Religion JKR Flashcards
Types of religious organisations
Some people hold religious beliefs without being members of any organisation but many others express their faith through membership of a religious organisation such as a church.
Troeltsch 1912 identifies religious organisations
Distinguishing between two main types:
Church
Sect
Churches
Large organisations with millions of members run by a bureaucratic hierarchy of priests and claim the monopoly of the truth
Universalistic aiming to include all of society
Few demands on members
Often linked to state
Sects
Small exclusive groups Hostile to outside world Draw members from poor and oppressed Monopoly on truth Charismatic leader
Niebuhr 1929
Identified other religious organisations
Denominations
Cult
Denominations eg Methodism
Midway between church and sect
Less exclusive than sect but don’t appeal to all of society
Broadly accept society’s values but no link to state
Impose minor restrictions on members
Don’t claim a monopoly on the truth
Cult - least organised religious organisation
Highly individualistic
Loose knit small grouping around shared themes and interests
Led by practitioners and therapists
Usually tolerant of other organisations
Don’t demand strong commitment
May have further little involvement once acquired the beliefs and techniques it offers
Wallis 1984 shows two characteristics between religious organisations when they are compared
How they see themselves- churches and sects claim that their interpretation of faith is the only legitimate one. Denominations and cults accept there can be many valid interpretations
How they are seen by wider society- churches and denominations are seen as respectable whereas sects and cults are deviant
Bruce 1996 claims that Troeltschs descriptions don’t fit today’s society
Idea of religious monopoly only applies to Catholic Church before 16th( Protestant reformation. Monopoly over society with massive cathedrals
Since then sects and cults have flourished and religious diversity has become the norm
Churches are no longer truly churches in Troeltschs sense as they have lost monopoly and reduced to denomination status
New religious movements
Since 1960s there’s been an explosion in new religions and organisations.
Led to new attempt to classify them. Wallis 1984 categorises them as New religious movements
Placed in three broad groups
World rejecting NRMs
Similar to Troeltschs sects
Vary greatly in size
Clearly religious organisation
Highly critical of outside world
Seek radical change
To achieve salvation must break with former life
Live communally restricted contact with outside world
Movement controls all aspects of their lives
Conservative moral codes
World accommodating new religious movement
Often breakaways from existing mainstream church or denominations
Neither reject or accept the world focusing on religious matters
Seek to restore spiritual purity
Members lead conventional lives
World affirming New religious movements
May lack some of the conventional feature of a religion not highly organised
Offer followers access to spiritual power
Accept world as it is. Optimistic. Enable followers to unlock own spiritual power
Most are cults
Customers rather than members. Entry through training
World affirming NRMs most successful
Evaluation of Wallis’s NRMs
Some argue that it’s not clear whether categorising them according to movements teaching or individual members beliefs
Wallis himself recognised NRMs will rarely fit neatly into typology
Stark and Bainbridge 1986 reject typologies. We should distinguish by the degree of conflict or tension between the religious group and wider society
Stark and Bainbridge identify two kinds of organisation that are in conflict with wider society
Sect and cults
Sects
Results from schisms. They breakaway from churches usually due to disagreements over doctrine
Cults
New religions like Scientology or have been imported into a particular society like TM
Stark and Bainbridge see sects as
Promising other worldly benefits eg place in heaven to those suffering economic deprivation or ethical deprivation (their values conflict with wider society)
Stark and Bainbridge see cults
Tend to offer this worldly benefits to more prosperous individuals who are suffering psychic deprivation (normlessness) and organismic deprivation (health problems)
Stark and Bainbridge subdivide cults according to how organised they are
Audience cults
Client cults
Cultic movements
Audience cults
Least organised and don’t involve formal membership or much commitment. There is little interaction between members. Participation may be through the media eg astrology or UFO cults
Client cults
Based on relationship between a consultant and a client and provide services to its followers. In the past they were often purveyors of medical miracles, contacted the dead etc. Now the emphasis has shifted to therapies promising personal fulfilment and self discovery
Cultic movements
Most organised
Demand a higher level of commitment
Attempts to meet all its members religious needs
Rarely allowed to belong to other religions groups
Eg Scientology
Stark and Bainbridge
Make some useful distinctions between organisations e.g idea to use degree of conflict with society to distinguish is similar to Troeltschs distinction between church and sect
Explaining the growth of religious movements
Since 60s been a rapid growth in number of sects and cults and people belonging to them There are over 800 NRMs in the UK There are three main reasons for trend; Marginality Relative deprivation Social change
Marginality
Troeltsch believed that sets draw their members from the poor and oppressed. Similarly Weber 1922 saw sects arising in groups who are marginal to society.
