Chapter 19: Religion
Religion: Basic Concepts
•Profane: “outside the temple”; an ordinary element of everyday life
•Sacred: set apart as extraordinary, inspiring awe and reverence
•Religion: social institution involving beliefs and practices based on recognizing the
sacred
•Durkheim explained that people understand profane things in terms of everyday
usefulness
•Ritual/formal: ceremonial behaviour
Religion and Sociology
•Faith: belief based on conviction rather than scientific evidence
Theoretical Analysis of Religion
Function of Religion: Structural-Functional Analysis
•Durkheim
•Totem: an object in the natural world collectively defined as sacred; ex. An animal
•Durkheim identified three major functions of religion that contribute to operation of
society:
1.Social Cohesion
-religion unites people through shared symbolism, values and norms
2.Social Control
-society uses religious ideas to promote conformity
-many religions encourage people to obey cultural norms by defining their god as
a “judge”
3.Providing meaning and purpose
-religious belief offers the comforting sense that our brief lives serve some
greater purpose
Constructing the Sacred: Symbolic-Interaction Analysis
•Religion is socially constructed
•Ex. Marriage could be seen as a contract, but there a religious meaning to it which
makes it harder to try to break out of it
•People use Religion to give everyday life sacred meaning
Inequality and Religion: Social- Conflict Analysis
•Highlights Religion’s support of social inequality
•Karl Marx
•Religion and social inequality also linked through gender
Religion and Social Change
•Max Weber
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•Religion has promoted dramatic social changes
Max Weber: Protestantism and Capitalism
•Weber argued that particular religious ideas set into motion a wave of change that
brought about the Industrial Revolution
Liberation Theology
•Defn: the combining of Christian principles with political activism, often Marxist in
character
•Christian activists continue to help people in poor nations liberate themselves from
abysmal poverty
•Message is simple: social oppression runs counter to Christian morality so
Christians must promote greater social inequality
•Gained strength in the poorest countries of Latin America, where many people’s
Christian faith drives them to improve conditions for the poor and oppressed
Types of Religious Organizations
Church
•Defn: type of religious organization that is well integrated into the larger society
•Have well-established rules and regulations
•Leaders have to be formally trained and ordained
•Church accepts the ways of the profane world
•Members think of God in intellectual terms and favour abstract moral standards
•By teaching morality in safely abstract terms, church leaders avoid social
controversy
•May operate with or apart from the state
•State church: church formally allied with the state
oState churches count everyone in society as a member which sharply limits
tolerance of religious differences
•Denomination: a church, independent of the state, that recognized religious
pluralism
oFormally separate church and state
oMembers of any denomination hold to their own doctrine, they recognize the
right of others to have different beliefs
Sect
•Defn: type of religious organization that stands apart from the larger society
•Members have rigid religious convictions and deny the beliefs of others
•Form an exclusive group
•Religion is not just one aspect of life but a firm plan for how to live
•Less formal than churches
•Members may be highly spontaneous and emotional in worship
•Personal experience is divine power
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•Churches and sects also have different patterns of leadership. The more churchlike
an organization is, the more likely that its leaders are formally trained and
ordained. Sect-like organizations which celebrate the personal presence of God
expect their leaders to exhibit divine inspiration in form of charisma (“divine
favour”; extraordinary personal qualities that can infuse people with emotion and
turn them into followers)
•Generally form as breakaway groups from established religious organizations
•Less stable than churches
•Sects value highly the experience of conversion(personal transformation or religious
rebirth)
•Churches tend to include people of higher social standing
•Sects attract more disadvantaged people
Cult
•Defn: religious organization that is largely outside a society’s cultural traditions
•Typically forms around a highly charismatic leader who offers a compelling message
about a new and very different way of life
•Cult principles or practices are unconventional, the popular view is that they are
deviant or even evil
•Even more at odds with the larger society than sects
•Demand that members not only accept their doctrine but also adopt radically new
lifestyles
•Brain-washing their members
Religion in History
Religion in Pre-Industrial Societies
•Animism: “the breath of life”; belief that elements of the natural world are conscious
life forms that affect humanity
•Its followers view forests, oceans, mountains, and wind as spiritual forces
oEx. Aboriginals
Religion in industrial societies
•Growing emphasis on science
•People looked to doctors and scientists for the knowledge and comfort they
previously got from priests
•Science is powerless to address issues of ultimate meaning in human life
•How the world works is a matter for science, but why we are the rest of the universe
exist at all is a question of faith
World Religions
Christianity
•Most widespread world religion
•Almost one-third of the world’s people
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