Concept
Sect
Overview
A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political, or philosophical belief system, typically emerging as an offshoot of a larger organization. Originally, the term referred specifically to religious groups that had separated from a main body, but it can now apply to any group that diverges from a larger organization to follow a distinct set of beliefs and practices. Sects often form when there is a perception of heresy either within the subgroup or from the larger group.
In an Indian context, sect refers to an organized tradition.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
There are certain sects which secretly form themselves in the learned world, as well as factions in the political; and though sometimes they come not to an open rupture, they give a different turn to the ways of thinking of those who have taken part on either side. The most remarkable of this kind are the sects founded on the different sentiments with regard to the _dignity of human nature_; which is a point that…
David Hume, Essays
Names Sect twice; opens on Sect.
This modesty in a sect is perhaps a singular instance in the history of mankind, every other sect supposing itself in possession of all truth, and that those who differ are so far in the wrong; like a man traveling in foggy weather, those at some distance before him on the road he sees wrapped up in the fog, as well as those behind him, and also the people in the fields on each side, but near him all appears clear…
Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
States what Sect is; names Sect twice.
"What my sect teaches is obscure, I admit it," says a fanatic; "and it is because of this obscurity that it must be believed; for the sect itself says it is full of obscurities. My sect is extravagant, therefore it is divine; for how should what appears so mad have been embraced by so many peoples, if it were not divine?" It is precisely like the Alcoran which the Sonnites say has an angel's face and an animal's…
Voltaire, Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary
Names Sect several times; states what Sect is.
Philosophers who discussed Sect
Related ideas
- Cult
- Ernst Troeltsch
- Hinduism
- Indology
- Philosophy
- India
- Rodney Stark
- Korea
- Latin
- Sociology
- Mongolia
- Max Weber
- East Asia
- Vietnam
- Heresy
- South Asia
- Politics
- Pejorative
- Bhutan
- Religion
- Shia Islam
- Mahayana
- Sociology of religion
- Southeast Asia
Place in the tradition
Part of Gnosticism.