Sociology of Religion (Lecture 17)

Question 1

Theology

Answer 1

Systematic philosophical study of gods, including whether or not they exist, what their nature is
• may include metaphysical or moral arguments

Question 2

Sociology of Religion

Answer 2

• Examines the social impact of religion, by seeing how many people belong to religions and how this affects their behaviour
• Doesn’t prove/ disprove the existence of God

Question 3

Rites and rituals

Answer 3

Collective practices (eg: worship) in which people engage in religion together

Question 4

Doctrines and beliefs

Answer 4

The ideas, values, and metaphysical claims that any religion makes about its gods

Question 5

Institutions

Answer 5

Religious institutions, often with authority over those claiming to be part of religion

Question 6

Organized Religion

Answer 6

Set of social institutions (buildings, hierarchies, official doctrines) and shared worship oriented towards a god

Question 7

Folk religion

Answer 7

Religious/ mystical beliefs and practices as they are understood among the people, without formal institutions

Question 8

Spirituality

Answer 8

Informal, often-personal beliefs about a transcendent realm, perhaps involving spiritual experiences

Question 9

Routinization of Charisma

Answer 9

The gradual transformation of extraordinary charismatic authority into regular, bureaucratized forms, for the sake of stability

Question 10

Sacred (Durkheim)

Answer 10

• Set apart from daily life: they should not be treated as if they have mystical power
• Considered ‘holy’ and treated as if they have mystical power

Question 11

Profane (Durkheim)

Answer 11

• Objects of everyday use

* Cannot come into contact with sacred objects, so they don’t make them ‘unclean’

Question 12

Totem (Durkheim)

Answer 12

• A sacred object, symbol, animal etc, which represents the group as a whole
• Often represents certain characteristics, which are also implicitly characteristics of members of that society

Question 13

Negative rites

Answer 13

‘Ascetic’ rites, or rites of abstention: things the individual has to avoid or has to go through to be ‘purified’

Question 14

Positive rites

Answer 14

‘Celebratory’ rites, things we must do in order to remind ourselves of the origins or stories of our society

Question 15

Suicide (Durkheim)

Answer 15

Any death from an act of an individual who knew this would be the result

Question 16

Collective Effervescence

Answer 16

• A feeling of intoxicated rejoicing, and of almost losing yourself in the crowd
• Experienced above all in a huge group or social celebrations, where usual rules are suspended

Question 17

Civil Religion

Answer 17

• Collective festival that isn’t necessarily explicitly religious, but shares features of religious rites
• May include big sports events or nationalism: people celebrate group identities

Question 18

Protestant Ethic

Answer 18

Weber’s term for a specific set of beliefs and values held by Protestants in Europe, placing moral worth on hard work for its own sake, and prudence in saving money

Question 19

Capitalism

Answer 19

The socioeconomic system in which economy is in the hands of private individuals who produce and exchange in order to increase their profits

Question 20

Symbolic Universe

Answer 20

• The total, internally-consistent set of values and beliefs that members of society draw on
• Explains and justifies order and habits of that society; how individuals ‘explain’ society to selves

Question 21

Materialist Conception of History

Answer 21

Marx’s general theory of societies across time: human activity and social change are best understood as a set of systems of production, with social relations built on top of them

Question 22

Intellectuals (Gramsci)

Answer 22

People who do mental labour, detached from production

Question 23

Traditional Intellectuals (Gramsci)

Answer 23

• Separate class of people who are recognized as ‘intelligentsia
• Priests, professors, lawyers etc

Question 24

Organic Intellectuals (Gramsci)

Answer 24

• Intellectuals emerging from the working classes, helping lead them
• They can be counter-hegemonic

Question 25

Millenarianism

Answer 25

• Belief that humanity is irredeemably corrupt, and the apocalypse is coming, after which all will better
• Typically, but not always, religious

Question 26

Secularisation

Answer 26

• Decline in religious practices and beliefs in society in recent centuries
• Often seen as societies become more pluralist or more industrialized and capitalist

Question 27

Social Differentiation

Answer 27

The tendency for the single overarching social system to split up into smaller, more specialized sub-systems as society gets larger and more complex

Question 28

Rationalization

Answer 28

The social decline of traditional motives, values, and beliefs, justified by appeal to divine authority and their replacement by motives of efficiency, calculation, and systematic explanation

Question 29

Disenchantment of the World

Answer 29

• Literally ‘de-magicalization’–> increasing use of science to explain world, not supernatural forces
• Leads to a general decline in meaning, as all our values are undermined and lose their foundation

Question 30

Fundamentalism (Beger)

Answer 30

Religious movements that believe their religion has become corrupted and drifted away from its origins, so call for a return to its roots.
• Usually conservative.