Organisations, Movements and Members

Question 1

Church

Answer 1

• Large organisations, often with millions of members
• Bureaucratic hierarchy
• Claim monopoly of truth
• Universalistic, aiming to include the whole of society
• More attractive to higher classes because they are ideologically conservative and closely linked to state e.g. Queen is head of state and church of England

Question 2

Sect

Answer 2

• Small, exclusive groups
• Hostile to wider society
• Expect high level of commitment
• Draw members from poor and oppressed
• Led by charismatic leader

Question 3

Denomination

Answer 3

• Niebuhr – denominations e.g. methodism lies midway between churches and sects
• Membership is less exclusive than a sect, but they don’t appeal to the whole of society like churches
• Broadly accept societal values, but are not linked to the state
• Impose minor restrictions on members e.g. forbidding alcohol
• Tolerant of other organisations and don’t claim monopoly

Question 4

Cult

Answer 4

• Cult – least organized form of organization
• Highly individualistic, loose – knit and small grouping around some shared themes (but without a sharply defined belief system)
• Cults are led by ‘practitioners’ who claim special knowledge
• Usually tolerant of other organisations and their beliefs
• Don’t demand high commitment from followers
• Members may have little involvement with the cult once they have acquired the techniques

Question 5

Differences between types

Answer 5

1. How they see themselves – churches and sects claim a legitimacy on their beliefs. Denominations and cults accept that there can be other valid interpretations.
2. How they are seen by wider society – churches and denominations are seen as respectable and legitimate. Sects and cults are seen as deviant.

Question 6

Loss of church power

Answer 6

• Sociologists argue that some of these descriptions of religious organisations do not fit today’s reality
• Bruce – argues that Troeltsch’s idea of a church as having a religious monopoly only applies to Catholicism before the reformation (when power was symbolized by imposing cathedrals)
• Since then, sects and cults have flourished, and religious diversity becomes the norm
• Today, churches are no longer truly so, but rather denominations competing

Question 7

NRM - world rejecting

Answer 7

• Similar to Troeltsch’s sects
• Manson family, Branch Davidian and People’s temple
• Vary greatly in size
• Clearly religious with a notion of God
• Highly critical of the outside world (seek radical change)
• To achieve salvation, members must break from their old life
• Members live communally, with restricted contact to the outside world
• Movement controls all aspects of their lives
• Often have conservative moral codes

Question 8

NRM - world accomodating

Answer 8

• Breakaways from existing mainstream churches or denominations e.g. Neo – pentecostalists who broke away from Catholicism
• Neither accept nor reject the world, focusing on the spiritual (seek to restore spiritual purity of religion e.g. Neo – pentecostalists believe that other churches have lost the holy spirit)

Question 9

NRM - world affirming

Answer 9

• These differ from all other religious groups and lack some of the conventional features of religion such as collective worship and are not very organized
• However, like religions, they offer their members access to spiritual or supernatural powers
• Example – scientology
• Accept the world as it is, promising followers’ success in terms of mainstream goals
• Non – exclusive and tolerant of other religions, but claim to offer special knowledge or techniques that enable followers to unlock their own powers to achieve success or overcome problems
• Psychologising religions offering this – worldly gratification
• Most are cults, whose members are often customers rather than followers. Entry is through training
• Most successful – 165,000 UK scientologists vs. 1200 UK Moonies

Question 10

NRM - evaluation

Answer 10

1. Wallis offers useful way of classifying NRMs
2. Not clear whether he categorises them based on their teachings or individual members’ beliefs
3. Ignores diversity which may exist within NRMs
4. Some NRMs have characteristics of all three
5. Stark and Bainbridge – reject idea of constructing such typologies altogether. Rather, we should distinguish between religious organisations using one criterion – the degree of conflict or tension between the religious group and wider society

Question 11

Conflict in society - sects

Answer 11

 Result from schisms (splits in existing organisations)

 Break away from churches over disagreements about doctrine

Question 12

Conflict in society - cults

Answer 12

 New religions e.g. Scientology or Christian Science
• Stark and Bainbridge see sects as promising other – worldly benefits e.g. place in heaven to those suffering economic or ethical deprivation (where values conflict with wider society)
• Cults tend to offer this – worldly benefits e.g. good health to more prosperous individuals who are suffering psychic deprivation (anomie) and organismic deprivation (health problems)
• Stark and Bainbridge subdivide cults according to how organized they are

Question 13

Types of cults

Answer 13

1. Audience cults – least organized and do not involve formal membership or much commitment. There is little interaction between members. Participation is often through media.
2. Client cults – based on relationship between a consultant and a client and provide services to their followers. In the past, they were purveyors of medical miracles. Emphasis has shifted to ‘therapies’ promising personal fulfillment
3. Cultic movements – most organized and demand higher level of commitment than other cults. Movement aims to meet all of its members religious needs. Members are not allowed to be part of other groups. Example is Moonies. Some client cults become cultic movements for their most enthusiastic followers e.g. Scientology grew out of client cult ‘dianetics’.

