Theoretical Transformations in the Typology of Religious Organizations

Each form of religiousness grows at the heart of a “religious society”, and a “religious” society is always to some extent organized. In the “sociology of religion”, the study of social dynamics related to the religious society is defined under the concept of “religious organization”. From long ago, one of the concerns of sociology of religion has been to study and understand the various methods of organization in religious societies. Through an analytical-descriptive study of different approaches and the transformations in this field, the present paper aims to extract “the main criteria” of these typologies. Extracting “the main criteria” would familiarize us with the logic of these typologies, and it shall contribute to presenting alternative, domestic typologies in the framework of Islamic tradition. Therefore, the method of research is documentary, and the main purpose of the study is to understand the fundamental dynamics of the typologies of mystical organizations in theoretical literature. With this purpose in mind, we have examined the available literature through two general approaches: a) a formal approach to the typology of religious organizations; and b) a quantitative approach to the typology of religious organizations. The formal approach is mainly based on Weber’s theories, however, the quantitative approach has been put forth in critique of the formal approach. By studying various typologies and their theoretical principles, we see that the two criteria of a) the extent of organization and b) the extent of tension against the host culture enjoy central importance in the typology of religious organizations.