AIS: Cults, Power, and Politics.

Catalog description

This course examines how cults influence, and are influenced by, politics. We will discuss the structure of cults and the psychological/relational manipulation of cult members. The course will then shift toward how state regimes use cult personalities to further entrench their positions of power using examples from North Korea, China, and Russia. Additionally, we will discuss how religious cults have threatened political structures using examples from the Münster Rebellion, Branch Davidians, Peoples Temple, Scientology, and many others. Finally, students will evaluate warnings of cult behavior in religious and political structure as well as judge Christian practices of discernment and intervention.