LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Cults: Leaders
built 220 days ago
Cults based on charismatic leadership often follow the routinization of charisma, as described by the German sociologist Max Weber. In their book Theory of Religion, Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge propose that the formation of cults can be explained through a combination of four models:
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[T]he same cults, after reaching a certain size and after losing their charismatic leaders may turn into an ordinary religious or political organization and the original cultish nature may be dropped. This is true about most of the social-democratic parties in Europe where the original parties were that way. For example compare
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Most cults require worship of or dependence upon the leader and encourage dependence upon other members or the whole group. Some demand a promise of commitment, an initiation ceremony, financial input, active evangelism, participation in ritual.
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It should be noted that in addition to aberrant, unorthodox, and/or heretical doctrines, many - but not all - religious cults ... have excessive or abusive sociological characteristics (e.g. authoritarian leadership patterns, strict conformity requirements, manipulative controls, etc.)
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The second factor in the growth of the cults is the breakdown of the family. Cults provide the family atmosphere many from broken homes long for; the cult leader often takes the place of a father figure.
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