Beliefs in Society Flashcards

Question

Why did Bruce say the the New Christian right was unsuccesful?

Answer 1

made effective use of the media through televangilism however the campaign found it difficult to cooperate with other religions and was met with strong opposition America has a basic separation of church and state

Answer 2

marx - religion has a dual character Engles - religion can also challenge the status quo and encourage social change e.g slavery abolition Bloch - accpets religion can inhibit change but emohasies that it can aspire protest and rebellion as it is an expression of hope creates vision of a better world which if combined with political organusation can bring change

Answer 3

emerged in Catholic churches in Latin America in 1960s with a commitment to poor and opposition of dictatorship priests helped workers and peasents to fight opresson by creating base communities and developing literary programmes Pope John Paul II condmend this for beingh too close to marxism Casanova - resized state terror and brought about democracy Maduro - radicalised the Catholic cleregy in defence of peasents and workers as serving the poor was their duty from God

Answer 4

it promises an immediate transformation of this world by supernatural forces which appeals to the poor as it promises a immediate improvemnt Worsely study of cargo cults showed native populations banding togther through shared religious ideas

Answer 5

it is possible to create a counter hegemony to occu from the w.c - relgion can help workers see through the ruling class hegemony by presenting an image of a better world this si done with organic intellectuals

Answer 6

compared struggles between miners and textile workers in Kentucky who were both w.c Protestants but coalminers struggled for recognitom while textiles workers stuck to the status quo due to Leadership - miners had organic intellectuals and unions organisation - miners held meetings in churchs support - chruch kept miners morales high

Answer 7

Move to rationalism which replaced religious ways of thinking The medieval Catholic worldview say the world as an 'enchanted garden' that saw God as changing the world however protestanism saw god as not interfering using reason and science humans could discover the laws of nature to predict how the world works - disenchantment

Answer 8

growth of technological worldview replaced religious explanations instead we look for scientific explanations

Answer 9

specialised insitutions develop to carry out functions that were previously carried out by religion religion dominated pre industial rural communituies but after industrilisation it has become smaller and trasnferred some of its functions to the state it has become separated from wider society and lost many of its former functions

Answer 10

move from preindustrial to industrial society brings the decline of community - wilson argued that shared vakues uesed to be expressed through collective rituals Bruce sees industrikisation as undermining the consensus of religion as social and geographical mobility leads to more diversity where people are now exposed to others views

Answer 11

religion can be a source of identity on a worldwide scale some religious communities are imagined communities that interact through media pentecostal and other religions often flourish impersonal urban areas

Answer 12

in the middle ages there was a sacred canopy of shared beleifs - church version of truth was unquestined after protestant reformation there has been a variety of religions creates a plurality of religion where beleifs have become relative not absolute

Answer 13

religion provides a focal point for the defence of identity in a struggle against external forces such as hostile foreign power suppirts and creates a sense of commnity for ethinc groups such as migrants to a different country

Answer 14

Berge- diversity and choice stimulartes interest in participation in religion beckford - religious diversity does lead to some question on beleifs but this isn't inevitable and opposing views often strengthen religious commitment

Answer 15

Wilson - 43% of Americans attended church on Sunday - religion had become superficial Hadaway - 40% of church attendance did not match as if there was 40% attendance this would mean churches would be full hadaway et al - carried out headcounts at services and intervuews - level was 83%

Answer 16

stable rate of recorded 40% has masked a decline in attendance as church is seen as socially desirable the purpose of religion has changed from seeking salvation heaven to seeking personal imporvemnts churchgoers have become less trict in adherence to religipus beleifs and accept people have alternate views (practical relativism) erosion of absolutism - people hold views different to our own which undermines our assumption that our views are absoutely true

Answer 17

religion is not declining but changinh it is one sided - ignores religious revivals and new religions faling church attendance ignores those who believe but don't attend religion may have declined in Europe but not globally the past was not a golden age of faith and the future is not an age of aetheism religious diversity increases participation as it offers choice

Answer 18

in the past churches could oblige people to go to church but this is now a matter of personal choice religion is not declining but changing e.g becoming more privitised 'believing without belonging' Virtuous religion - religion pratcised by an active minority on behalf of the great majority, 'Spirtiual Health service' - it is therefore everyone when needed There are multiple modernities with very different patterns of religion

Answer 19

Voas and Crockett - do not accept Davie's claim that there is more believing without belonging Bruce - if people are not willing to go to chirch this reflects declining strengths in beleifs - census shows that 72% of people identified as Chrisitan Day - very few of the chrisitisns she interviewed mentioned God or Christianity but described it as a way of belonging

