Twentieth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

This essay aims to investigate a New Religious Movement (NRM) that at its height claimed anywhere between one to three million followers: The “I AM” movement and its institutional body, the Saint Germain Foundation. This essay aims to address the historical foundations of the movement from its origin and influence on American religiosity and society. From the origins of the movement, we introduce the beliefs and practices of the group compared to other ideas within New Age and New Thought movements. From the historical origins, developments, and beliefs we assess the function of the movement by interpreting the social, political, and economic influences the beliefs of the movement imply for those who adhere to them. This functional interpretation is placed within the sociohistorical context in which the “I AM” movement emerged during the Great Depression. The analysis is derived from a Durkheimian psychosocial perspective on the functions of the beliefs and practices of the movement. It emerges that the beliefs and practices of the movement are explicitly religious and spiritual in nature, while simultaneously seeming to express explicit social and political implications. In sum, we assess the function of the “I AM” movement in relation to its beliefs and practices. We address the beliefs and practices of the group as they relate to American exceptionalism, populism, nationalism, and religiosity while considering the influence of the Great Depression on the “I AM” Religious Activity.