RELIGON AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Question 1

Religion as a conservative force
Can be seen as a conservative force in 2 ways:

Answer 1

1. In the sense of traditional, defending traditional customs, institutions, moral views etc.
2. As it functions to conserve or preserve things as they are.

Question 2

Religious beliefs as conservative

Answer 2

• Most religions uphold ‘family values’ and often favour a traditional patriarchal domestic division of labour. Traditional conservative values also predominate in non-Christian religions. E.G Hinduism endorses male domestic authority and the practice of arranged marriage.

Question 3

Religion as consensus (functionalism)

Answer 3

Functionalists see religion as a conservative force because it functions to maintain social stability and prevent society from disintegrating. E.G. it promotes social solidarity by creating value consensus, thus reducing the likelihood of society collapsing through individuals pursuing their own selfish interests at the expense of others. It also helps to maintain the status quo by preventing the less powerful from changing things.

Question 4

Religion as capitalist

Answer 4

Marx sees religion as a conservative ideology that prevents social change. By legitimating or disguising exploitation and inequality, it creates false consciousness in the working class and prevents revolution, thereby maintaining the stability of capitalist society.

Question 5

Religion and patriarchy

Answer 5

• Feminists see religion as a conservative force because it acts as an ideology that legitimates patriarchal power and maintains women’s subordination in the family and wider society.

Question 6

Weber

Answer 6

• Argues that the religious beliefs of Calvinism helped to bring about major social change - specifically, the emergence of modern capitalism in Northern Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.
• Notes that many past societies had capitalism in the sense of greed for wealth, which they often spent on luxury consumption.
• He argues, however, that modern capitalism is unique because it is based on the systematic, efficient and rational pursuit of profit for its own sake rather than for consumption.
• This is the spirit of capitalism and this spirit of capitalism has an elective affinity or unconscious similarity to the Calvinists’ beliefs and attitudes.

Question 7

Calvinist beliefs

Answer 7

• Predestination
• Divine transcendence
• Asceticism
• The idea of a vocation or calling

Question 8

Predestination

Answer 8

Calvinist belief that God has predetermined which souls would be saved

Question 9

Divine transcendence

Answer 9

• God was so far above and beyond this world that no human could possibly claim to know his will.
• This lead Calvinists to feel ‘an unprecedented inner loneliness’. When combined with the doctrine of predestination this created, according to Weber, ‘a salvation panic’.
• They could not know whether they had been chosen to be saved and they could not do anything to earn their salvation.

Question 10

Ascetism

Answer 10

• Severe self-discipline and avoidance of all forms of indulgence to show devotion to God

Question 11

The idea of a vocation or calling

Answer 11

• Calvinism introduced the idea of this-worldly asceticism.
• Calvinists could only look to the Bible for an understanding of God’s plan.
• This encouraged them to pursue methodical work in an occupation not in a monastery - it was religious duty.

Question 12

Weber, ‘The Protestant Ethic & The Spirit of Capitalism’ (1905)

Answer 12

• Weber was a Social Action theorist (individuals determine the shape of society)
• Interested in the variables that led to economic growth and the rise of industrial society.
• Ascetic Calvinists Protestantism was one of the causes of the rise of western capitalism.
• Calvinists believed in predestination, the idea that those who go to heaven are already chosen.
• This led to the psychological problem of not knowing whether they had been chosen as the elect.
• Calvinists worked hard to worship God (protestant ethic), reassuring themselves through their industry by working hard and reinvesting their surplus.
• Weber believed this created the conditions for Capitalism to grow. They lived with the spirit of capitalism where the object is simply the acquisition of more money as an end in itself.

Question 13

Weber - explaining societal differences

Answer 13

• Weber notes that there have been other societies that have has a higher level of economic development than Northern Europe had in the 16th and 17th centuries, but that still failed to develop modern capitalism.
• For instance ancient China and India were materially more advanced than Europe, but capitalism was not in effect. He argues that this was due to the lack of a religious belief system like that of Calvinism that would have incited the development.
• In ancient India, though Hinduism was an ascetic religion favouring the renunciation of the material world, its orientation was other-worldly, directing its followers’ concerns away from the material world.
• In ancient China, though Confucianism was a this-worldly religion it was not ascetic.
• Thus, both religions lacked the drive to systematically accumulate wealth that is necessary in modern capitalism.
• Calvinism was unique in combining both elements to enable the spirit of modern capitalism to emerge.