Question 14

Types of cult - evaluation

Answer 14

1. Stark and Bainbridge – make useful distinctions between organisations e.g. using idea of degree of conflict in order to distinguish is similar to Troeltsch’s distinction between church and sect.
2. However, some examples do not fit neatly into any one of their categories.

Question 15

Growth of NRMs - marginality

Answer 15

• as Troeltsch noted, sects tend to draw their members from the poor and oppressed
• Weber – sects tend to arise in groups who are marginal (people who feel that they are not receiving what they are due)
• Sects offer a solution to this problem by offering their members a theodicy of disprivilege (a religious explanation and justification for their suffering and disadvantage)
• May explain misfortune in terms of a test of faith to reap rewards
• Historically, many sects and millenarian movements, have recruited from marginalized poor e.g. Nation of Islam recruited successfully among disadvantaged blacks.
• However, since 1960s, sect – like, world – rejecting NRMs such as the Moonies have recruited mainly from more affluent groups of well educated, young, middle – class whites (but were still marginal because most were hippies, dropouts and drug users)

Question 16

Growth of NRMs - relative deprivation

Answer 16

• Subjective sense of being deprived
• Although MC are materially well – off, they may feel spiritually deprived (especially in today’s materialistic, impersonal and morally lax society)
• Many turn to sects for a sense of community
• Stark and Bainbridge – it is relatively deprived who break away from churches to form sects. When MC members of a church seek to compromise beliefs in order to fit into society, deprived members may break away to safeguard original beliefs.
• The deprived may stress some of Christ’s claims about the poor
• Stark and Bainbridge argue that world – rejecting NRMs offer the deprived the compensators for the rewards they are denied in this world
• Privileged need no compensators – are attracted to world – accepting churches that express their status and bring them further earthly rewards

Question 17

Growth of NRMs - social change

Answer 17

• Wilson argues that periods of rapid change disrupt and undermine established norms and values, producing anomie
• In response to uncertainty and insecurity which this creates, those most affected by this may turn to sects
• Example – dislocation caused by the industrial revolution in GB led to the birth of methodism (which offered a sense of community, warmth and fellowship, clear norms and values as well as the promise of salvation)
• Bruce – sees the growth of cults and sects as a response to the social changes involved in modernization and secularization
• People are less attracted to traditional churches and strict sects (because they demand too much commitment)

Question 18

Growth - world rejecting

Answer 18

• Wallis points to social changes from the 1960s impacting on young people, including increased time spent in education
• This gave them freedom from adult responsibilities and allowed a counter – culture to develop
• Growth of radical political movements offered alternative ideas about the future
• These were attractive because they offered a more idealistic way of life
• Bruce – was the failure of counter – culture to change the world which led the disillusioned young to turn to religion

Question 19

Growth - world affirming

Answer 19

• Growth is a response to modernity, especially to rationalization of work
• Work no longer provides meaning or is a source of identity (unlike the past, when the protestant ethic gave work a religious meaning for some).
• Yet, we are expected to achieve – even though we lack the opportunities to do so
• These NRMs provide both a sense of identity and techniques that promise success in the world.

Question 20

NRMs - short lived

Answer 20

• Niebuhr – sects are world – rejecting organisations that come into existence because of schism (split over disagreement)
• Sects are short lived - either die out or compromise with the world, abandon their extreme ideas and become a denomination.

Question 21

Short lived - reasons

Answer 21

1. Second generation
   • Those who are born into the sect lack the commitment and fervour of their parents
2. ‘protestant ethic’ effect
   • Sects that practice asceticism tend to become prosperous and upwardly mobile e.g. the Methodists in C19.
   • Members may be tempted to compromise with the world
3. Death of the leader
   • Sects with charismatic leaders may collapse on their death or a more formal, bureaucratic leadership takes over (making it a denomination)

Question 22

Sectarian cycle

Answer 22

1. Schism – tension between needs of privileged and deprived members. Deprived members break away to found world – rejecting NRMs
2. Initial fervour – charismatic leadership and tension between beliefs and world
3. Denominationalism – the ‘protestant ethic’ effect and coolness of second generation means that the fervour disappears
4. Establishment – sect becomes more world – accepting and tension decreases
5. Further schism – more zealous or deprived members break away to find a new sect true to the original message

Question 23

Established sects

Answer 23

• Wilson argues that some sects have survived over many generations e.g. Amish and Quakers
• Instead of becoming denominations, they have become established sects
• Contrary to Niebuhr’s predictions, many of them have succeeded in socializing their children into a high level of commitment

Question 24

Established sects - conversionist

Answer 24

sects such as evangelical, whose aim is to convert large numbers of people, are likely to rapidly grow into larger, more formal denominations

Question 25

Established sects - adventist

Answer 25

examples such as Jehovah’s witnesses. To be saved, they believe that they must hold themselves separate from the corrupt world. Separatism prevents them from compromising and becoming a denomination.

