Religion - Week 15

Question 1

The sociology of religion

Answer 1

• concerned with how individuals, institutions, and cultures construe religious belief, how these ideas penetrate public culture and individual lives, and with the implications of religious interpretations for individual, institutional, and societal processes

Question 2

Ecclesia

Answer 2

• a religious organization that claims to include most or all of the members of a society and is recognized as the national or official religion

Question 3

Denominations

Answer 3

• a large, organized religion not officially linked to the state or government

Question 4

Sects

Answer 4

• a relatively small religious group that has broken away from some other religious organizations to renew what it considers the “original vision” of the faith
• ex) 7-day Adventists

Question 5

Cults or New Religious Movements (NRM)

Answer 5

• a small alternative faith community that represents either a new religion or a major innovation in an existing faith
• tend to have extreme views and ideology

Question 6

DURKHEIM & RELIGION

Answer 6

• Religion is functional because it:
  → Gives meaning and purpose to people’s lives
  → Offers ultimate values to hold in common
  → Serves to bind people together in times of crisis and confusion

Question 7

MARX ON RELIGION

Answer 7

• Inhibits social change and makes people focus on other things like their own concerns rather than larger problems
• Religion promotes “false consciousness” among disadvantaged people

Question 8

WEBER ON RELIGION

Answer 8

• Producing and acquiring goods is viewed as being a good protestant

Question 9

Social exchange theory (Mitchell)

Answer 9

• views family life and decision-making in terms of costs and benefits
• assume that humans are primarily motivated by self-interest and seek to maximize rewards or profits in relationships while minimizing costs or possible punishments

Question 10

Social constructionism theory (Mitchell)

Answer 10

• focuses on the idea that social phenomena are created or constructed in particular social and cultural contexts

Question 11

hybrid theory

Answer 11

• 8 stage model
  1. A married couple with no children
  2. The childbearing family
  3. The family with preschoolers
  4. The family with school-aged children
  5. The family with adolescents
  6. The family as a launching pad (children leaving home)
  7. The middle-aged “empty nest” family
  8. The aging family from retirement to death