Theories of Religion

Question 1

Three ways sociologists define religion:

Answer 1

• Substantive
• Functional
• Social constructionist

Question 2

Substantive definition

Answer 2

• Defining religion as what it is
• For example, Weber said religion is the belief in a superior power. However, this outlook excludes religions such as Buddhism.

Question 3

Functional definition

Answer 3

• Looks at what religion does
• Durkheim says that religion is social glue
• Marx describes religion as an opiut

Question 4

Social constructionist definition

Answer 4

• The definition of religion is up to the person
• Aldridge is curious how something becomes accepted as religious

Question 5

Polythetic definitions

Answer 5

• A number of overlapping factors that most religions share.

Question 6

Southwold

Answer 6

• Polythetic definitions
• Catholicism possesses all the features except one, whereas Paganism only possesses half. This does not make Catholicism any more religious than Paganism.
• Polythetic definitions does not say how many we need to be religious.

Question 7

Durkheim’s definition of religion

Answer 7

Religion is social glue

Question 8

Marx’s definition of religion

Answer 8

Religion is a painkiller

Question 9

Weber’s definition of religion

Answer 9

To understand religion, we need to put ourselves in that person’s shoes

Question 10

Durkheim

Answer 10

• Religion plays an important role in creating and maintaining a value consensus.
• The key feature of religion is that there is a difference between the sacred and the profane
• Sacred is special, sacred things inspire feelings of awe, fear and wonder
• Profane things have no special significance, they are normal/mundane

Question 11

Totemism

Answer 11

A symbol that represents the community that worships it.
All religion represents the worship of society, not God.

Question 12

Durkheim - cognitive functions of religion

Answer 12

• Religion provides categories and concepts for understanding the world, e.g. time, space, causation. e.g. God creating the world.

Question 12

The collective conscience - Durkheim

Answer 12

• The shared beliefs and values
• Rituals, e.g. mass, reinforce the cc as they remind us we are all apart of one community.

Question 13

Mestrovic - postmodernism

Answer 13

• We don’t have one shared religion, diversity has fragmented the collective conscience.

Question 14

Malinowski

Answer 14

• Religion promotes social solidarity by performing psychological functions for its followers.
• It helps people to cope with emotional stress.
  1. Outcome is important but uncertain - A Levels, etc…
  2. Life crisis - births, deaths, marriages, divorces…

Question 15

Parson’s two functions of religion:

Answer 15

• It creates and legitimates society’s central values. Religion sacralises society’s rules.
• It is the primary source of meaning. This means it gives us a sense of why are we here? - copying Durkheim

Question 16

Bellah

Answer 16

• Civil religion
• Americanism is the religion for Americans, it binds them together as one community. E.g. “In God we trust”
• In the UK an example of a civil religion would be the royal family or football.

Question 17

Marxists and hymns

Answer 17

“The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate”
- Legitimises rich and poor, God created us like this therefore it should be.

Question 18

Marx - religion as an ideology

Answer 18

• Ideology is ideas that legitimate inequality.
• Religion is an ideology as it justifies the suffering - prevents us to do anything about it.
• Jesus said it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter heaven.

Question 19

It is theorised that religion used to be…

Answer 19

• Matriarchal
• 92% of religious artifacts were female.

Question 19

Criticism of Marx’s claim that religion is an ideology:

Answer 19

• Hindu’s caste system -> reincarnation
• It teaches to be a good citizen, then in the next life you may be reincarnated as a Brahmin.
• Dalit - outside the caste system and treated horrifically in India.

Question 19

Cause of religion - Marx

Answer 19

• Religion is the ‘heart of a heartless world’.
• Religion helps to explain suffering.

Question 20

Bettany Hughes ‘God used to be a girl’

Answer 20

Mesopotamia (religion in Iraq) - some of their most powerful figures are Goddesses, e.g. Ishtar - goddess of love, sex, war and death.

Question 21

El Saddawi

Answer 21

• While religion can be used to oppress women, religion is not the cause of women’s oppression.
• Religion is used as an excuse.
• Men interpret religion in a way that benefits them, e.g. female genital mutilation - in the Qur’an Mohammed doesn’t say to do it, men interpret it as this.

Question 22

Woodhead

Answer 22

• Traditional religion is patriarchal, but not true of all religions.
• ‘Religious forms of feminism’ - women will use religion to their advantage
• Gilliat-Ray interviewed British Muslim women and found that dads let them go to university if they wore the hijab, so they did this because of that.

Question 23

Brusco

Answer 23

• Studied pentecostialism in South America. Brusco found that pentecostal women can use these ideas to challenge a widespread culture of machismo in Latin America.

Question 24

Religious organisations

Answer 24

• Catholic church, only men can be priests.
• In Buddhism, female nuns are always given less status than male monks.

Question 25

Places of worship

Answer 25

• In Islam, menstruating women cannot touch the Qur’an - Mohammed suggests men are more educated as a result.
• Leviticus states women are unclean on their period.
• Period huts in Nepal.

Question 26

Religious texts

Answer 26

• Gensis 3:16 - women will have pain during childbirth
• Eve is created from Adam’s rib
• Majority of biblical figures are men

Question 27

Religious practises - Mary Daley

Answer 27

• Sati in Hinduism = If your husband died before you, you were encouraged to jump on the fire in which he burned.
• FGM = practised mainly in Africa, by both Christians and Muslims.

Question 28

Woodhead - Catholic church

Answer 28

• The Catholic church is uncomfortable with women having freedom.