Religious Organisations + Movements

Question 1

Religious Organisations - Definitions - Troeltsch

Answer 1

• Church = long established, large
- Demand low commitment + are inclusive (allow contact with outsiders), claim monopoly on truth

• Sect = Breaks away from church usually due to conflict with teachings
- follow charismatic leader who offers alternative monopoly on truth, smaller + exclusive (contact with outsiders discouraged), higher commitment
- e.g. Mormons

Question 2

Religious Organisations - Definitions - Neihuhr

Answer 2

• Demonination = between church + sect
- Sects leader dies + establishes 2nd gen followers, more mainstream, less exclusive + less high demand
- e.g. Methodist Church

• Cults = mystic movement
- Focus on indiv experience, loose stricture, don’t claim monopoly on truth, not mainstream
- e.g scientology

Question 3

Religious Organisations - Evaluating Definitions

Answer 3

• Many don’t fit neatly into one category (Quakers less exclusive than mormons)
• Neihburh cult definition doesn’t share same characteristics we associate with a cult

Question 4

Religious Organisation - New Age Movement - Wallis

Answer 4

• Further growth of religious movements different to those identified by Troletsch + Neiburh:

• World-Rejecting –> Similar to sects (e.g Mason Family), vary in size, clear notion of god, highly critical of world, live communal, restricted contact with outside

• World-Accomodating –> Breakaway from mainstream churches (e.g. subud), don’t accept/reject World, seek to restore spiritual purity of religion, live conventional lives

• World-Affirming –> E.g. Scientology, accept World, promise success, inclusive, claim to offer additional knowledge, most are cults, train to enter, normal life - few demands

Question 5

Religious Organisations - Growth of New Age Movements - Sects + Cults - Stark + Bainbride

Answer 5

• Both are in conflict with soc
• Sects –> offer other-wolrdly rewards to those suffering economically
• Cults –> Offer this-world reward to suffering physically
- Audience Cults –> low organisation + commitment, social media participation (UFO Cults)
- Client Cults –> Provide business service, promise better health + self -discovery (Yoga)
- Cultic Movements –> Highly organised, high commitment, exclusive (Jamestown)

Question 6

Religious Organisation - Why are Cults and sects growing - Marginality - Troeltsch + Weber

Answer 6

• Troeltsch –> sects draw members from poor + oppressed
• Weber –> Sects arise in marginalised groups + offer solution/explanation

Question 7

Religious Organisation - Why are Cults and sects growing - Relative Deprivation (spiritual) - Wallis, Stark + Bainbridge

Answer 7

• Although mc are materially well-off, may feel spiritually deprived
• Wallis –> Turn to sect for sense of community
• Stark + Bainbridge –> Break away from church + form sects

Question 8

Religious Organisation - Why are Cults and sects growing - Social Change - Wilson + Bruce

Answer 8

• Wilson –> Rapid change disrupt + undermine values + norms = anomie
- those disrupted turn to sects
• Bruce –> Growth of Cults is response to social change in modernisation + Secularisation
- People less attracted to traditional churches + strict sects - Cults require less commitment??

Question 9

Religious Organisation - Why are Sects Short Lived - Niebuhr

Answer 9

• Death of Leader –> Dilutes message
• Second Generation –> Those born into sects are less committed- didn’t choose to join
• The Protestant Ethic Effect –> Sects practicing work + save dev more affluent members who break Sects rules + leave

Question 10

Religious Organisation - Why are Sects Short Lived? - Stark + Bainbridge - Sectarian Cycle

Answer 10

• Sectarian Cycle –>
- Schism –> break away from church
- initial fervour –> compose of charismatic leader
- Denominisation –> Leader dies = sects message dilutes
- Establishment–> Become world-accepting + merge with church
- Further Schisms –> Break away + create new sects

Question 11

Religious Organisation - Are all sects short lived? - Wilson

Answer 11

• Dont all follow sectarian cycle
- Conversions Sect –> aim to convert large number of people + ensure growth + stability (Jahovas Witnesses)
- Adventist Sect –> Following group rules + separating self ensure return to God

Question 12

Religious Organisation - Postmoeernism and New Age Religion - Drane - Metanarratives

Answer 12

• People no longer believe in metanarratives
- no longer believe in mainstream churches having access to truth
- everyone had own interpretation of spirituality

Question 13

Religious Organisation - Postmoernism and New Age Religion - Heelas - Growing - 4 reasons