Answer 20

traditional religion has declined because children are not being socialised into beleifs traditional religion has been replaced by individual consumerism - people feel they have a choice as consumers to become spiritua shoppers two types of new religiosity - polgrims sich as holisitic milieus and converys how join groups based on ethnicity

Answer 21

shift to postmodern society - religous ideas have become disembedded and the emdia lifts them out of phsyical churches into an electronic one e.g televangilism religion becomes de-instituinalised and fliating in cyber soace Helland - religion online- form of top down communication where churches use the internet to address its members, online-religion - cyber religion that may have no existence outside the internet - sense of community virtiually

Answer 22

made use of number of churches without giving strong loyalty to any - loss of meta narrative Berge - loss of traitional values that calim a monopoly of faith becomes exolisive to many competitng versions of the truth

Answer 23

Lyon - rejects the obligation and obedience to external autonomy found in traditional religions and isntead emphasises the ideas of self discovery and indiviudalism We are now re-enchanted with the youth of unconventional ebleofs there is a spirtiual revoultion where tradtional spirituality is giving way to holisitic spirtuality that emohasises personal development

Answer 24

two groups - congregational dominon of traditional christianity and the holsiitic milieu of New Ahe New Age has grown because of a shift to the subjective that involves exploring inner selves traditional religions that deman obedience are declining hwoeevr evangelicals ae more successful and focus on spiritual healing

Answer 25

Bruce - even if New Age forms of religion are springing up thsi would have to on a much bigger scale to fill the gap of tradition e.g in 1851 58% people attended church so this would nead 19,500 churgoers hwoever there is 3000 Women ins holisitic milieu are less likely to have children so don't pass on their beleifs glendinning and Bruce - serious commitment to New age ebelofs os rare - it is rather a cause of secularisation as it is subjective and based on the idea there is no higher spirtiuality than the self

Answer 26

based on religion meeting human needs and human nature is seeks reward ans avoid costs religion is attractive because it provides compensators when real ewards are unobtainable chruches operate like businesses selling goods - competiton leads to improvment in quality of religious goods demand for religion increases when there are different sets to choose from as consumers cam foms one that meets their need better e.g thrives in USA due to separation of church and state

Answer 27

Hadden and Sharpe - grwoth of televangilism show the level of religious participation in supply led commerical funding Finke - asian immigration to America allowed for asian religions to set up in the USA and provide another ption in the marketplace Stark - Japan until 1945 had Shintoism as the state religion howeevr after WW2r religion was deregulated creating a marketplace for new religions

Answer 28

Bruce - rejects that diversity and competition increases deman of religion as statsitics show diversity leading to secularisation Misrepresents secularisation theory as claiming the past was a golden age of fiath but rather claims religion is in long term decline Norris and Inglehart - high levels of religious participayion exist in Catholic countries but contrast countries with religious pluralism has low participation Beckford criticses it as unsociligicaly as it assumes people are naturally religious

Answer 29

reasons for variations in religiosity is due to differeng degrees of existential security poor societies have bigger risks and high level of insecurity and thus are more religious rich societies have a high standard of living and are less insecure so less religious rich countries have a low population while poor countries have big opulation - while the rich are secular, the majority is religious Europe becomes more secu;ar as it invests in welfarw while USA remains unequal so is still religious - Gill and Nundegaarde - the more money spends on welfare the lower the level of religious partiipation

Answer 30

they only use quantitative date and don't examine people views on existential security - need more qualitiative research ignores the positive reasons people have for religious participation and the appeal for some religions to the wealthy

Answer 31

authoritative texts - taking every word as literal and answers to ultimate questions (Aldridge - not text is literal and has to be interpreted) Us and them mentality - separate from the rest of the world Aggressive reaction - draws attention to threat of their beleifs use of technology - achieve their aims even though they oppose modern culture Patriarchy - Hawley - favour a world in which control over womens social roles Prophecy - proclaim the relevance of bibilical propehices in contemporary events Conspirarcy theorie - hidden evil forces are in control of human destiny

Answer 32

response to globalisation which undermines traditional norms as inidivudals are faced with uncertainty which makes fundamentalism attractive as it promises certainty contrasts this to cosmopolitanism which is tolerant of view of others and keeps up with the global timing Bauman and Davie supports this view

Answer 33

resistance identity - a defensive response to those who feels threatened and retreat into fundamentalism project identity - those who are forward looking and engage with social movements

