Religion is a force for social change Flashcards
Cultural change
An example to use for cultural change = civil rights movement
- martin luther king was a civil rights leader and the goal of the whole movement was to go from segregation to equality
Religion is an ideological resource
- it gave them arguments to support their points e.g ‘love thy neighbour’
- these quotes from the bible highlighted their hypocrisy of the law - which was saying you are christian but not acting like christians by supporting segregation
- Church legitimised the protests
- Boycotts took place e.g walking to work for months on end
- church said it was Gods work so it motivated them to continue and from this the church was seen as a sanctuary so it created a community for them
Economic change
Weber
- introduced the idea of the protestant work ethic and the spirit of capitalism
- argues that the meanings we put on society such as beliefs - this influences our behaviour which then creates an economy
-Britian at this time were protestant and john calvin created his own religion from this (calvinism)
- in turn calvinism helped increase capitalism
Economic change 2
meanings - behaviours - society
- in this case the meanings they had was based on beliefs which was calvinism
- calvinists believed in pre-destination which is the idea that God knows who is going to heaven and who isnt and the group of people who are going to heaven are called the elect
- no one knew who the elect would be so it caused salvation panic - within this religion they saw hard work as a way to get into heaven
- this hard work becomes a behaviour and they called it the protestant work ethic
- causes capitalism to have alot of workers
- they developed an acetic lifestyle = a thrifty lifestyle so they did not overindulge in luxuries and saved money and reinvested it so they could gain more money - this is the main ideas of capitalism (spirit of capitalism)
However - this was not in all societies as calvinism did not have the same developments in capitalism
Political change
Archbishop oscar romero
- wanted to change the political structure from a dictatorship as he wanted less oppression and more equality
- used quotes from the bible to show that change needed to happen
Political change - iranian revolution turns country into a conservative force
political change - turned into a theocracy that ayotollah is the supreme leader who is above the president
- ayotollah makes sure all policies are in line with sharia law
- maintained social order and physically enforced the social order - used religion to hide women and make these laws
