There are various types of organized religious groups in society, each with varying degrees of social integration. The church is the institution of religion that is integrated into society as a whole. There are two kinds of language commonly used when people refer to a church:
EXAMPLE
Scientology is an institution of religion that is integrated into society as a whole, as is Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Unitarian Universalist--all of these are examples of churches.These churches in the institutional sense could last for centuries. They have many rules and regulations governing the conduct of practitioners and clergymen. Often, you have to be educated and ordained in order to be a religious leader in institutionalized churches.
There also exists what are called state churches. State churches are churches that are formally integrated with the nation-state as a whole.
EXAMPLE
The state of Islam, Pakistan, and Iran, for instance, are state churches. Many countries in Northern Africa and the Middle East are state church countries.State churches consider everyone in society as a member. In this sense, they're much less tolerant of outside or contradictory religious views.
Next in the list of religious organizations are denominations. Catholics, Baptists, Lutherans, Methodists, and Episcopalians are all denominations. Each of these denominations has its own beliefs, but they recognize that others have their own beliefs as well, so they are largely tolerant of each other. You can think of Christianity, for instance, as having many denominations
A sect is a smaller, less formal, and more spontaneous religious group that exists apart from the larger society.
EXAMPLE
The Amish in America are a sect. They're not very integrated with the rest of American society as a whole--in fact, they live most of the time separated from the rest of the larger society in terms of culture, geography, etc.Leaders in a sect aren't formally trained most of the time, but are charismatic people capable of producing emotional responses in others. Typically a sect forms when a group spins off from a denomination or church. Since sects are smaller, they don't necessarily last for centuries, but can survive as long as the charismatic leader guides the sect.
More extreme than a sect is a cult, which is a small close-knit group who devoutly follow the instruction of one leader or a small group of charismatic leaders.
EXAMPLE
You might remember the Heaven's Gate cult who committed suicide following the Hale Bopp Comet, believing that their spirits could go to an alien ship that was thought to be following the comet.Typically, a charismatic leader--like Marshall Applewhite of the Heaven’s Gate cult--convinces a group of people to follow an alternative vision or an alternative way of life. He starts to amass followers and a cult forms. Cults stand largely outside of society--they're not socially integrated with the larger society, in terms of culture and custom. They're also often short lived, either fizzling out or failing to gain enough followers to sustain themselves. Sometimes they become more integrated with society, and become denominations themselves.
Civic-religion is not religion in the common sense of the word, but certainly nationalistic and civic activities come to resemble religious activities. Civic-religion is a devotion to the State and to the citizenship ideals of that State.
IN CONTEXT
Think about the times people collectively venerate the flag at sporting events, and in the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem. You could even view these as rituals, in the Durkheimian sense, that unify the collective through the veneration of the State.
People come together to venerate and engage in rituals that reaffirm the collective--their way of life is holy, and everyone should follow that way of life. Any given American citizen might feel that anyone not living like an American is ‘living in sin,’ so to speak.
You may have heard of the term "nationalism." Excessive nationalism is akin to religious devotion, therefore civic-religion is an interesting way to look at how, as a collective nation, Americans behave in a religious fashion.
Different religions can contain elements of fundamentalism--there are Christian Fundamentalists, Islamic Fundamentalists, etc. Each denomination can have a fundamentalist faction. Fundamentalists take their respective book and beliefs as truth, and have no tolerance for contradictory beliefs. They are highly tradition-bound groups that stick rigidly to the teachings of the past.
EXAMPLE
Christian Fundamentalists will take every word in the Bible as truth, whereas a more progressive Christian might view the writings of the Bible as general guidelines, or allegorical stories not necessarily meant to be taken literally. A fundamentalist would reject that notion and take it as the literal truth.Source: This work is adapted from Sophia author Zach Lamb.
