SOC100H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Collective Effervescence, Symbolic Interactionism, Social Inequality
Chapter : Religion and Education
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❖ Religion
o James; religion is a common human response to the fact that we all stand at the edge of an abyss.
▪ It helps believers to cope w/ the fact that all must die and offers them immortality.
▪ Provides meaning/purpose in a world that might otherwise seem cruel and senseless.
▪ The motivation for religion may be psychological.
o 8 out of 10 Canadians believe in God.
o Organized religion used to be the most important agent of socialization apart from the family.
▪ Today, the education system is the main purveyor of formal knowledge.
▪ It is the partial displacement of religion by the educational system that justifies our analyzing
religion and education side by side.
o Sociologists of education are interested in the relationship b/w education and inequality.
▪ Some say education promotes upward mobility, others argue that education reproduces inequality
(evidence is stronger).
CLASSICAL APPROACHES IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION
❖ Durkheim’s Functionalist Theory
o The Stanley Cup playoffs generate a sense of what Durkheim called “collective effervescence.”
▪ It excites us by making us feel part of something larger than us.
▪ For many hours each yr, hockey enthusiasts transcend their everyday lives and experience intense
enjoyment by sharing the sentiments and values of a larger collectivity.
o Durkheim said that when people live together, they come to share common sentiments/values.
▪ These common sentiments form a collective conscience that is larger than any individual is,
which we experience directly.
▪ This causes us to distinguish the secular everyday world of the profane from the religious,
transcendent world of the sacred.
▪ We designate certain objects as symbolizing the sacred, which he called totems.
▪ We invent set practices to connect us w/ the sacred, referred to as rituals.
o The effect/function of rituals and of religion is to reinforce social solidarity.
▪ The ritual heightens our experience of group belonging, increases our respect for the group’s
institutions, and strengthens our belief in the validity of the group’s culture.
▪ The Stanley Cup playoffs share certain features w/ religious rituals- they cement society.
o In the US, the suicide ate dips during the 2 days preceding Super Bowl, and the suicide rate among young
men is higher when Montreal Canadiens are not in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
▪ These patterns are consistent w/ Durkheim’s theory of suicide, which predicts a lower suicide rate
when social solidarity increases.
❖ Religion, Feminist Theory, & Conflict Theory
o Conflict/feminist theorists lodge 2 main criticisms against Durkheim’s functionalist theory.
▪ First, it over emphasizes religion’s role in maintaining social cohesion. In reality, religion often
incites social conflict.
▪ Second, it ignores the fact that when religion does increase social cohesion, it often reinforces
social inequality.
❖ Religion & Social Inequality
o There is little historical evidence to help us understand the rise of Judaism and Hinduism.
▪ But the impulse to find a better world id often encouraged by adversity in the rise of Buddhism,
Christianity and Islam.
▪ Over generations, the charismatic leadership of the world religions became “routinized.”
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Chapter : Religion and Education
2
• the routinization of charisma is Weber’s term for the transformation of divine
enlightenment into a permanent feature of everyday life.
• In involves turning religious inspiration into a stable social institution w/ defined roles.
• Makes religion less responsive to the needs of ordinary ppl, and it often supports social
inequalities and injustices.
❖ Religion & the Subordination of Women
o Marx first stressed how religion tranquilizes the underprivileged into accepting their lot in life, he called
religion “the opium of the people.”
o Many scriptures emphasize the subordination of women, like “women should keep silence in church.”
o Muslim feminists established that what many religious clerics present as divine Islamic law regarding
women is actually based on interpretations that were authored by men over the centuries.
❖ Religion & Inequality of Sexual Orientation & Class
o Most religions have supported inequality of sexual orientation.
▪ Homosexuality is tolerated in Buddhism, but unacceptable in Islam, Christianity, Judaism,
Hinduism.
o They also support class inequality, but encourage charity.
❖ Religion & Social Conflict
o A church is any bureaucratic religious organization that has accommodated itself to mainstream society
and culture.
▪ Ex, in the American South, religion had helped promote the conflict needed to make the South a
more egalitarian and racially integrated place.
o Religion can maintain social order under some circumstances, but when it does it reinforces social
inequality and promotes social conflict.
❖ Weber & the Problem of Social Change: A Symbolic Interactionist Interpretation
o Durkheim highlighted the way religion contributes to social order, Weber stressed the way religion can
contribute to social change.
o Weber captured the core of his argument in a memorable image: if history is like a train, pushed along its
tracks by economic and political interests, then religious ideas are like railroad switches, determining
exactly which tracks the train will follow.
▪ He was interested in explaining the rise of capitalism and offered a symbolic interactionist
interpretation of religion.
▪ His focus on the worldly significance of the meanings ppl attach to religious ideas make him a
forerunner of the symbolic interactionist tradition.
o Many protestants took up this idea and Weber called it the Protestant ethic- ppl could reduce their
religious doubts and ensure a state of grace by working diligently and living simply.
▪ But it had unexpected economic consequences- capitalist enterprise grew most robustly.
o Weber’s treatment of the religious factor underlying social change is a useful corrective to Durkheim’s
emphasis on religion as a source of social stability.
THE RISE, DECLINE, AND PARTIAL REVIVAL OF RELIGION
❖ Secularization
o The standard of living in early modern Europe was abysmally low.
▪ A person lived for 35 years, and the forces of nature and human affairs seemed entirely
unpredictable.
▪ Magic was popular as it offered easy answers to mysterious, painful, capricious events.
▪ Christianity replaced them.
o Years after, Weber remarked on how the world had become thoroughly “disenchanted.”
▪ Scientific and other forms of rationalism were replacing religious authority.
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SOC100H5 Full Course Notes
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Document Summary
Religion: james; religion is a common human response to the fact that we all stand at the edge of an abyss. Durkheim"s functionalist theory: the stanley cup playoffs generate a sense of what durkheim called collective effervescence. Religion, feminist theory, & conflict theory: conflict/feminist theorists lodge 2 main criticisms against durkheim"s functionalist theory, first, it over emphasizes religion"s role in maintaining social cohesion. In reality, religion often incites social conflict: second, it ignores the fact that when religion does increase social cohesion, it often reinforces. Christianity and islam: over generations, the charismatic leadership of the world religions became routinized. Chapter (cid:1005)(cid:1004): (cid:862)religion and education(cid:863) the routinization of charisma is weber"s term for the transformation of divine enlightenment into a permanent feature of everyday life. In involves turning religious inspiration into a stable social institution w/ defined roles: makes religion less responsive to the needs of ordinary ppl, and it often supports social.
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