Answer 34

Beckford - distinguish too sharply between cosmopolitanism and fundamentalism - ignoring 'hybrid movements' Heynes - only focuses narrowly on Islamic fundamentalism - in the Middle East there is failure of the local elities to deliver on promises fuelling fundamentalism

Answer 35

monoesthetistic religion believes in a single god who will be revealed through sacred texts while polyethestic religions have multiple deities so there are various interpretations and no absolute truth

Answer 36

1st phase of reigious fundamentalism from the englightenment to the 1960s held optimistic beleifs based on science and reason 2nd phase pf secular fundamementalism - since 1970s there was a loss of faith in major Englightenement ideolgies and some of its supporters have been attracted to fundamentalism e.g 2004 France banned pupils from wearing hijabs and some french schools stopped serving pork Ansell - sees fundamentalism as a form of cultural racism

Answer 37

civilisations have religious dofferences and these are sources of conflict as globalisation has made nation states more signifant as a source of identity this creates a hostile relatioship with increased economic and military competition The west is under threat from Island and urges the west to reassert its identity as a liberal Christian civiilisation

Answer 38

Jackson - this is orientalism as it stereotypes eastern nations as fanatical others Casanova - ignores important religious divisions within organisations Horrie and Chippindale - clash of civilisations is amisleading neo conservative ideology that portarys Isalm as the enemy when only a minority of muslims believe in the holy war Inglehart and Norris - divides the west is not democracy but gender and sexuality as there is big differences in attitudes to this with muslim being traditional

Answer 39

Poland - between 1989-1999 - Poland was under communist rule but Catholic churches which served as a popular rallying point of opposition continued to embody national identity and helped bring down communism then reulting in playing a major role in the public Iran - western capitalist powers had inflience in Iran and installed a pro-Western regime which was resisted by the Ayotollah Haynes argues that the Iranian revolution was not typical of the middle east in that it was led by religious leaders

Answer 40

creates a new Hindu 'ultra-nationalism' globalisation has created a prosperous middle class in India which still retains religious views - this is due to their ambivalence to their new found wealth and to resolve this they turn to tele-gurus who preach borgeois friendly versions of Hinduism to edge of this guilt Hinduism legimates triumphunt versions pf Indian nationalism and ultra-nationalism has becomes the same as consuming the nation of India (civil religion) East Asian tiger economices have become more significant similar to the way Calvanism helped develop capitalism

Answer 41

functional equivalent to Weber's calvanism in creating capitalism as they have a similar work ethic and ascetic way of life encoraging its memebers to prosper and become mobile natural resources are also important to help develop capitalims e.g pentecostalism has grown in nothern Brazil more than southern brazil but the north lacks resources so south has prospered more

Answer 42

christianity accompanied colonisation and impacted indigienous communties over the last cnetury it has gained a regular followinh pentecostalism is successful in incoroporating symbolism from the local culture thus validating local traditional beleifs

Answer 43

churches are large organisations run by a bureacratic hierarchy that claim the monogomy of truth - attractive to higher classes sects are small exclusive groups and are hostile to wider society and often have a charasmatic leader that claims a monopoly of truth

Answer 44

denominations are less exclusive but don't appeal to the wider society as they are not linked to the state and impose minor restrictions cults are highly individualistic, loose knit and usually small with an exclusive beleif system and demand strong commitment from followers who are like customers

Answer 45

the idea of church having a religious monopo;y only applies to the Cahtholic church pre-reformation but since then sects and cultrs have increased and rreligious diviersity is the norm

Answer 46

world rejecting NRMs - clearly religious organisations that seek radical change to achieve salvation memvers must break from former lives world accomodating NRMs - breakaways from existing mainstream churches and neither accept nor reject the world and focus on religion rather than wordly matters World affiriming - lack some conventional features of religion and are not highly organised but offer acces to the suoernatiral that promises followers success in mainstream

Answer 47

it is not clear werger he is categorising them according to the movement or inidivudal members beleifs Stark and Bainbridge reject idea of constructing typologies and instead argued that we should distinguish between organisaions by the degree of conflict between the group and wide society

Answer 48

they arise in marginalised groups and offer a solution to this problem by offering thier memebers a theodicy of dispriveldge - a religious explanation for their suffering Wallis argue that m.c may turn tp sects as they may feel spiritually deprived Stark and Bainbridge - relative deprivation makes people break away from chirches to safeguard its original message

Answer 49

Wilson - periods of rapid change disrupt and undermine established norms producing anomie and those who are affected turn to sects Bruce - growth of sects os a response to secularisation as they are less demanding, the failure of counter culture to change the world has led to a disillusioned youth turin to religion

