing evidence from a historically broad range of cases, and by more broadly conceptualizing the conflict that surrounds them as existing within a range of social adaptation possibilities. Two temporal patterns of social adaptation for movements in America society are suggested. Within the context of a modified societal reaction framework we suggest characteristics of movements and the varieties of opposition and oppositional coalitions that are likely to result in different positive and negative locations on a social adaptation continuum. The relationship between social adaptation and the longer-term survival and success of marginal religious movements is discussed.