Question 14

Weber
EV.

Answer 14

• Kautsky (1927) argues that Weber overestimates the role of ideas and underestimates the economic factors that bring capitalism into being. For example, the influence of natural resources, trade, towns and cities and so on. He argues that capitalism preceded rather than followed Calvinism.
• Similarly, Tawney (1926) argues that technological change, not religious ideas, caused the birth of capitalism. It was only after capitalism was established that the bourgeoisie adopted Calvinist beliefs to legitimate the pursuit of economic gain.
• Capitalism did not develop in every country where there were Calvinists. E.G. Scotland has a large Calvinist population but was slow to develop capitalism.
• However, Marshall (1982) argues that this was because of a lack of investment capital and skilled labour - supporting Weber’s idea that both material and cultural factors need to be present for capitalism to emerge.
• Calvinists were among the first capitalists because of the exclusion not because of their beliefs. Some argue that Calvinists turned to business as one of the few alternatives open to them as they had been excluded by law from political office and many of the professionals, like the Jews in Eastern Europe. Others who support Weber counterargue that other religious minorities were also excluded in this ay but did not become successful capitalists.

Question 15

Religion and Social Protest

Answer 15

• Investigation of the role of religiosity in the protest movements in America:
• The Civil Rights Movement and The New Christian Right

Question 16

Bruce
Religion in the Civil Rights Movement

Answer 16

• Saw the American civil rights movement this as an example of religiously inspired social change.
  Religion was used:
  1. As an ideological resource: Provided beliefs and practices that protestors could use as support
  2. A perspective that pointed out the hypocrisy of the white clergy preaching ‘Love thy neighbour’ whilst being racist (taking the moral high ground)
  3. To provided channels for expressing political dissent. E.G. the funeral of Martin Luther King was a rallying point for the civil rights cause.
  4. To act as the honest broker, providing a context for negotiation as churches are often respected by both sides
  5. Mobilising public opinion, campaign for support across the whole country
  *Supports Neo-Marxist view (having intellectuals to bring about social change): churches provided sanctuary and support, rituals and prayer united members, religious people became leaders of social protest.

Question 17

Bruce
Civil Rights vs New Christian Right

Answer 17

• Concluded that the civil rights movement was an example of the successful and supportive involvement of religion in a secular struggle, contributing towards social change.
• However, Bruce believed that this involvement of religion on social change is dependent on whether their beliefs are consistent with those of wider society.
• For example, while the New Christian right have enormous publicity and a high profile in the media, they have not been successful because their views are fixed and lack widespread support. They strongly advocate for the traditional family, traditional gender roles and campaign for the teaching of ‘creationism’. These beliefs oppose the basically liberal and democratic values of most of American society and so are not influential. This shows that, unlike the civil rights movement, to be successful religiously motivated protest movements must be in line with the majority of society.

Question 18

Neo-Marxist perspective

Answer 18

• Disagree with the Marxist view that religion is under the control of the ruling class
• Religion has relative autonomy - they are separate from the structures maintained by the ruling class.

Question 19

Engles, 1895

Answer 19

• Argues that although religion inhibits change by disguising inequality, it can also challenge the status quo and encourage social change. E.G. religion preaches liberation from slavery and prioritising the vulnerable - issues still relevant today.
• Also, though senior clergy usually support the status quo, lower ranks within the church hierarchy have often supported or even inspired and organised popular protest.

Question 20

Marxism, religion and social change

Answer 20

• Marxists recognise that ideas, including religious ideas, can have relative autonomy - partly independent of the economic base of society. Marx saw religion as capable of humanising a world made inhuman by exploitation, even if the comfort it offers is illusionary.

Question 21

Relative autonomy

Answer 21

• Independence from the economic base
• Religion can have a dual character prompting change as well as stability due to the commitment religious leaders have for the poor and opposition to dictators.
• It showed how religion could become involved in a secular struggle and help to bring about change. Bruce saw this as a method of mobilising public opinion.

