Religious World-Denying and Trajectories of Activism in the Field of Strongly-Religious Corporative Actors

This comparative case study links together the scholarly discourses on religiously-motivated world-rejecting and religious activism. It provides empirical evidence for differentiation between four ideal-typed patterns of religious activism as they relate to different trajectories and spheres of religious world-denying in strongly-religious movements: Pattern I (world conquerors) targets inner-worldly sphere of activism in the particular state, using the full scope of political tools to promote its religiously-fueled ideology and theocracy. Pattern II (world transformers) creatively combines inner-worldly and other-worldly spheres of activism, applying political strategies in the most advantageous political situations and primarily focusing on strategic missionary activism in �the world.� Pattern III (world creators) utilizes dif-ferent forms of civic engagement to re-create �the righteous world� on the congregational level, but also participates in missionary activities. Finally, pattern IV (world renouncers) renounces any inner-worldly forms of political or civic engagement as sinful activity.