New Religious Movements in the Works of Zeljko Mardesic

Zeljko Mardesic represents new religious movements in the context of the prevailing opinions about contemporary society in a social context, from the sociological and religious standpoint. In dealing with religious movements in different social periods, he had used terminology such as: sects, new sects, religious movements, the holy, new religiousness and/or new religion. As a sociologist, he finds the causes for the birth of new religious movements in the social processes of industrialization, urbanization, secularization and postmodernism. The pluralistic approach towards new religious movements with a special focus on the phenomenological approach is also noted. Besides believing that the true cause for the uprising of new religious movements is socially based, Mardesic also believes that it is primarily anthropologically based and that its roots are found in a permanent human desire for the sacral and holy. Adapted from the source document.