Religious minority

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A religious minority is a smaller group which is characterized by religious characteristics and which is in contrast to the dominant religious majority .

General

One can speak of religious minorities historically as soon as major religions or established polytheistic and syncretistic religious structures are solidified to such an extent that the integration and assimilation of existing smaller groups of an alien religious nature is excluded.

This can be expressed on the one hand in the fact that the religious majority does not accept, rejects, fights and persecutes the existence of a religious minority, and on the other hand in the fact that the religious minority refuses to adapt to the majority.

In general, revelation religions - especially founder religions - usually go through the phase of a religious minority versus a majority, against which they have to assert or assert themselves, in the initial stage. This in turn can consist of followers of a nature , national , or even a revealed religion. A religious minority can develop into a religious majority through its religious dynamism.

Religious (or denominational) minorities arise when a group fails to align with an established majority. They can arise on the one hand through prophetic-messianic endeavors - like the classic enthusiasts / Baptists and currently in the charismatic or Pentecostal movement - on the other hand through conservative-orthodox efforts. This can often already be seen in the names of the old confessional churches themselves or others : Old Lutherans , Old Reformed , Old Catholics , Old Believers ... As a rule, both models refer to the retention or rediscovery or rediscovery of the original one religious-constitutive truth. A corresponding movement in Islam is, for example, Salafism , derived from the Arabic Salaf : ancestor, predecessor.

While the prophetic-messianic minority generally locates its source in direct spiritualistic and individual religious experiences and tends to ignore established religious structures and systems, the orthodox-conservative minority seeks to maintain, restore and renew its own, supposedly decaying, established religion. This usually leads to tensions within the congregation. The disengagement ( dissidence , condemnation ) of the minority resulting from the conflict is accompanied by its own establishment.

Migration plays an important role in the history of religious minorities . Religious minorities often saw themselves discriminated against and exposed to persecution and emigrated . In exile they again experienced themselves as a minority, now as a religious and often at the same time as an ethnic minority , for example the Jews in the Soviet Union , who - as everywhere in states under communist rule - were not permitted to practice their religion, but who were registered as a national minority . In contrast to other ethnic minorities, assimilation into the cult of the host country was out of the question for them, which resulted in a number of new problems.

Nonetheless, religious minorities played a decisive role in the economic development of a country, as evidenced by the work of the Huguenots in Prussia or the Moravian Brethren in America , who developed into the country's elite .

Other religious minorities

Persecution of religious minorities

Measures to protect religious minorities

literature

  • Hans Dieter Betz: Religion in the past and present - concise dictionary for theology and religious studies. 4th edition. Volume 5: L – M, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2002, ISBN 978-3-16-146905-3 , pp. 1244 ff.

Web links

Commons : Religious persecution  - collection of images, videos and audio files