5 - Other Theories of Religion Flashcards
Who founded the invisible religion?
Thomas Luckmann
What is subjectivism?
Is a focus on how people know what they know.
What was Thomas Luckmann’s original interest in sociology?
Always wondered about the “functions” that religion had in people’s lives
What are some examples of what functions in people’s lives?
- Individuals make life meaningful through various meaning systems and worldviews - symbolic universes
- People’s symbolic universes can all be though of as being ‘religious’ because they transcend the subjective stream of consciousness
-That functionally “religion” is present, in a non specific form, in all societies and socialized individuals
How was society defined in the symbolic universe (before modernity)
Through religion
What occurs to the institutions in Modernity?
- They have more competeting institutions among many (institutional segmentation)
- That many institutions of the secular state are now more present to people than they were in the past
What does Luckmann think that some religions are more developed than others?
Because they have specific historical institutionalization of symbolic universes. That they have clear doctrines, social organizations and specialists.
What are the main themes of modernity?
- Self-Realization, autonomy and personal development have become the pressing concerns
- Religion can speak to these needs but now competes with other discourses (self-help, psychology, pop culture)
- Religion can’t keep up with the shifting needs and desires of the population
What is the real meaning of invisible religion?
That religion is not institutionalized anymore. That people are not loosing their religion, that people have more of a choice of a religion that transpires to them.
What is Syncretism?
taking elements of one religion to another and mixing it up together
What is Sheltered Enclave theory?
Says that religion survive and do well when they are sheltered by the undermining effects of modernity. The idea the religion can’t thrive in the context of modernity.
What does the Sheltered Enclave theory say about a religion that wants to be successful?
That they need to have low social engagement, they set themselves up away from society and keep themselves somewhat culturally isolated
- High distinction
- Low cultural engagement
e.g: The Amish, American Fundamentalist Protestantism.
What is strictness theory? what does it suggest?
- That religions with strict rules have excluded all non-orthodox positions
- Demand of high engagement
- Free riders are a problem for religions
- Strict religions tedn to have fewer free riders
- Stricter religions = better
What is status discontent theory?
- That declines or threatened decline in social status and position leads to a retrenchment into strong identities.
- Threats to religious identities or loss of status for religious communities leads to a concerted effort to strengthen religious identities
- Religious groups that thrive do so specifically because they manage the external threats
- Their strength relies to some degree on the existence of an external threat
What is subcultural theory of religious strength?
They are groups that thrive broadly to the degree that they are able to harness a number of factors.
- Distinction (Need high distinction)
- Engagement (Also need high engagement)
- Tension (Needs tension with broader society)
- Conflict (Needs conflict with the dominant social order)
- Threat