Question 26

Established sects - evaluation

Answer 26

• However, Wilson argues that globalization will make it harder in the future for sects to keep themselves separate from the outside world
• Globalization will make it easier to recruit in the third world (where deprivation makes sects attractive).

Question 27

Growth of new age

Answer 27

• The term ‘new age’ covers a range of activities that have been widespread since at least the 1980s
• Heelas – estimation of about 2000 such activities and 146,000 practitioners in the UK
• Many are loosely organized audience or client cults
• Extremely diverse and eclectic - put unconnected ideas together in new ways
• Belief in UFOs, aliens, astrology, tarot, crystals, alternative medicine and meditation

Question 28

Themes of new age

Answer 28

1. Self – spirituality – they turn away from external religions and look within themselves to find it
2. Detraditionalization – rejects the spiritual authority of external traditional sources e.g. priests. Values personal experience and believes we can discover truth for ourselves and within ourselves

Question 29

Postmodernity and new age

Answer 29

• Several explanations for the popularity have been offered
• Drane – appeal is part of a shift towards PM society (part of this is a loss of faith in meta – narratives and claims to truth)
• Science promised to bring progress but has given us war, genocide and environmental destruction
• Frustrated with church’s failure to meet their spiritual needs

Question 30

Modernity and the new age

Answer 30

• Bruce – by contrast, argues that the growth of the new age is a feature of the latest phase of modern society, not postmodern
• Modern society values individualism (a key part of new age beliefs)
• It is also a particularly important value among those in the ‘expressive professions’ concerned with human potential e.g. community workers or artists to whom new age ideas appeal most.
• Bruce sees the new age eclecticism as typical of religion in late modern society, reflecting the consumerist ethos of capitalist society

Question 31

Heelas - links between new age and modernity

Answer 31

1. A source of identity – in modern society, the individual has many different roles (with little overlap), resulting in a fragmented identity. New age beliefs offer a source of ‘authentic’ identity.
2. Consumer culture – creates dissatisfaction because it never delivers the perfection that it promises (like in advertising). New age offers an alternative way to achieve perfection.
3. Rapid social change – modern society disrupts established norms and values, resulting in anomie. New age provides a sense of certainty and truth in the same way as sects.
4. Decline of organized religion – modernity leads to secularization, thereby removing the traditional alternatives to new age beliefs e.g. new age is strongest where churchgoing is at its lowest, in California.

Question 32

Gender and religiosity

Answer 32

• Brierley - female churchgoers outnumber male by 500,000
• More women than men say they have a religion – 55% vs 44%
• More women than men say that religion is important to them 38% vs. 26%
• Fewer women than men are atheists – 34% vs 54%
• Miller and Hoffman – women express greater interest and personal commitment

Question 33

Gender - risk, socialisation and roles

Answer 33

• Differences in risk taking – women are afraid of going to hell
• Men are less risk averse
• Women are socialized to be obedient and passive – qualities valued by religion
• Miller and Hoffman – women less likely to work full time (likely to be full – time carers)
• Time for religious activity and view it as a point of identity
• Davie – women are closer to birth and death (give birth and care for elderly) which brings them closer to the ultimate questions

Question 34

Gender - paid work

Answer 34

• Bruce – greater involvement in religion is because of a lack of paid work
• Over time, religion has become confined to private sphere of home (where women are)
• However, by 1960s – many women had taken on masculinized roles in paid work. Led to Brown – ‘decline in female piety’
• But remains attractive – religion has strong affinity with values such as caring for others and men’s withdrawal means that church has become feminized to emphasise female concerns

Question 35

Gender - women and the new age

Answer 35

• Women are more associated with nature and a healing role – may be more attracted to NRM
• 80% of holistic milieu in Kendal were female
• Such movements involve cults of healing which gives women a higher status and self – worth
• Bruce – women’s experience of child – rearing makes them less goal – oriented and aggressive. Women wish to feel where men wish to achieve – this fits the expressive emphasis of new age.
• Also emphasizes importance of being ‘authentic’ rather than acting out roles e.g. gender

Question 36

Women and new age - individual sphere

Answer 36

• Women in paid work experience a role conflict between their instrumental and expressive roles.
• Woodhead suggests that for these women, the new age appeals to the third sphere – the individual concerned with autonomy and personal growth.
• New age ‘self – religions’ appeal to female wish for autonomy

Question 37

Women and new age - class differences

Answer 37

• Bruce – class differences in the types of religions which appeal to women
• While new age beliefs and practices emphasizing autonomy and personal development appeal to some MC women, WC are more attracted to ideas that give them a passive role e.g. fatalistic ideas such as superstition and horoscopes.

