{ "model": { "rank": 12283, "code": "thing-q477544", "model_id": "vr.tr.new-religious-movement", "name": "new religious movement", "purpose": "Let an agent explain new religious movements as a scholarly category, relay their variety, origins and study from religious studies sources with attribution, describe specific traditions neutrally as their adherents and scholars present them, and distinguish the neutral term from pejorative labels and from established religions.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.ORG", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q477544/", "tier": 2, "score": 40, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Chinese salvationist religion", "Christian new religious movements", "shinshūkyō", "Mahikari", "Korean new religions", "heterodox teaching", "Humanistic Buddhism", "Western Sufism", "Hebrew Roots", "large-group awareness training", "Aiyy Faith", "Chinese religions of fasting" ], "aliasCount": 12, "merged": 12, "knownIn": 40, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q477544", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q477544", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-13T05:44:28Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 3, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q477544", "registryId": "vr.tr.new-religious-movement", "name": "new religious movement", "version": "0.2.0-wave.3", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.ORG" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q477544/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.new-religious-movement", "name": "new religious movement", "purpose": "Let an agent explain new religious movements as a scholarly category, relay their variety, origins and study from religious studies sources with attribution, describe specific traditions neutrally as their adherents and scholars present them, and distinguish the neutral term from pejorative labels and from established religions.", "definition": "A religious or spiritual group of modern origin, generally arising since the mid-19th century, that is peripheral to a society s dominant religions or that combines existing traditions in new ways, including Japanese shinshukyo such as Mahikari, Korean new religions, Chinese salvationist religions, Christian-derived movements and many others; scholars use the neutral term new religious movement in preference to pejorative labels such as cult or heterodox teaching, and such movements vary widely in size, beliefs and relations with wider society.", "what_it_is_for": "Not applicable; a category of religious groups.", "affordances": [ "explain the category", "relay variety and origins", "describe traditions neutrally", "distinguish from pejorative labels" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Modern origin", "Peripheral to mainstream", "Great variety", "Neutral scholarly term" ], "appearance": "Not a visible object; religious groups.", "visual_identification": [ "Religious group of modern origin", "Shinshukyo such as Mahikari, Korean new religions, Chinese salvationist religions, Christian new religious movements", "Established religions are older and mainstream; cult and heterodox teaching are pejorative labels in most usage" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "term adopted by scholars", "typical_range": "1970s", "unit": "period", "note": "" }, { "quantity": "Japanese new religions", "typical_range": "hundreds", "unit": "count", "note": "estimates" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "Japanese shinshukyo such as Tenrikyo, Soka Gakkai and Mahikari", "Korean new religions such as Cheondogyo and the Unification movement", "Chinese salvationist religions such as Yiguandao", "Christian new religious movements", "movements drawing on Hindu, Buddhist and Western esoteric traditions", "new religions in Africa and the Americas" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "religious movement", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "religion", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is studied in", "target": "religious studies", "why": "and sociology of religion" }, { "relation": "is exemplified by", "target": "Mahikari", "why": "a Japanese new religion" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Freedom of religion protections", "Registration and recognition laws that vary by country and are contested", "Consumer protection and safeguarding laws applied to all organisations" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Using pejorative labels as neutral description", "Treating all movements alike", "Ignoring documented harms where courts or inquiries have found them, which should be attributed", "Disrespect toward adherents" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What new religious movements are.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is a new religious movement, and why do scholars prefer the term to cult or heterodox teaching?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about the category, a specific movement or a personal situation?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "kinds", "name": "Kinds", "description": "Kinds.", "findings": [ { "id": "kinds-finding", "name": "Kinds", "description": "Kinds.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are shinshukyo, Korean new religions, Chinese salvationist religions and Christian new religious movements?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific movement?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "study", "name": "Study", "description": "Study.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "origins", "name": "Origins", "description": "Origins and growth.", "findings": [ { "id": "origins-finding", "name": "Origins", "description": "Origins.", "questions": [ { "text": "Why do new religious movements arise, and how do they grow and change, as scholars explain?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "relations", "name": "Relations", "description": "Relations with society.", "findings": [ { "id": "relations-finding", "name": "Relations", "description": "Relations.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do movements relate to states, media and mainstream religions, and what controversies have arisen, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral and attributed?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "traditions", "name": "Traditions", "description": "Traditions.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "japan", "name": "Japan", "description": "Japan and Korea.", "findings": [ { "id": "japan-finding", "name": "Japan", "description": "Japan.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the main Japanese and Korean new religions, presented as they and scholars describe them?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "elsewhere", "name": "Elsewhere", "description": "China and the West.", "findings": [ { "id": "elsewhere-finding", "name": "Elsewhere", "description": "Elsewhere.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are Chinese salvationist religions and Western new religious movements?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific tradition?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Law and support.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "law", "name": "Law", "description": "Law.", "findings": [ { "id": "law-finding", "name": "Law", "description": "Law.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do laws on religious freedom and registration treat new religious movements in different countries?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits freedom of religion?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "support", "name": "Support", "description": "Support.", "findings": [ { "id": "support-finding", "name": "Support", "description": "Support.", "questions": [ { "text": "Where can people and families seek neutral information and support about involvement in a movement?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the user seeking personal help, which needs qualified support?