Such groups may feel they are disprivileged or they feel they are not receiving their just economic rewards or social status
Marginality
In Weber’s view sects offer a solution to this problem by offering their members a theodicy of disprivilege or a religious explanation and justification for their suffering and disadvantage. They explain their misfortune as a test of faith eg they may promise rewards in the future for keeping the faith
Marginality
Historically many sects and millenarian movements have recruited from marginalised poor. In 20( Nation of Islam recruited among disadvantaged black Americans. Since 60s the sect, like world rejecting NRMs, have recruited from more affluent groups of often educated young MC whites.
Wallis argued this didn’t contradict Weber’s view because many had become marginal to society. Despite MC upbringing most of these recruits were hippies drop outs and drug users
Relative deprivation- sense of being deprived even if possibly well off eg spiritually deprived
Stark and Bainbridge argue that it’s the relatively deprived who break away from churches to form sects. When MC members of a church seek to compromise its beliefs to fit society deprived members are likely to break away to form sects that safeguard the original message of the organisation
Relative deprivation
Stark and Bainbridge argue that world rejecting sects offer to the deprived the compensators they’re denied in this world. By contrast the privileged need no compensators or world rejecting religion. They are attracted to world accepting churches that express their status and bring them further success in achieving earthly rewards. This distinction is similar to Wallis’s two main types of NRMs
Social change
Wilson 1970 argues that periods of rapid social change disrupt and undermine established norms and values producing anomie or normlessness. In response to the uncertainty and insecurity that this creates those who most affected by the disruption may turn to sects for a solution.
Social change
Bruce 1995 sees the growth of sects and cults today as a response to the societal changes involved in modernisation and secularisation. In Bruce’s view society is now secularised and therefore people are less attracted to the traditional churches and strict sects because they demand too much commitment. Instead people now prefer cults because they are less demanding and require fewer sacrifices
The growth of NRMs - rejecting
World rejecting NRMs - Wallis points to social changes from 60s impacting on young people including the increased time in education. This gave them freedom from adult responsibilities and enabled a counter culture to develop. The growth in radical political movements offered alternative ideas about the future. Rejecting NRMs were attractive because they offered young people a more idealistic way of life. Bruce 1995 argues that it was the failure of the counter culture to change the world that led to disillusionment and youths turning to religion instead
Growth of NRMs - world affirming
Bruce argues that their growth is a response to modernity especially to the rationalisation of work. Work no longer provides meaning or a source of identity when Protestant work ethic gave work a religious meaning to some people. Yet at the same time we are expected to achieve even though we lack the opportunities to succeed. World affirming NRMs provide both a sense of identity and techniques to succeed in this world.
The growth of NRMs
Wallis also notes that some movements of the middle ground such as the Jesus Freaks have grown since the mid 70s. They have attracted disillusioned former members of world rejecting NRMs (which are generally less successful) because they provide a halfway house back to a more conventional lifestyle.
The dynamics of sects and cults
While churches like Roman Catholicism have history stretching centuries sects are often short lived organisations frequently lasting only a single generation or less. Sociologists are therefore interested to understand the dynamics of sect development. There is also interest in how the NRMs described by Wallis will fare in the longer term
Denomination or death
Niebuhr 1929 argues that sects are world rejecting organisations that come into existence because of schisms - the splitting from an established church because of a disagreement over religious doctrine
Niebuhr argued that sects are short lived and within a generation either die out or compromise with the world abandon their extreme ideas and become a denomination
Denomination or death - several reasons for this
The second generation born into it lack the commitment and fervour of their parents who had consciously rejected the world and joined voluntarily
The Protestant ethic effect - sects that practice asceticism tend to become prosperous and upwardly mobile. Such members will be tempted to compromise with the world so they will either leave or it will abandon its world rejecting beliefs
Death of the leader - sects with a charismatic leader either collapse after the death or form a more formal bureaucratic leadership takes over transforming it into a denomination
The sectarian cycle
Stark and Bainbridge 1986 see religious organisations as moving through a cycle. In the first stage there is schism where there are tensions between the needs of the deprived and the privileged members of a church
Deprived members break away to found a world rejecting sect
The sectarian cycle
The second stage is one of initial fervour with a charismatic leadership and great tension between the sects beliefs and those of wider society
In the third stage denominationalism the Protestant ethic effect and the coolness of the second generation means the fervour disappears
The sectarian cycle
The fourth stage - establishment- sees the sect become more world accepting and tensions with wider society reduces
In the final stage- further schism results when more zealous or less privileged members break away to form a new sect based on the sects original message
Established sects
Wilson 1966 argues that not all sects follow the pattern. Whether or not they do so depends on the answer to
“What shall we do to be saved?”