Question 22

Bloch

Answer 22

• For Bloch, religion is an expression of ‘the principle of hope’ - our dreams of a better life that contains images of utopia.
• This hope can help people to see what needs to be changed in the world and create a strong vision, which, if combined with effective political organisation and leadership, can bring about social change.

Question 23

Liberation theology

Answer 23

• A religious movement especially among Roman Catholic clergy in Latin America that combines political philosophy usually of a Marxist orientation with a theology of salvation as liberation from injustice. The church used as the means of fighting oppression. Started because of:
• Deepening rural poverty and the growth of urban slums throughout Latin America
• Human rights abuses following military take-overs
• The growing commitment among Catholic priests to an ideology that supported the poor and opposed violations of human rights.

Question 24

Maduro, 1982

Answer 24

• Echoed Gramsci, religion is a revolutionary force that brings about social change, i.e. in 1979, Catholic revolutionaries played a part in the overthrow of the Somoza Regime in Nicaragua.
• Also supports the idea of relative autonomy, arguing that the church can provide guidance for the oppressed in their struggle with the ruling class.
• Religion isn’t always a conservative force - it can be revolutionary. Catholic priest criticize and act against bourgeoisie interests, providing a voice for the working class. This works in places where protest is not permitted such as in Argentina in the 70s and 80s.

Question 25

Lehmann, 1996

Answer 25

• Contrasts liberation theology with Pentecostalism arguing that while liberation theology offers an ‘option for the poor’ Pentecostalism offers an ‘option of the poor’.
• Liberation theology offered a radical solution to poverty: collective improvement through political action in the public sphere, while Pentecostalism’s solution is conservative: individual self-improvement through the private sphere of family and church.

Question 26

Worsley, 1968

Answer 26

• Argued that Millenarian movements are an example of how religion raises hope - specifically of a better world in the afterlife and a desire to bring about the kingdom of God on earth.
• The idea that the imminent transformation of the world will be collective also appeals largely to the poor as it promises immediate improvement.

Question 27

Hegemony

Answer 27

• Ideological domination or leadership of society.
• When hegemony is established, the ruling class can rely on popular consent to their rule, so there is less need for coercion.
• E.G. writing in Italy in the 1920s and 1930s, Gramsci notes the immense conservative ideological power of the Catholic Church in helping to win support for Mussolini’s fascist regime.

Question 28

Gramsci, 1971

Answer 28

• Economic forces alone cannot maintain the dominance of the ruling class.
• In order to keep a strong hold on society the ruling class has to persuade the masses that everything is fair (hegemony)
• Religion can guide us through challenges to the ruling class due to it’s relative autonomy.
• Like Engels, Gramsci sees religion as having a dual character: it can challenge as well as support the ruling class
• If the church joined forces with intellectuals it could lead the masses to challenge the status quo and free themselves from oppression.
• He argues that popular forms of religion can help workers see through the ruling-class hegemony by offering a vision of a better, fairer world. Similarly, some clergy may act as educators, organisers and leaders’ who can help workers see the situation they are in and support working-class organisations such as trade unions.

Question 29

Billings, 1990

Answer 29

• Applies Gramsci’s ideas in a case study comparing class struggle in two communities - one of coalminers, the other of textile workers - in Kentucky during the 1920s and 1930s.
• Both were working-class and evangelical Protestant, but the miners were much more militant, campaigning for better conditions, while the textile workers accepted the status quo.
• Following Gramsci, Billings argues that the differences in levels of militancy can be understood in terms of hegemony and the role of religion.
• Leadership found in lay preachers who were themselves miners and trade union activists helped to convert miners to the union cause while the textile workers lacked such leadership.
• The miners were able to use independent churches to hold meetings and organise, whereas the textile workers lacked such spaces.
• Lastly, unlike the textile workers who were met with opposition from local churches, the miners received support through sermons and prayer meetings.
• This study demonstrated that the same religion can be called upon either to defend the status quo or justify the struggle to change it.