| Abstrakt: |
Many small groups of a voluntary sort have recently sprung up in American life, some of which have been called new religions by some sociologists. Their characteristic features have the secular aim of promoting self-revitalization and self-help. The help offered in such groups should be understood to refer exclusively to a sort of therapeutic help, the treatment of perplexity about the guides for conduct and of the self-doubt that often results, or what in religious contexts is often referred to as a concern of pastoral care. Once upon a time authoritatively institutionalized for whole communities, these functions have recently been placed at the free disposal of the individual through the intermediary of the market and the public media. The organizations, groups, and movements that offer these services can therefore take a wide variety of strategies in order to solicit their consumers. In this article the problem is approached from the standpoint of the individual who makes use of self-help services informed by these views. What is gained, it seems, is a principled attitude toward his or her conduct, rationalism in sociologist Max Weber's terminology, one that rescues him or her from a situation that lacks direction and is disturbing as such. Despite their organizational and philosophical variety, these groups encourage the individual to interpret his or her predicament pre-eminently as a moral predicament, but beyond this, they teach that the main obstacle to self-control is one's disposition to have recourse to moral evaluation. |
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