There are two responses
Established sects
Conversionist sects such as evangelicals whose aim it is to convert large numbers of people are likely to grow into larger more formal denominations
Adventist sects await the second coming of Christ. To be saved they believe they must hold themselves separate from a corrupt world. This separatism prevents them from compromising and becoming a denomination
Established sects
Wilson also claims that some sects survived over many generations such as Adventists. Instead of becoming denominations these groups became established sects.
Contrary to Niebuhr’s predictions many of them have succeeded in socialising their children into a high level of commitment largely by keeping them apart from the wider world.
Established sects
Wilson goes onto argue that globalisation will make it harder in future for sects to keep themselves separate from the outside world
On the other hand globalisation will make it easier to recruit in the developing world where large numbers of deprived people for whom the message of sects is attractive as the success of Pentecostalists has shown
The growth of the New Age
The term New Age covers a range of beliefs and activities that have been widespread since at least the 80s.
Heelas 2008 estimates that there are about 2000 such activities and 146000 practitioners in the UK
Many of them are very loosely organised audience or client cults
They are extremely diverse and eclectic putting unconnected ideas together in new combinations
They include beliefs about UFOs and aliens astrology etc.
The growth of the New Age
According to Heelas 1996 there are two common themes that characterise the New Age
Self spirituality- New Age seeking the spiritual have turned away from traditional “external” religions such as the churches and instead look inside themselves to find it
Detraditionalisation - the New Age rejects spiritual authority of external traditional sources such as priests or sacred texts. Instead it values personal experience and believes that we can discover the truth for ourselves and within ourselves
The growth of the New Age
Beyond these common features New Age beliefs vary. They include world affirming aspects that help people succeed in the everyday outer world as well as world rejecting elements that allow individuals to achieve enlightenment in their inner world.
Heelas argues that most New Age beliefs and organisations offer both
Postmodernity and the New Age
Several explanations for the popularity of the New Age have been offered.
Drane 1999 argues that it’s appeal is due to a shift towards a postmodern society
One of the features of postmodern society is a loss of faith in meta-narratives or claims to have the truth
Science promised to bring us a better world but instead had given us war genocide environmental destruction and global warming. As a result people have lost faith in experts and professionals like doctors and scientists and they are disillusioned with the churches failure to meet their spiritual needs
As a result they are turning to the New Age idea that each of us can find the truth by ourselves by looking within
The New Age and Modernity
By contrast Bruce 1995 argues that growth of the New Age is a feature of the latest phase of modern society and not postmodernity.
Modern society values individualism which is also a key principle of New Age
It’s also an important value among those in the expressive professions concerned with human potential such as community workers or artists the groups to whom the New Age seems to appeal the most
The New Age and modernity
Bruce notes that New Age beliefs are often softer versions of more demanding and self disciplined traditional Eastern religions like Buddhism and have been watered down to make them palatable for self centred westerners
This explains why New Age activities are often audience or clients cults since these make few demands on their followers
Bruce sees the New Age eclecticism/spiritual shopping as typical of religion in late modern society reflecting the consumerist ethos of capitalist society.
The New Age and modernity
Similarly Heelas 1996 sees the New Age and modernity linked in four ways. A source of identity Consumer culture Rapid social change Decline of organised religion
Religiosity and social groups
There are important differences between social groups in their religious participation and in the type of beliefs they hold
Different social classes are likely to be attracted by different religious organisations and ideas - the lower classes to world rejecting sects and higher classes to world affirming churches and cults
Gender and religiosity
There are clear gender differences in belief in religion in the UK
These differences can be found in all age groups in most Christian groups and non Christian religions
Davie notes there were gender differences in terms of religious practice belief self identification private prayer and other aspects of religion
Gender and religiosity
Most churchgoers are female and they are more likely than men to attend church regularly. Female churchgoers outnumber men by nearly half a million Brierly 2005
More women 55% than men 44% say they are religious
More women 38% than men 26% say religion is important
Fewer women than men say they are agnostic
In all major faiths in the UK except for Sikhs women are more likely than men to practise their religion
Reasons of gender differences- risk socialisation and roles
Miller and Hoffman claim that there are three main reasons for women’s greater religiosity
Firstly gender differences in risk taking is a reason for differences in religiosity. By not being religious people are risking that religion may be right and they will be condemned to hell. As men are less risk adverse than women they are more likely to take the risk of not being religious
Davie notes that the virtual disappearance today of the dangers associated with childbirth that women had always faced throughout history means that women in western societies face fewer risks and may be becoming less religious as a result
Risk socialisation and roles
Secondly women are more religious because they are socialised to be more passive obedient and caring
These qualities are valued by most religions so it follows that women are more likely than men to be attracted to religion
Men who are more likely to have these qualities are also more likely to be religious
Risk socialisation and roles
Thirdly Miller and Hoffman note that women’s gender roles mean they are more likely than men to work part time or to be full time carers so they have more scope for organising their time to participate in religious activities
Women are also more likely to be attracted to the church as a source of gender identity. Greely 1992 argues that their role in taking care of other family members increases women’s religiosity because it involves responsibility for their ultimate welfare as their everyday needs
Risk socialisation and roles
Similarly Davie 2013 argues that women are closer to childbirth and death.
