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POLITICAL RELIGIONS AND NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS: EXAMPLE OF NAZISM

Publication at Hussite Theological Faculty |
2021

Abstract

Political religions are a specific type of religiosity which is usually not reflected outside of academia because our society (unlike in e.g. the ancient civilizations) perceives politics primarily as a secular entity. Although the members of the political parties also don't see their ideology as religious (not even partially), we can find many examples of religious elements and ritual behaviour in them.

The most accentuated are the typical characteristics of the new religious movements and most importantly, the millennial ones. The most reflected political religions are totalitarian regimes; that's why Nazism is used here as an example.

The paper defines the political religions in general and then shows the particular millennial characteristics of Nazism and deals with the difference between political religions and new religious movements.