Religion

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Religion

• Turner 1983
• argues that religion is important for
  sociologists.
• At the birth of the subject writers such as
  Durkheim and Marx had strong things to say about
  the role of religion
• Many people today hold religious beliefs and the
  variety of religious groups and beliefs from
  'established' churches to sects and cults is a
  feature of modern society

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Religion

• As sociologists we are looking at
• 1. What people believe
• 2. Why people believe
• 3. The organisational context of beliefs e.g.
  church,sect
• 4. How religion affects peoples lives

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Religion

• As sociologists our interest is not in the
  validity of religious beliefs
• and you don't have to have religious convictions
  to study religion -
• on the other hand religious commitments should
  not bar you from studying religion sociologically

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Defining Religion

• 1. Functional Definitions
• These involve what religion does
• It answers questions such as
• What happens when I die?
• Why are people poor?
• And gives guidelines on how to behave
• Functionalists see religion as important for
  social cohesion

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Defining Religion

• 2. Substantive Definitions
• These say what religion is rather than what it
  does
• e.g. belief in God and other supernatural beings

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Defining Religion

• These definitions can be combined
• Durkheim 1912 defined religion as
• a unified system of beliefs and practices
  relative to sacred things, that is, things set
  apart and forbidden which unite into one single
  moral community called a church all those who
  adhere to them

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Defining Religion

• There are a number of important elements to this
  definition
• 1.
• Durkheim sees religion as a combination of belief
  and practice
• i.e. doing is as important as believing

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Defining Religion

• 2.
• The sacred is important
• this makes religion special and not like the
  mundane things in this world

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Defining Religion

• 3.
• The community basis of religion gives rise to
  possible conflicts between communities
• e.g. N Ireland
• Religion can unite and divide people at the same
  time

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Defining Religion

• Weber - The problem of theodicy
• This is about how people see the world with all
  its problems as meaningful
• Religion helps to answer the why questions in
  life
• Why have I got cancer?
• Why is our community oppressed?
• Why did that accident happen?

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Defining Religion

• Stark Bainbridge 1985 - Compensators
• religion makes up for things lacking in this
  life
• promise of rewards in the next life if you are
  suffering now
• suffering becomes a test of faith

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Defining Religion

• Ways of dealing with the problem of theodicy have
  social consequences.
• Weber saw a link between protestantism and the
  growth of capitalism.
• Islam believes that suffering is crucial and has
  important consequences for such as Iraq in the
  face of Western sanctions.

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Defining Religion

• Criticisms Of Functional Definitions
• They tend to include many things some would not
  regard as religious
• e.g. nationalism
• perhaps science has replaced religion in
  answering some of the fundamental questions

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Defining Religion

• Criticisms Of Substantive Definitions
• Many are based on Western monotheistic beliefs
  and are too narrow.

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Measuring Religion

• To measure how religious a society is (its degree
  of religiosity) is not straightforward.
• 2 key elements are usually chosen - practice and
  belief.
• This arguably gives us a measure of how important
  religion is to a society over a period of time

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Measuring Religion

• However there are major problems in working in
  this way
• 1. Defining religion
• Sociologists have different definitions about
  what religion is.

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Measuring Religion

• 2. Practice
• Going to church - how often?
• Membership of a church - how is it defined?
• 3. Membership
• C of E and RC churches often count members as
  those who live in the parish area.
• Baptist churches ask you to sign up

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Measuring Religion

• 4. Belief
• Many admit to believing in God but dont go to
  church - are they religious?
• 5. 'Alternative' religions?
• Do we count belief in flying saucers as
  religious

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Measuring Religion

• Like all other areas of the syllabus the
  collection and interpretation of stats is not
  easy - or neutral.
• Sociologists often work with different
  definitions of what religion is and therefore
  have different views about it's importance to
  societies today.
• This is a good area to use in Theory and Methods
  questions on the use of stats in sociological
  research

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Religious Organisations

• Sociologists have used 4 terms to identify key
  social organisations of religion-
• Church, Denomination, Sect and Cult
• The problem arises because all religions use the
  phrase 'church' and in the media there is often a
  merging of Cult and Sect.
• So be careful when answering questions on
  religion in the exam - be clear (and make it
  clear to the examiner) what you are talking about

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Religious Organisations

• The Church /Sect Dichotomy
• Church-
• Large in terms of membership
• Only require partial commitment
• Allow freedom in dealing with people outside
• Sets rules on behaviour
• Accept the political order
• Hierarchy of officials

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Religious Organisations

• The Church /Sect Dichotomy
• Sect-
• Small membership
• Total commitment required
• Often require separation from outsiders
• Strict rules to adhere to
• Often at odds with the political order
• Often have charismatic leadership

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Religious Organisations

• Church
• In UK churches have far more members than sects
• But many Christian churches are losing members
• Islamic churches in UK are growing
• The media and sociological interest in Sects
  makes them appear more important than they are -
• Sects have become a moral panic issue

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Religious Organisations

• Sect
• Often emerge from churches in conflict
• Seem to offer a response to peoples who are
  underprivileged (materially or socially)
• Sects give status to to people which is denied in
  wider society
• Often at odds with wider society - members often
  have to reject their former lives and family
• See Wilsons typology page 630

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Religious Organisations

• The Denomination
• doesnt claim a monopoly of the truth
• low level of commitment
• tolerant and open

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Religious Organisations

• The Cult
• The media use of the term sect has become
  interchangeable with the word cult.

Sensational reporting of such events as the Waco
siege in Texas have meant that the term 'cult'
has become loaded with negative connotations
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Religious Organisations

• Stark and Bainbridge 1985
• Argue that sects are offshoots of existing
  religions and cults involve innovation and
  importing ideas from other religions
• They classify cults into 3 types

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Religious Organisations

• 1. Audience Cults
• Often highly individualistic
• little organisation
• sustained through the media
• e.g. astrology

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Religious Organisations

• 2. Client Cults
• Higher degree of organisation
• Offer services to members
• e.g. Spiritualists

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Religious Organisations

• 3. Cult Movements
• More organised
• Offer members services
• Often have worship and spiritual support
• e.g Unification Church (Moonies)

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Religious Organisations

• Problems with this classification
• 1. Western bias in defining them on this way
• 2. Confusion over what is a sect and what is a
  cult is heightened by this classifiaction

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Religious Organisations

• Both church and sect claim that they have the
  unique, true message - but the church is seen as
  legitimate (even by non-believers), the sect is
  seen as deviant.
• Cult and denomination recognise a variety of
  beliefs - but again one is seen as legit
  (denomination) and one is seen as deviant(cult)