Answer 13

• New Age Religions are growing for 4 reasons:
- Give people an authentic identity in an uncertain world
- Consumer culture doesn’t deliver perfection advertised by NARs
- NAR Gives people stability in a risk soc
- Secularisation moves people away from traditional religions + towards New meaning

Question 14

Religious Organisation - Religiosity + Social Class - (wc) Marx, Weber + Lawes

Answer 14

•Marx–> WC more likely to be religious as they are Ideologically controlled
• Weber –> WC more likely to be religious as it explains their poverty
• Lawes –> WC likely to be lifelong theists (believe in god)
- M/UC tend to be lifelong atheists

Question 15

Religious Organisation - Religiosity + Social Class - Evaluation

Answer 15

• Aschworth + Farthing –> Wealthy + rural areas have higher church attendance than poor
• Ahern + Davie –> WC distrust religion due to associations with royalty + law
• Voas + Watt –> MC attend church to get children into Catholic schools (better)

Question 16

Religious Organisation - Religiosity + Gender - Risk, Socialisation + Gender Roles - Miller + Hoffman

Answer 16

• Miller + Hoffman –> Not being religious risks religion being right + end up in hell
- men less risk-averse than women (more likely to take risk)
- women socialised to be passive, obedient - valued by religion
- Women’s gender roles = more likely to work part time so have time to go to church

Question 17

Religious Organisation - Religiosity + Gender - Risk, Socialisation + Roles - Greely + Davie

Answer 17

• Greely –> Women’s Religiosity because it involves responsibility for welfare + everyday needs
• Davie –> Women closer to birth + death (child birth) bringing them closer to meaning of life

Question 18

Religious Organisation - Religiosity + Gender - Paid Work - Bruce + Woodhead

Answer 18

• Bruce –> Women’s Religiosity because lower level involvement in paid work
- Rationalisation - religion leaves male dominated work, conforming it to family
- Religious values caring fit women
• Woodhead –> Church is feminised due to men’s withdrawal = emphasise women’s concerns

Question 19

Religious Organisation - Religiosity + Gender - Women + New Age - Individual Sphere

Answer 19

• Women more attracted to New Age
- movement celebrates natural = gives women higher status + self world
• The Individual Sphere –> Women in paid work may experience role conflict between instrumental roles (public sphere)+ expressive roles (private sphere)
- Woodhead –> New Age beliefs attractive - appeal to indiv sphere - personal growth + a new source of identity contradicting roles
- Brown –> New Age emphasises subjective experiences - appeal to women’s wish for autonomy

Question 20

Religious Organisation - Religiosity + Gender - Women + New Age - Class Difference - Bruce

Answer 20

• Mc appealed by personal autonomy, self dev wc appealed by belief in God/fatalistic ideas - superstition, horoscopes

Question 21

Religious Organisation - Religiosity + Gender - Women + Sects - Bruce, Stark + Bainbridge

Answer 21

• Bruce –> 2x more women in sects
• Stark + Bainbridge –> Sects offer compensatory for Deprivation common amongst women
- Organic Deprivation: Physical + MH problems
- Ethical Deprivation: Morally Conservative
- Social: More likely to be poor

Question 22

Religious Organisation - Religiosity + Gender - Pentecostal Gender Paradox - Brusco + Drogus

Answer 22

Pentacostalism= Patriarchal form of religion - men seen as heads of Houses + church
- attractive to women
• Brusco –> Columbia Study
- Demands followers adapt a self denying lifestyle, insists traditional Gender roles - appeal to women to combat alcoholic husbands
• Drogus –> Church magazines + Ed material encourage equal relations within marriage

Question 23

Religious Organisation - Religiosity + Ethnicity

Answer 23

• O’Beirne –> Ethnic minority groups see religion as part of culture identity
- UK Musilms - Religion = Family
- UK Black Christians - Religion = 3rd equal to Family
• Official Stats
- White Christians -32% regularly attend church
- UK Muslims - 80%
• Bruce - Cultural Defence –>
- Religion used against hostility in wider soc
- African-Caribbean use Church to shield from racism
• Modood - Cultural Transition
- Religion helps ethnic minorities assimilate into soc –> meet friends. support

Question 24

Religious Organisation - Religiosity + Age - Heelas - Ageing Effect

Answer 24

• The Ageing Effect –> Turn to religion as get older so when they die go to heaven
• Period of Cohort Effect–> People may be more or less religious depending on when they were born
• Secularisation –> Less important to general public, especially the young