Question 38

Gender - types of deprivation

Answer 38

1. Organismic – physical and mental health problems. Women are more likely to be ill and seek the healing of sects.
2. Ethical – women tend to be more morally conservative. May view world as being in decline and be attracted to sects who have the same views.
3. Social – sects attract poorer groups and women are more likely to be poor

Question 39

Pentecostal gender paradox

Answer 39

• Pentecostalism is generally regarded as a patriarchal form of religion. Men are seen as both heads of household and heads of the church.
• Despite this, it has been attractive to women
• Martin – calls this the ‘Pentecostal gender paradox’
• Brusco – Pentecostalism is popular with women because it demands that its followers adopt an ascetic lifestyle and a traditional gender division of labour which requires men to provide for the family.
• Pentecostal women can use these ideas to combat a widespread culture of machismo where men spend 20-40% of the household income on alcohol, tobacco, gambling and prostitutes.
• Pentecostal men are pressured by their pastors and communities to change their ways, allowing for the standard of living to be raised for women and children
• Pentecostalism is not offering western – style liberation but Latin American women do use Pentecostalism to improve their position.
• Drogus – although official doctrine is that men should have authority over women, church magazines and educational materials often encourage more equal relations within marriage.

Question 40

Ethnicity and religiosity

Answer 40

• UK is multi – ethnic, multi – religious society
• Biggest religious group is Christian (72%)
• Significant numbers of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs (almost all belong to EM)
• EM groups – higher than average religious participation
• Brierley – black people are 2x as likely to attend church as whites
• Considerably more likely to see religion as important
• Among Christians, blacks are more likely than whites to be found in Pentecostal churches
• Though EM have higher participation, Modood has found some decline

Question 41

Reasons for ethnic differences - cultural defense

Answer 41

• Bruce – religion offers support and a sense of cultural identity in an uncertain or hostile environment
• Bird – religion can be a basis for community solidarity, a means of preserving culture and a way of coping with racist oppression
• For Black African and Caribbean immigrants, many found that white churches did not actively welcome them
• Brierley – significant growth of new churches in London catering for specific languages and nationalities as a result of recent immigration

Question 42

Reasons for ethnic differences - cultural transition

Answer 42

• Religion can also be a means of easing the transition into a new culture by providing support and a sense of community
• Herberg gives this explanation for high levels of religious participation among first generation immigrants
• Bruce – religion has provided a focal point for immigrant communities
• Pryce – study of African – Caribbean community in Bristol shows both cultural defence and transition have been important.
• Argues that Pentecostalism is a highly adaptive ‘religion of the oppressed’ that provided migrants with values appropriate to the new world in which they found themselves
• Plays a sort of ‘protestant ethic’ role in helping its members succeed by encouraging self - reliance

Question 43

Age and religious participation

Answer 43

• General pattern of religious participation is that the older a person is, the more likely they are to attend religious services
• Partial exception: under – 15s are generally more likely to go to church than most in the age groups above them
• The number of 15 -19 year – olds projected to fall by half between 2015 and 2025 (from 126,000 to 63,000)

Question 44

Reasons for age differences - ageing effect

Answer 44

o View that people turn to religion as they get older
o Heelas – evidence from Kendal project shows that people become more interested in spirituality as we approach death, becoming more concerned with the afterlife

Question 45

Reasons for age differences - period effect

Answer 45

o People born during a particular period may be more or less likely to be religious because of the particular events they lived through e.g. war or rapid social changes

Question 46

Reasons for age differences - secularisation

Answer 46

o As religion declines in importance, each generation becomes less religious than the one before it
• Voas and Crockett – found little evidence for either of the first two explanations
• They argue that secularisation is the main reason why younger people are less religious
• Arweck and Beckford – secularization has the effect of the ‘virtual collapse of religious socialization’ after the 1960s e.g. Sunday schools have all but disappeared
• Voas – even where parents share the same faith, there is only a 50% chance of raising the child to be a churchgoer as an adult