This brings them closer to the ultimate questions about the meaning of life that religion is concerned with
This also fits in with the differences that men and women see God men are more likely to see God as a entity of power and control women tend to focus on lover and forgiveness
Paid Work
Bruce 1996&2011 argues that women’s religiosity is a result of their lower levels of involvement in paid work
He links this to secularisation processes such as rationalisation. Over the last two centuries this has largely driven religion out of male dominated sphere of work confining it to the private sphere of family life and personal life
These are the sphere that women are most concerned with. As religion becomes privatised so men’s religiosity has declined faster than women’s
Paid work
However by the 60s many women had also taken on secular masculine roles in the public sphere of paid work and this has led to what Brown 2009 calls the decline of female piety. Women are also withdrawing from religion
Despite the decline religion remains more attractive to women than to men for at least two reasons
Religion has a strong affinity with values such as caring for others
Men’s withdrawal from religion in the last two centuries meant that the church gradually became feminised spaces that emphasises women’s concerns such as caring and relationships. Woodhead 2001 argues that this continues to make religion more attractive to women
Women and the New Age
To emphasise the greater appeal of religion to women we look at
Firstly the New Age. Women are often more associated with nature and a healing role so they may be more attracted than men to New Age movements and ideas. Heelas and Woodhead found 80% of the participants in New Age groups in Kendal were women
This may be because such movements often celebrate the natural and involve cults of healing which gives women a higher status and self worth
Bruce 2011 argues that women’s experience of child rearing make them less aggressive and goal orientated and are more cooperative and caring. Where men want to achieve women want to feel. In Bruce’s view this fits in with the expressive emphasis of the New Age
Women and the New Age
Women may also be attracted to the New Age because it emphasises the importance of being authentic rather than just acting out roles including gender roles
Women may be more attracted than men to this because they are more likely to perceive their roles as restrictive
The individual sphere
Women in paid work may experience role conflict between instrumental role in public sphere and expressive role in private
Woodhead 2001 suggests that for these women the New Age is attractive because they appeal to the third sphere or the individual sphere. This sphere is concerned with individual autonomy and personal growth rather than role performance
New Age beliefs bypass the role conflict by creating a new source of identity for women based on their inner self rather than these contradictory social roles giving them a sense of wholeness
Individual sphere
Brown 2009 similarly argues that the New Age self religions emphasise subjective experience rather than external authorities and attracts women recruits because they appeal to women’s wish for autonomy
On the other hand some women maybe attracted to fundamentalism because of the certainties of a traditional gender role that prescribed it for them
Class difference
Bruce 1996&2011 points out that there are class differences in the types of religion that appeal to women New Age beliefs and practices emphasise personal autonomy control and self development which appeals to some MC women. WC women are more attracted to ideas that gives them a passive role such as believing in an all powerful god or fatalistic ideas such as superstition These differences fit in with other class differences in areas such as education where the middle class belief in the ability of individuals to control their own destiny contrasts with fatalistic WC attitudes
Women, compensators and sects
Bruce 1996 estimates that twice as many women than men are involved in sects
Stark and Bainbridge 1995 argue that people may participate in sects for they offer compensators for organismic ethical and social deprivation. These forms of deprivation are more common in women and explains their higher level of sect membership
Organismic deprivation stems from physical and mental health problems. Women are more likely to suffer ill health and thus seek the healing that sects offer
Ethical deprivation and where women tend to be morally conservative. They are thus more likely to regard the world as being in moral decline and be attracted to sects which often share this view
Social deprivation sects attract poorer groups and women are more likely to be poor
The Pentecostal paradox
Since 70s Pentecostalism has grown rapidly in many parts of the world especially amongst poor
In Latin America 13% of population are now members of Pentecostal churches
Pentecostalism is usually seen as a patriarchal religion men are head of the house
Martin 2000 describes Pentecostal gender paradox with many women involved
Pentecostal gender paradox
Brusco 1995&2012 thinks women get involved due to self denying lifestyle and men forced to act responsibly
Drogus 1994 doctrine encourages more equal marriage
Recent trends
Women more likely to be religious
Decline in religious activity in UK
Traditional religion means traditional gender roles
Women attracted to New Age beliefs
Ethnicity
Brierly 2013 found black people are twice as likely as white people to go to church
Modood et al 1994 found some decline in the importance of religion for all ethnic groups and especially among second generations
Reasons for ethnic differences
Ethnic minorities originate from poorer countries with traditional cultures
In new country religion acts as cultural defence and cultural transition
Cultural defence
Bruce 2002 argues that religion offers support and a sense of cultural identity
Bird 1999 religion basis for solidarity preserving culture and language
Black and Caribbean Christians found white churches were not actively welcoming
Brierly 2013 number of new churches catering for specific languages and nationalities
Cultural transition
Ease the transition into a new culture by providing support
Herberg 1955 shows high levels of participation among first generation migrants into US.
