A term used by opponents to identify religious movements they regard as malignant or dangerous. Because of its judgmental and controversial use, it was largely abandoned by the academia since the 1980s, and replaced by “new religious movement.” The same derogatory role is played in German (sekte), French (secte), Italian (setta) and Spanish (secta) by words literally translating the English “sect.” In this context each of these terms should be translated as “cult” rather than “sect,” and vice versa “cult” in English should be translated as sekte, secte, setta, secta.
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