Sociology-Beliefs in Society-Sociologists Flashcards
Weber 1905
Defines religion as belief in a superior or supernatural power that is above nature and cannot be explained scientifically
Durkheim 1915
Defines religion in terms of the contribution it makes to social integration, rather than any specific belief in God or the supernatural
Yinger 1970
Identifies functions that religion performs for individuals such as answering the ‘ultimate questions’
Aldridge 2013
Shows how, for its followers, scientology is a religion, whereas several governments have denied it legal status as a religion and sought to ban it
Durkheim 1858-1917
Religious institutions play a central part in creating and maintaining value consensus, order and solidarity
Durkheim 1915; 1962
Key feature of religion is the distinction between the sacred and the profane. Also talks about totemism, collective conscience, and cognitive functions of religion
Durkheim and Mauss 1903; 2009
Wrote a book-primitive classification. Argue that religion provides basic categories such as time, space and causation
Worsley 1956
Evidence on totemism is unsound, there is no sharp division between the sacred and the profane, and also different clans share the same totems
Mestrovic 2011
(Postmodernist) Argues that Durkheim’s ideas cannot be applied to contemporary society, because increasing diversity has fragmented the collective conscience, so there is no longer a single shared value system for religion to reinforce
Malinowski 1954
Agrees with Durkheim that religion promotes solidarity, however in his view, it does so by performing psychological functions for individuals, such as coping with emotional stress that would undermine social solidarity (religion performs this role where the outcome is important but uncontrollable, and at times of life crises)
Parsons 1967
Sees religion helping individuals to cope with unforeseen events and uncontrollable outcomes, like Malinowski, but also identifies two other essential functions that religion performs in modern society (It creates and legitimates society’s central values, and it is the primary source of reason)
Bellah 1991; 2013
Interested in how religion unifies society, especially a multi-faith society like America-civil religion integrates society in a way that America’s many different churches and denominations cannot. Also says that although in America civil religion involves a belief in God, he argues that this doesn’t have to be the case
Marx (theories of religion)
Religion as ideology
Lenin 1870-1924
Describes religion as ‘spiritual gin’
Marx 1844
Religion as the product of alienation
Althusser 1971
Rejects the concept of alienation as unscientific and based on a romantic idea that human beings have a ‘true self’
Abercrombie, Hill and Turner 2015
Argue that in pre-capitalist society, while Christianity was a major element of ruling-class ideology, it had only limited impact on the peasantry
Armstrong 1993
Sees exclusion from the priesthood as evidence of women’s marginalisation
Holm 2001
Describes this as the devaluation of women in religion
Woodhead 2002
Argues that the exclusion of women from the Catholic priesthood is evidence of the Church’s deep unease about the emancipation of women generally
Armstrong 1993
Argues that early religions often placed women at the centre eg female priesthoods in the middle east until about 6,000 years ago
Nawa El Saadawi 1980
Argues that religion is not the direct cause of their subordination, rather it is the result of patriarchal forms of society coming into existence in the last few thousand years
Woodhead 2009
Criticises feminist explanations that simply equate religion with patriarchy and the oppression of women-she emphasises that it is not true in all religions and argues that there are ‘religious forms of feminism’
Gilliat-Ray 2010
Some young British muslim women choose to wear the hijab in order to gain parental approval to enter further education, especially employment
Brusco 1995; 2012
Found in Columbia, belonging to a Pentecostal group can be empowering for some women
Rinaldo 2010
Piety movements-conservative movements that support traditional teachings about women’s role, modest dress, prayer and bible study. Even within conservative religion women may sometimes find ways to further their own interests
Weber 1905
Study of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism-where Weber argues that the religious beliefs of Calvinism helped to bring about major social change-specifically the emergence of modern capitalism
Kautsky 1927
Argues that Weber overestimates the role of ideas and underestimates economic factors in bringing capitalism into being-he argues that capitalism preceded rather than followed capitalism
Tawney 1926
Argues that technological change, not religious ideas, caused the birth of capitalism
Marshall 1982
Supports Weber’s point that both material and cultural factors need to be present for capitalism to emerge-by arguing that Scotland had a large Calvinist population but was slow to develop capitalism because of a lack of investment in capital and skilled labour
Bruce 2003
Interested in the relationship between religion and social change-talks about the American civil rights movement and the new christian right
Engels 1895
Religion has a dual character-inhibits change by disguising inequality but also challenges the status quo/encourages social change
Bloch 1995
Principle of hope
Casanova 1994
Although liberation theology has lost influence, it played an important part in resisting state terror and bringing about democracy
Maduro 1982
Religion can be a evolutionary force that brings about change
Löwy 2005
Questions Marx’s view that religion always legitimates social inequality
Lehmann 1996
Contrasts liberation theology and pentecostalism
Worsley 1968
Millenarian movements expect the total and imminent transformation of this world by supernatural means. Studied cargo cults
Gramsci 1971
Interested in how the ruling class maintain their control over society through the use of ideas-hegemony
Billings 1990