Bruce sees similar patterns in history of immigration
Once a group such as Irish Catholics made transition it lost its role and declined in importance
Cultural transition
Pryce 1979 studied African Caribbean community and found defence and transition were important
Pryce Pentecostalism is religion of the oppressed
However Rastafarians radically reject wider society
Age and religious participation
General pattern is participation is for the older person
Exception is the under 15s
Brierly 2015 believes that by 2025 half of all churches will have no one under 20 attending
Reasons for age differences
Voas and Crockett 2005 suggests three possible explanations for age differences in religiosity:
The ageing effect
The period or cohort effect
Secularisation
Reasons for age differences
Voas and Crockett found secularisation was the main reason with each generation being less religious
Arweck and Bedford 2013 virtual collapse of religious socialisation in 60s
Voas 2003 found even religious parents who share same religion are only 1/2 chance of raising children as churchgoers
Millenarian movements refers to the idea that Christ would come again and rule for one thousand years
Worsley 1968 movements expect the total and imminent transformation of this world by supernatural means and create heaven on earth
Appeal is largely for the poor as they promise immediate improvement often in colonial situations.
Worsley studied millenarian movements in Melanesia known as cargo cults. Islanders felt wrongfully deprived when cargo arrived on islands for colonists. Cargo cults sprang up asserting that cargo had been meant for the native people.
Millenarian movements
Engels argues that they represent the first awakening of proletarian self-consciousness.
Movements look forward to the apocalypse
Members will achieve salvation through a cataclysmic event like a major disaster
The characteristics of fundamentalism
Fundamentalists appeal to tradition and often look back to a supposed golden age.
They seek a return to the basics or fundamentals of their faith
But religious fundamentalism is different to traditional religion. It arises where traditional beliefs and values are threatened or challenged by modern society and especially by the impact of an increasingly globalised society
The characteristics of fundamentalism
The threat of traditional beliefs can come from outside for example through capitalist globalisation the penetration of western culture or military invasions
Or it can come from within for example when sections of society adopt new secular ideas such as liberal attitudes to sexuality and gender
The characteristics of fundamentalism
1) An authoritative sacred text Aldridge 2013 notes no text speaks for itself so in what fundamentalists hold to be true is not the text itself but their interpretation of its meaning 2) Us and then mentality 3) Agressive reaction 4) use of modern technology 5) patriarchy 6) prophecy 7) conspiracy theories
Fundamentalism and modernity
Davie 2013 argues fundamentalism occurs where those who hold traditional orthodox beliefs and values are threatened by modernity
Giddens 1999 fundamentalism is a product of and a reaction to globalisation
Cosmopolitanism
Giddens contrasts fundamentalism with cosmopolitanism
Tolerant of the views of others
Responses to postmodernity
Bauman 1992 fundamentalism a response to living in postmodernity
Castells 2010 two responses to postmodernity
Resistance identity
Project identity
Beckford 2011 criticises these
They distinguish too sharply between cosmopolitanism
Ignore important developments including how globalisation affects non-fundamentalist religions
Giddens lumps all types of fundamentalism together ignoring differences
Criticisms
Haynes 1998 argues that we should not focus narrowly on the idea that Islamic fundamentalism is a reaction against globalisation
Monotheism and fundamentalism
Bruce 2008 argues that the main cause of fundamentalism as the perception of religious traditionalists that today’s globalising world threatens their beliefs
Regards fundamentalism as being confined to monotheistic religions
Two fundamentalism’s
In Bruce’s view although all fundamentalists share the same characteristics like belief in the literal truth of a sacred text and the detestation of modernity different fundamentalist movements may have different origins
Bruce illustrates this distinction with Christian and Islam fundamentalism
