Religion represents a collective conscience
that makes social order possible
Religion Unifies society
Religion is the source of our ability to think clearly
Marxism
Religion is an Ideology that hides capitalism
A product of alienation 'opium of the people'
Feminism
Religion is patriarchal
Organisations are male dominated
Teachings focus on men
Forms of religious femimism
Women using religion to gain freedom and respect
Religion and Social change
Conservative force
Aims to preserve things as they are, or impose traditional values
Maintains social stability and prevents disintegration
Legitimises capitalism and patriarchy, promoting consensus
Religion as a force for change
Calvinism
Predestination, Divine transcendence, Asceticism,
the call to serve good through work everyday
Considered to be the start of capitalism
Hinduism
An ascetic religion hat was other-worldy,
directing followers to the spiritual world
Confucianism
A this worldly religion that directed its followers
towards the material world, not ascetic
Religion as social protest
American civil rights movement
Took moral high
ground and mobalised
public opinion
Aimed to end racial
segregation by shaming
whites into changing the
law
New christian right
Aims to take america back to a time
before liberalisation, believes in the
traditional family and gender roles
Never had more than 15% of
american population in support
Marxism
Liberation Theology
Movement within the
catholic church that
opposed dictatorships
and helped to being
about democracy in latin
america
Millenarian movements
The desire to change things
here and now, they expect total
and immediate transformation
of the world by supernatural
means, appeal to the poor
because of the immediate
improvement that they offer.
Secularisation
Explanations
Rationalisation; a change in the
way that people think, away from
religion and towards rational ones
Structural differentiation; Religions functions
have transfered to other institutions, it has lost
its power. Such as education, welfare and laws.
Relgion must now confom to these rules
Social and Cultural diversity; Industrialisation
means that religion has now become more
diverse and overall belief has fallen
Religious diversity; The protestant refomation caused a
number of sects to appear from the catholic church.
these beleifs caused overall confidence inrelgion to fall as
people saw many versions of the truth.
Cultural defence and transition; Secularisation
isnt occuring because religion provides a focus
for the defence of national/ethnic group
identity in a struggle against an external force.
It also provides a sense of community of ethnic
groups
Spritual revolution
Traditional religion giving way to
New Age sprituality that
emphasises personal development
Traditional relgion was in decline becuase it demanded high
disapline and objectivity which does not fit into a postmodern
society that emphasises personal development and individualism
In the UK
Decline in church
attendance
More people hold
beliefs than go to
chuch
State has taken
over functions of
the church
In the USA
Decline in
church
attendance
Secularisation from within; religion
has become a form of therapy, it
has become less religious
Practical relativism
The acceptance that others can
hold beliefs different to yours
Religion, Renewal and Choice
Postmodernity and religion
Believing without belonging
Religion is becoming privatised, so
people don't feel the need to go to
church, people are choosing to be
religious but not go to church
Spiritual shopping
There has been 'cultural amnesia', a
loss of beliefs handed down through
generations. Religion is now based on
DIY beliefs not collective worship
Lyon: Jesus in Disneyland
Religion has been 'deinstitutionalised' by
globalisation, relocated to a different
place and time
We are spritual shoppers, pick and
mixing different parts of different
relgions to meet our needs,
attendance falls but belief doesn't
Re-enchantment of the world; a growth
of unconventionalbeliefs and practises
Religious market theory
Provides supernatural compensators for
unobtainable and real-world goals. Only
religion has the power to do such things.
There is a constant cycle of
decline, renewal and revival,
leading to an improvement in the
quality of religious goods on offer
Existential security theory
Different degrees in how
secure people feel causes
different degrees in religiosity
MEDC: High security = Low religiosity
USA is an exception because high
inequality = high religious belief
LEDC: Low security = highly religious
Religion in global context
Nanda
Hinduism promotes diversity and wealth, leading to the M/C becoming
richer, increasing their religiosity and legitimising their position
Pentecostalism
Demands a self denying way of life that promotes personal development
Promotes economic development, helping to raise societies
out of poverty leading to the development of capitalism
Christianity globalised itself by expanding into S.America, spread
because of easy to follow beliefs and its ability to follow loose culture.
Fundamentalism
Returning to the basics of a faith, a reaction to globalisation which threatens norms
Monothesism - belief in one god
Causes fundamentalism because globalisation
brings diversity, so is a threat to their religion.
Two fundamentalisms
In The West; due to increased diversity from within
In the third world; due to increased diversity from 'outside'
Cultural defence
Religion symbolises a groups
collective identity and unites them
against an external threat
clash of civilisations
There are multiple different civilisations with
different backgrounds, this often leads to conflict
because these backgrounds are not compatible.
Organisations,
Movements and Members
Organisations
Sects
Small, exclusive groups that are
hostile to wider society. Breakaways
from existing organisation often
offering otherworldly benefits
Cults
Highly individualistic, no defining
belief system, world affirming
offering this worldly benefits
Denominations
Midway between churches and sects,
accept societies views, not linked to
the state, tolerant of other views
Churches
Large, few demands,
monopoly of the truth,
linked to the state
NRMs
Grown because of:
Marginality
Relative deprivation
Social change
undermining norms
producing anomie
World-rejecting
Critical of the outside
world, expect radical
change
World-accomodating
Focus on religious
rather than worldly
matters
World-affirming
Offer followers access to
spiritual or supernatural
powers and accept the
world as it is
Religiosity and social groups
More women believe in god.
Due to marginalisation,
deprivation and socialisation
Minority ethnic groups are more religious
The older a person is the more
likely they are to be religious
Older people may be
too ill to attend
Under 15's may be made to attend
The New Age
New, diverse
belief systems
People look inside themselves to find spirituality
Values personal
experience
Ideology and Science
Science as a belief system
Science is an open belief system
Open beliefs: open to criticism and
testing, ideas are open to
falsificationism, they can be
disproved by evidence
Religion is a closed belief
system; its knowledge claims
cannot be overturned
It has get out clauses
that prevent it being
disproved
Marxists and Feminists see
science as serving the needs of
the dominant classes.
Postmodernists reject sciences
claims that they hold the truth,
as they argue that science now
simply serves the interests of
capitalism
Ideology
capitalist ideology exploits workers for
profit, the ruling class hegemony prevents
a class consciousness from developing by
legitimising capitalism
gender inequality is
legitimated by
patriarchal ideology