Individual groups2022-03-24T14:33:38+00:00

Individual Groups and Movements

Inform takes every care to provide as accurate and balanced an account as possible, but we welcome corrections and comments. Please use the search function in the upper right hand corner to search, or contact Inform directly for more information.

Some of our information has been commissioned by external organisations, particularly the Religion Media Centre, CenSAMM and its Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millennial Movements (CDAMM); where this is the case links will take you to the host website.

The inclusion of a group, movement, spirituality, centre, or organisation on this website or in Inform’s archives does not imply any kind of value judgement; every group which falls within our intentionally broad area of interest and comes to our attention is added to our database. However, only a small number of the groups and organisations on our database appear on this website.

Branch Davidians

The Branch Davidians are an indirect splinter group of the Seventh‐day Adventist Church (SDA) whose members believe in the imminent return of Jesus and that living prophets can interpret God’s Word in the Bible.

Christian Zionism

Christian Zionism is a millenarian movement that draws adherents from different denominations and persuasions within the Christian faith.

Church of Almighty God

The Church of Almighty God, a Chinese millenarian movement, is also known as Eastern Lightning. This name was originally given to the group by outside observers.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‐day Saints

The basic beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the official name of the Church, known popularly as the LDS Church or the Mormon Church) can be summed up in its 13 Articles of Faith, the first of which states that members believe in God the Father, his son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.

Environmental Millennialism

In the 21st century, new forms of millenarianism emerge from science rather than religion. At first this may seem surprising since scientists are not given to eschatological speculation.

Ghost Dance and Standing Rock Sioux

This contemporary civil rights movement is intertwined with millenarian religion, forming part of a cycle of resistance to American colonial domination through ritual and prayer from the 1890 Ghost Dance to the 1970s American Indian Movement to the protest camps at Standing Rock (2016-2017).

ISIS / Islamic State in Iraq and Syria

The origins of the Islamic State – also known more widely as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) – can be traced back to the US‐led military invasion of Iraq in 2003.

ISKCON

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), popularly known as the Hare Krishna movement, has been one of the more visible minority religions in the West.

Jehovah’s Witnesses

Jehovah’s Witnesses are the followers of a Christian-based religion perhaps best known for their ‘door-to-door’ evangelizing activities.

Nation of Islam (NOI)

The Nation of Islam (NOI) began in Detroit’s black ghetto during the 1930s depression. The NOI was influenced heavily by the racial ideology of Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) who was a proponent of black nationalism and pan-Africanism.

Neturei Karta

The Neturei Karta (“Guardians of the City” in Aramaic) is a relatively small movement within the milieu of anti‐Zionist haredim (singular: haredi) or strictly Orthodox Jews.

Order of the Nine Angles (ONA/O9A)

The Order of Nine Angles (ONA) is a secret religious movement that originated in Britain in the 1970s and combines elements of occultism, Satanism, and mysticism in its beliefs and practices.

Plymouth Brethren Christian Church

The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (henceforth PBCC), also known as the Exclusive Brethren, is a branch of the wider Brethren movement, a group of evangelical Protestants whose origins can be traced to a series of interrelated groups of Christians who seceded from various mainline Christian denominations in the first half of the nineteenth century.

QAnon

QAnon is the name often given to the loose affiliation of users who belong to connected but discrete social media communities that host content supportive of the anonymous figure known as ‘Q’.

Rastafari

Rastafari originated in the 1930s in Jamaica. Aspects of the movement are both messianic and millenarian.

Sadrist Movement

The Sadrist Movement—named after prominent clerics from the al-Sadr family—emerged in Iraq in the 1990s amid the Shia Muslim uprising against President Saddam Hussein after his defeat in the Gulf War.

Strauss-Howe Generational Theory

The Strauss-Howe Generational Theory describes a recurring cycle of age cohorts called ‘generations’ with specific patterns of behaviour that are regarded as intertwined with the history of the United States of America.

Survivalists and Preppers

Survivalism is the practice of preparing for the imminent apocalyptic destruction of society which might be framed within either a religious or secular narrative. Survivalists are also known as ‘preppers’ because of this focus on preparation for catastrophe.

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