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should shinshukyo and Chinese salvationist religion be separate primary entries?", "How should religious studies sources be linked?", "The registry alias heterodox teaching is pejorative and should be marked as such" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "organisation or institution", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a new religious movement, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain new religious movements as a scholarly category, relay their variety, origins and study from religious studies sources with attribution, describe specific traditions neutrally as their adherents and scholars present them, and distinguish the neutral term from pejorative labels and from established religions.", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "collective" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Chinese salvationist religion, Christian new religious movements, shinshūkyō, Mahikari, Korean new religions, heterodox teaching, Humanistic Buddhism, Western Sufism, Hebrew Roots, large-group awareness training, Aiyy Faith, Chinese religions of fasting.", "12 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 40 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a new religious movement, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "a social arrangement between people", "physicalCharacter": [ "Acts through people, and only through them.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. Recognised by name, register entry and the people acting in its name, and those change while it stays the same body." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "Chinese salvationist religion", "Christian new religious movements", "shinshūkyō", "Mahikari", "Korean new religions", "heterodox teaching", "Humanistic Buddhism", "Western Sufism", "Hebrew Roots", "large-group awareness training", "Aiyy Faith", "Chinese religions of fasting" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 40 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 12 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one new religious movement from another, and a new religious movement from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a new religious movement, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a new religious movement, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a new religious movement is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a new religious movement, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a new religious movement, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a new religious movement is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a new religious movement sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a new religious movement, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a new religious movement, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a new religious movement is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a new religious movement from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a new religious movement, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a new religious movement, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a new religious movement is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a new religious movement passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a new religious movement between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a new religious movement, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a new religious movement, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a new religious movement is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a new religious movement, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a new religious movement is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a new religious movement, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a new religious movement, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a new religious movement is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "people-and-responsibility", "name": "People, roles and responsibility", "description": "Who stands in what relation to a new religious movement.", "rationale": "Social things are defined by the relations people hold to them, and those relations change without the thing changing.", "layers": [ { "id": "roles-and-parties", "name": "Roles and parties", "description": "The roles that exist around a new religious movement and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a new religious movement, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a new religious movement, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a role over a new religious movement, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a role over a new religious movement is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ownership-and-accountability", "name": "Ownership and accountability", "description": "Who answers for a new religious movement and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a new religious movement sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a new religious movement, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about responsibility for a new religious movement, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once responsibility for a new religious movement is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "legal-identity", "name": "Legal identity and mandate", "description": "What new religious movement is in law and what it exists to do.", "rationale": "Legal identity survives changes of name, address, staff and premises, which is exactly why it must be recorded separately from all of them.", "layers": [ { "id": "registration", "name": "Legal form and registration", "description": "Form, register, identifiers and jurisdiction.", "findings": [ { "id": "registration-record", "name": "Registration and identifiers", "description": "What names this body unambiguously in law.", "questions": [ { "id": "registration-record-q01", "text": "What legal form does new religious movement take, in which register, under which identifier?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "registration-record-q02", "text": "What survives a rename, a merger or a move of premises, and what does not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mandate", "name": "Mandate and governing instrument", "description": "The purpose it is bound to and the document that binds it.", "findings": [ { "id": "mandate-record", "name": "Mandate and its source", "description": "What it may do, and the instrument that says so.", "questions": [ { "id": "mandate-record-q01", "text": "What is the mandate of new religious movement, and which founding or governing instrument grants it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "mandate-record-q02", "text": "What lies outside the mandate, and what should an agent do when asked for it?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "governance-and-membership", "name": "Governance, membership and decision rights", "description": "Who decides in new religious movement and who belongs to it.", "rationale": "Authority inside an organisation is held by roles, not people, and an agent needs to know which role can commit it.", "layers": [ { "id": "decision-rights", "name": "Decision rights", "description": "Bodies, offices and what each may bind.", "findings": [ { "id": "authority-map", "name": "Who may bind the organisation", "description": "The offices that can commit it and their limits.", "questions": [ { "id": "authority-map-q01", "text": "Which bodies or offices of new religious movement may take which decisions, and up to what limit?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "authority-map-q02", "text": "What evidence shows that a given person currently holds that office?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "membership", "name": "Membership and affiliation", "description": "Who counts as part of it and on what terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "membership-rules", "name": "Membership and its evidence", "description": "Classes of member, how membership starts and ends.", "questions": [ { "id": "membership-rules-q01", "text": "What kinds of membership or affiliation does new religious movement have, and how does each begin and end?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "membership-rules-q02", "text": "What may a member do in its name, and what may they not?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a new religious movement came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a new religious movement and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a new religious movement, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a new religious movement, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a new religious movement is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a new religious movement is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a new religious movement, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a new religious movement, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a new religious movement is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }