Religion Flashcards
Religion hinders social change
Worshipping religion is worshiping a stable society
Durkheim functionalist
Collective conscience- shared norms and values that make social life possible ( religious rituals reinforce the collective conscience by reminding people that they are part of society)
Totemism - when clan members worshipped the totem they were actually worshipping society. The totem represents the power of the group on which the individual is ‘utterly dependent’
Religion hinders social change
Potential trauma
Malinowski functionalist
Western Pacific
Lagoon fishing - safe and uses the predictable and successful method of poisoning, when the islanders fish in the lagoon there is no ritual
Ocean fishing - dangerous and uncertain, accompanied with ‘canoe magic’. Gives people a sense of control which eases tension. ‘God of the gaps’ - fills the gaps in human beings control of the world
Religion hinders social change
Avoiding anomie
Malinowski functionalist
Religion helps to minimise disruption - funeral rituals reinforce feelings of solidarity among survivors, while the feeling of immortality gives comfort to the bereaved by denying the fact of death
Religion hinders social change
Religion helps to deal with actual crisis and avoid anomie
Parsons functionalist
Religion creates and legitimated society’s central values and it is the primary source of meaning
Religion hinders social change
Civil religion in America
Bellah functionalist
Civil religion integrates society in a way that America’s many different churches and denominations cannot.
American civil religion involves loyalty to the nation - state and a belief in god - both of which are equated with being a true American
One nation under god - sacralises the American way of life and binds together Americans from many different ethnic and religious backgrounds
Religion hinders social change
Religion is the opium of the masses
Marx
Religion acts as an opiate to dull the pain of exploitation. Religion masks the underlying problem of exploitation that creates the need for it.
Because religion is a distorted view of the world, it can offer no solution to earthly misery. Instead it’s promises of the afterlife create an illusory happiness and distracts attention from the true source of the suffering - capitalism
Religion is a catalyst for social change
Religion is a catalyst of the development of capitalism
Weber
Calvinism - led an ascetic lifestyle shunning all luxury and working long hours
Reinvestedin their business, this and business grow, producing further profit to reinvest
Spirit of modern capitalism
Religion is a catalyst for social change
Depends on a range of factors
Thompson
Religion can help social change but it cannot occur with our other factors eg a charismatic leader (Martin Luther king)
Religion can provide a way to deal with social change
Hinduism in India
Nanda
Globalisation in India would presumably abandon religion in favour of a secular worldview (secularisation theory)
However Indians are becoming more religious
30% surveyed had become more religious
Due to ambivalence about newfound wealth
Religion can resist social change
Cultural defence in Poland
1945-1989 communist rule
Catholic Church was suppressed but form many poles it continued to embody polish nationality
The church served as a popular rallying point for opposition to the Soviet Union
religion is a catalyst for social change - maduro - neo - marxist
south america - catholic priests helped workers to stand up to their oppressors
religion is a catalyst for social change - billings
miners and textile workers went to church for support
miners got academic help and other help that textile workers didnt get.
religions brings social change - thompson
it depends approach - religion can bring about social change but only if other factors are there like a charismatic leader - martin luther king
religion brings social change - fundamentalists
ISIS and al qaeda want social change through terrorism
cultural defence in iran
western capitalist powers and oil companies had long had influence in iran - including involvement in the illegal overthrowing of a democratic government in the 50s to install a pro - western regime headed by the shah of iran
60s and 70s - successor embarked on a policy of modernisation and westernisation - replacing muslim calendar
islam became the focus of resistance - 1979 election of islamic republic
castells - resistant identity
a defensive reaction of those who feel threatened and retreat into fundamentalist communities.eg christian new right in america
x - 1//4 subscribe to evangelical christianity, 3/4 dont
typologies - troeltsch
church - large organisation run by bureaucratic hierarchy of professional priests and they train a monopoly of truth
sects - small exclusive groups, hostile to wider society with high levels of commitment
typologies - neibuhr
denomination - less exclusive membership to sect but also dont appeal to whole society, not linked to state
cult - individualistic, tolerant, world-affirming
wallis - typologies of nrms
world-rejecting, world-accomodating, world affirming
stark and bainbridge - sects and cults
sects result from schisms, they break away from churches usually because of disagreements about doctrines.
cults are new religions such as scientology or ones to that particular society that have been imported - such as tm
short lived cults and sects - neibuhr - second generation
second generation - who are born into the sect, lack commitment and fervour of their parents who joined voluntariy
neibuhr - short lived - protestant ethic
sects that practice ascetism tend to become prosperous and upwardly mobile. members will be tempted to compromise with the world so they will either leave it or it will abandon its world rejecting beliefs
neibuhr - short lived - death of a leader
sects with a charismatic leader either collapse on the leader’s death or a more formal bureaucratic leader takes over, transforming it into a denomination
stark and bainbridge - sectarian cycle
1) tension between the needs of deprived and priveleged members of the church - deprived members break away to form a world-rejecting sect
2) initial fervour, charismatic leadership and great tension between sects’ belief and those of wider society
3) denominationalism - protestant ethic effect and second generation
4) establishment - sects become world accepting
5) further schism leads to new sect
wilson - conversionist and adventist sects
conversionist - sects such as evangelicals, whose aim is to convert large numbers of people, are likely to grow rapidly into formal denominations
adventist - such as the seventh day adventists await the second coming of christ - to be saved they believe they must hold themselves separate from the corrupt world around them. this separatism prevents them from compromising and becoming a denomination
heelas - late modernity and new age cults
self spirituality - new agers seeking the spirituality have turned away from traditional religions and look inside themselves to find it
detraditionalisation - new age rejects the spiritual authority of external traditional sources such as priests or sacred texts. instead it values personal experience and believes that we can uncover truth within ourselves
gender - greely
women’s role in taking care of the family increases women’s spirituality because it involves responsibility for their ultimate welfare as well as their everyday needs
miller and hoffman - gender
gender differences in risk - men more risky, by not being religious risking going to hell
women socialised to be more passive and obedient - values of religion
women’s gender roles - easier to have time to participate in religious activities.
heelas - women and the new age
as women are often more associated with nature eg through childhood and a healing role, may be more attracted to new age movements.
gives women a higher status and sense of self worth
glock and stark-gender - compensation for deprivation
organismic deprivation - stems from physical and mental health problems. women are more likely to suffer from ill health
ethical deprivation - women tend to be more morally conservative . they are more likely to see the world as being in moral decline and be attracted to sects
social deprivation - sects attract poorer groups, women more likely to be poor
