Ch. 15- Religion Flashcards
Culture wars
Tensions over religious and sacred values that have arisen as a result of efforts to separate church and state (e.g.: abortion debate, typically framed with religious values on one side and secular values on the other.)
Religion
a system of beliefs and practices that has a particular kind of content, usually a God or supernatural force.
Protestant ethics
the belief that wordly successes stemming from individual responsibility and a compulsion to save and invest are a God’s favor.
Disenchantment
a process in which previously religious concepts, values and ideals become detached from their religious roots and secularized (e.g. Protestant Ethic).
Secularization
the declining significance of religion in social institutions, culture, and individual experience.
Rational Choice Theory
a theory that maintains that human beings are rational, calculating individuals who act so as to maximize their benefits while minimizing their costs.
Religiosity
the amount of “religiousness” in society, usually measured by such variables as attendance of religious services, church membership, individual (financial) contributions to a church or religious institution, and belief in God.
Expressive individualism
a term relating to the increased emphasis since 1960s (in both the secular and the religious contest) on the pursuit of a free, gratified, and fulfilled self.
Ethnography
a research method that involves immersing oneself in a natural research setting in order to develop an understanding of people, culture, and society being studied.
New Age
an umbrella term that covers a mix of beliefs, practices, and ways of life, all of which share the elements of “self-spirituality”; emphasize making contact with the innate spirituality in people and shifting from a contaminated, artificial sense of being (brought about by socialization) to one representing pure and authentic nature.
Gemeinschaft
a term used to describe societies that have a strong feeling of cohesiveness.; is thought to be characteristic of premodern societies.
Gesellschaft
a term describing relations characterized by individualism and impersonal connections between people.; arose in opposition to Gemeinschaft as a result of urbanization.
Anomie
a term referring to lack of cohesion and loss of shared norms and values in society.
Civil religion
societal practices reflecting a close association of religion and politics whereby the nation becomes a sacred entity, with its own sacred symbols and ceremonies.
Deprivatization
the process by which religion has re-emerged from the private sphere.