Answer 50

the second orientation lacks the commitment of the first that had constatnetly rejected the world sects practise asceticism so are prosoperpous and such memebers may be tempted to compromise sects with a charasmatic leader collapse after their death

Answer 51

Drune - new age religion is a response to postmodernism and the loss of faith in metanarratives c - Bruce sees it as a result of late modernity as it alsp values individualism

Answer 52

Miller and Hoffman - diffrrence in risk taking and men are more likely to take the risk of rejecting religion Greeley - the role of taking care of the family increases womens religiosity as it involves responsibility of ultimate welfare Bruce - womens religiosity is a result of low levels of paid work - religion has been driven out of the public sector and into the private

Answer 53

Bruce 0 womens experience with childbearing makes them more coperative and caring and New age places an importance on authenticity rather than gender roles Woodhead - new age allows a third sphere for women in paid work as it is concerned with individual autonomy

Answer 54

compemnsate for deprivation - organismic deprivation such as mental problems, ethic deprivation such as lack of tradition and and social such as being poor

Answer 55

Martin - pentecostalism is attractive to women in latin america depsite being very patriarchal Brusco - it demands an ascetic lifesryle which can be used to control the culture of machismp n lation america and women can use this as liberation

Answer 56

most ethnic minorities originate from poorer countries with traditional valuues Bird - religion for EM can be a basis for community solidarity as a means of dealing with oppression Brierly - significant growth of churches in London with specfic languages Pryce - african carribean community in Bristol saw pentecostalism as highly adaptive religion

Answer 57

people turn to religion more as they get older people born during a particular period like a war or rapid change turn more to religion each generation becomes less religious than the one before it Arveck and Beckfrod - virtual collapes of religious socialisation after 1960s

Answer 58

it can only thrive when it recieves supprt from other institutions e.g during Puritanism experimentation with encouraged and they were attracted to how science could imporve their living standards sciences needs organised norms so scientists act in a way that serves the same goals - four norms named CUDOS communism - sharing of knowledge universalism - judged by objective criteria disenterestedness - beig committed to discovery for its own sake organised scepticism - no knowledge is regarded as sacred

Answer 59

science is an open system while religion is closed and whenever these beleifs are threatened closed systems have a number of way that reinfocr the system to prevent it being disporved

Answer 60

they believe that nothing is a conincidence and it must be explained in terms of witchcraft - can be resolved by consulting an oracle this beleif system performs useful social functions as it encourages neighbours to behave considerately to one another highly resistant to change as tests won't disporve it to believers

Answer 61

circulatory - each idea is explained in terms of another idea in the system subsidisary explanation - can be explained away denial of legitamcy of the rivals

Answer 62

all knowledge is constructed and facts are a product of sharew theories Knorr and Centuna invention of instruments permist scientists to construct new facts and laboratory studies are highly constructd and removed from the natural world Woolgar - scientists are involved in the same way of interpreting the world as we are Lyotard - science is a metanarrative that falisfy claims the truth about how the world works

Answer 63

it is controlled by the ruling class that says equality will never work as it is against human nature, victim blames workers for being lazy and racist ideas about the inferitority of ethnic minorities this creates a false class consciousness

Answer 64

hegemony can be combatted by a counter hegemony as workers ahve a dual consciousness and can overthrow capitalism with the help of organic intellectuals

Answer 65

Abercrombie et al - economic factors suc as fear of unemplyment that keeps workers from rebelling

Answer 66

Marxists see it as a form of false class consciousness to stop revolution as it encoruages workers to believe they are have more in common with the capitalists functionalists see nationalism as a secular civil religion as it intergrates indivudals when they are less willing to believe in the supernatural but willing to believe in a nation Gellner - nationalism as false consciousness as it claims nations have exitsed for a long time but they have only really become prevealent after industrilisation to enable communication between strangers

Answer 67

ideological thought - justifies keeping things the way they are and favoured by the priveledge class that benefit from the status quo utopian thought - justifies social change and represents the underpriveledged and offeres a vision for how society could be different This creates separate groups of intellectuals associated with a particular social group creating conflict and thus these individuals must become dealigned to act neutrally

Answer 68

too optimistic that ideas will cooperate especially in politics

Answer 69

Marks - ideas from science has been used to justify the exclusion of women from education patriarchal ideas in religious beleifs have defined women are infeiror as they are ritually impure c - there is evidence that before the emergance of monothestic patriarchal religions, matriarchal religions were widespread