Applies Gramsci’s ideas in a case study comparing class struggle in two communities (coalminers and textile workers)-leadership, organisation and support are ways in which religion either supported or challenged hegemony
Crockett 1998
Estimates that in 1851, 40% or more of the adult population of Britain attended church on Sundays, which is a much higher figure than today
Wilson 1996
Western societies had been undergoing a long term process of secularisation
Woodhead 2014
Concludes ‘to put it bluntly, there are no longer enough troupers left to keep the show on the road’. A lack of clergy on the ground in local communities means the day to day influence of the churches is reduced
Bruce 2002
Agrees with Wilson that all the evidence on secularisation has now been pointing in the same direction for many years and predicts that if the current trends continue, the Methodist church will fold around 2030
Weber 1905
Rationalisation as explanation for secularisation. Argued that the protestant reformation begun by Martin Luther King starting the process of rationalisation which undermined the religious worldview of the middle ages -begins the disenchantment of the world
Bruce 2011
Argues the growth of a technological worldview has largely replaced religious or supernatural explanations of why things happen
Parsons 1951
Defines structural differentiation as a process of specialisation that occurs with the development of industrial society-disengagement and privatisation
Bruce
Decline of community, industrialisation and diversity of occupations, cultures and lifestyles undermines religion
Berger 1969
Another cause of secularisation is the trend towards religious diversity-the sacred canopy and plausibility structure (diversity undermines this)
Bruce
Cultural defence and cultural transition
Berger 1999
Changed views and now argues that diversity and choice actually stimulate interest and participation in religion
Beckford 2003
Agrees with the idea that religious diversity will lead some to question or even abandon their religious beliefs, but this is not inevitable
Wilson 1962
Found that 45% of Americans attended church on Sundays however he argued that churchgoing America was more an expression of the ‘American way of life’ rather than a deeply held religious belief
Bruce 2002; 2011
Shares Wilsons view. Three sources of evidence-declining church attendance, secularisation from within, and a trend towards religious diversity and relativism
Hadaway 1993
Found that opinion polls didn’t match actual church attendance figures from the churches own records so studied churches in Ohio and found interviews were 83% higher than actual stats
Lynd and Lynd 1929
Study which found in 1924 that 94% of churchgoing young people agreed that religion is the one true religion and everyone should be converted to it, but in 1977 it was only 41% that agreed
Davie 2013
In today’s late modern society shows major change in religion away from obligation and towards consumption/choice. Believing without belonging and a trend towards vicarious religion-spiritual health service
Voas and Crockett 2005
Disagree with Davie about believing without belonging, and that statistics suggest this is not true-neither believing nor belonging
Bruce 2011
If people won’t invest time into going to church then this reflects the declining strength of their beliefs
Abby Day 2007
Found that few christians that she interviewed mentioned God or christianity -they believe in belonging
Hervieu-Léger 2000; 2006
Spiritual shopping and pilgrims/converts
Lyon 2000
Postmodern society has a number of features that are changing the nature of religion eg consumerism. Agrees with believing without belonging but criticises secularisation theory
Helland 2000
Religion online and online religion
Cowan 2005
Studied the Pagans who gained a sense of self worth from feeling that they belonged to a global network
Hoover et al 2004
Shows that for most users, online religion is just a supplement to their church based activities rather than substitute for them
Ammermans 1987
American Christian fundamentalists made use of a number of churches without giving strong loyalty to any of them
Heelas and Woodhead 2005
Kendall project
Glendinning and Bruce 2006
A weakness of the new age is weak commitment. Also most people in every demographic category show no interest in alternative spirituality
Stark and Bainbridge 1986
Religious market theory (also known as rational choice theory). Two assumptions are that people are naturally religious/religion meets human needs, and it is human nature to seek reward/avoid costs (compensators, America vs Europe, supply led religion)
Hadden and Shupe 1988
Growth of televangelism shows religious participation is supply-led
Finke 1997
The lifting of restrictions on Asian immigration into America in the 1960s allowed Asian religions to set up permanently in the USA which became another option popular to consumers in the religious marketplace
Miller 1997
Compares megachurches them with hypermarkets
Stark 1990
Japan is another society where a free market in religion has stimulated participation
Bruce 2011
Rejects the view that diversity and competition increase the demand for religion and that Stark and Bainbridge misrepresent secularisation theory
Norris and Inglehart 2011
Shows that high levels of religious participation exist in Catholic countries where there is a near monopoly eg Ireland. Also Holland/Australia had religious pluralism but had low levels of religious participation
Beckford
Criticises religious market theory as unsociological as it assumes people are naturally religious-it fails to explain why people make the choices that they do
Norris and Inglehart 2011
Alternative view to religious market theory. Existential security theory
Gill and Lundegaarde 2004
Support existential security theory by looking at state welfare and religiosity eg UK and USA
Vásquez 2007
Two criticisms of existential security theory-only use quantitive date about income levels and only see religion as a negative response to deprivation
