New religious movement
A member of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness proselytising on the streets of Moscow, Russia A new religious movement ( NRM ), also known as a new religion or alternative spirituality , is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or part of a wider religion, in which case they are distinct from pre-existing denominations. Some NRMs deal with the challenges posed by the modernizing world by embracing individualism, whereas others seek tightly knit collective means. [1] Scholars have estimated that NRMs now number in the tens of thousands worldwide, with most of their members living in Asia and Africa. Most have only a few members, some have thousands, and a few have more than a million members. [2] New religions have often faced a hostile reception from established religious organisations and various secular institutions. In Western nations, a secula...