key areas for beliefs in society

it has everything i think (AQA)

Theories of religion - **Weber**

Defines religion as a belief in a superior or supernatural power that is above nature and cannot be explained scientifically

Theories of religion - **Durkheim** (definition of religion)

Religion can be defined in the terms of the contribution it makes to social integration rather than any specific belief in God or the supernatural

Theories of religion - **Durkheim**

* The sacred and the profane: the fundamental split between these two. Sacred being things set apart and forbidden while profane are things that have no special significance things that are ordinary and mundane
* Totemism: The Arunta clan would come together to perform rituals involving worship of a sacred totem. They are worshipping society as the totem inspires feelings of awe in the clan’s members because it represents the power of the group on which the individual is utterly dependent.
* The collective conscience: The shared norms, values beliefs and knowledge that make social life and cooperation between individuals possible. Being a part of shared rituals binds individuals together reminding them that they are part of a single moral community
* Cognitive function of religion: Sees religion as our ability to reason and think conceptually

Theories of religion - **Worsely**

There is no sharp division between the sacred and the profane and that different clans share the same totems

Theories of religion - **Malinowski**

He studies Trobriand Islanders and found that they used religion for different reasons - Lagoon fishing/ Ocean fishing/ Times of life crises. God of the gaps

Theories of religion - **Parsons**

Sees religion helping individuals to cope with unforeseen events and uncontrollable outcomes

* It creates and legitimates society’s central values
* It is the primary source of meaning

Theories of religion - **Bellah**

Civil religion is interested in how religion unites society. Civil religion is a belief system that attaches sacred qualities to society itself. It’s own version of sacred properties

Theories of religion - **Marx**

Sees religion as the product of alienation. Alienation involves becoming separated from or losing control over something that one has produced or created.

* Religion is the opioid of the people
* Religion legitimises suffering
* Religion distorts people’s perception of alienation

Theories of religion - **Lenin**

Describes religion as ‘spiritual gin’ - an intoxicant doled out my the masses by the ruling class to confuse them and keep them in their place

Theories of religion - **Althusser**

Reject the concept of alienation as it is unscientific and based on a romantic idea that human beings have a ‘true self’

Theories of religion - **Armstrong**

Women weren’t always excluded from religion, once they were the leading figures: Mother earth goddesses/ fertility cults/ female priesthoods BUT the rise of monotheistic faiths led to patriarchy

Theories of religion - **Woodhead**

There are religious forms of feminism and these are ways in which women use religion gain greater freedom and respect

Theories of religion - **Sadaawi**

It isn’t religion that is patriarchal it is society

Religion and social change - **Weber**

Argues that the religious beliefs of Calvinism helped to bring about major social change.

* Calvinist beliefs: Predestination, transcendence, ascetism, vocation, this worldly, salvation panic

Religion and social change - **Bruce**

* Civil Rights movement was spearheaded by the church: honest broker, took the moral high ground, mobilised public support, channelled dissent
* New Christian Right: if social change was so effective at social change why have they been so unsuccessful.
* They don’t fight with others who have shared beliefs and their beliefs do not represent wide society views

Religion and social change - **Marx**

Does not see religion in entirely negative terms, describes it as ‘the soul of soulless conditions’ and the ‘heart of a heartless world’. He sees religion as capable of humanising a world made inhuman by exploitation even if the comfort it offers is illusory

Religion and social change - **Engels**

Religion challenge the status quo and encourage social change

Religion and social change - **Bloch**

Sees religion as having dual character. For view of religion that recognises both its positive and negative attitudes on social change

Religion and social change - **Casanova**

Liberation theology - it played an important part in resisting state terror and bringing about democracy. Although Catholicism in Latin America has since become more conservative it continues to defend the democracy and human rights that were achieved in part by liberation theology

Religion and social change - **Maduro**

He believes that religion can be a revolutionary force that brings about change. Religious ideas radicalised the Catholic clergy in defence of peasants and workers making them see that serving the poor was part of their Christian duty

Religion and social change - **Lehmann**

Liberation theology offers a radical solution to poverty: collective improvement through political action in the public sphere while Pentecostalism’s solution is conservative: individual self-improvement through the private sphere of family and church

Religion and social change - Millenarian movements **Worsley**

These movements expect the total and imminent transformation of this world by supernatural means. This appealed largely to the poor as they promise immediate improvement and they often arise in colonial situations

Religion and social change - Cargo cults **Worsley**

The islanders felt wrongfully deprived when material goods arrived in the islands for colonists. They thought that the cargo was meant for the islanders but had been diverted by the colonists for themselves. These movements of ten led to widespread unrest that threatened colonial rule

Hegemony

Ideological domination or leadership of society

Religion and social change - What happened when hegemony is established according to **Gramsci**?

The ruling class can rely on popular consent to their rule so there is less need for coercion

Religion and social change - Why is hegemony never guaranteed according to **Gramsci**?

It is possible for the working class to develop an alternative vision of how society should be organised. This is called counter-hegemony.

Religion and social change - Popular forms of religion **Gramsci**

These can help workers see through the ruling-class hegemony by offering a vision of a better fairer world

Religion and social change - **Billings** study

Comparing class struggle in two communities one of coalminers and the other of textile workers

Religion and social change - Three ways in which religion either supported or challenged he employers hegemony **Billings**

* Leadership: the miners benefited form the leadership of organic intellectuals. These clergy helped to convert miners to the union cause
* Organisation: the miners were able to use independent churches to hold meetings and organise whereas the textile workers lacked such spaces
* Support: the churches kept miners’ morale high with supportive sermons, prayer meetings and group singing. By contrast, textile workers who engaged in union activity met wit opposition from local church leaders

Religion and social change - What role does religion play according to **Billings**?

A prominent oppositional role as the same religion can be called upon either to defend the status quo or justify the struggle to change it

Secularisation - **Wilson**

Secularisation is the process whereby religious thinking, practice and institutions lose social significance

Secularisation - Rationalisation definition **Weber**

The process by which rational ways of thinking and acting come to replace religious ones

Secularisation - What started the process of rationalisation of life in the west according to **Weber**?

The Protestant Reformation begun by Martin Luther in the 16th century

Secularisation - Disenchantment **Weber**

Events are no longer to be explained as the work of unpredictable supernatural beings but as the predictable workings of natural forces

Secularisation - Disenchantment of the world **Weber**

It squeezes out magical and religious ways of thinking and starts off the rationalisation process that leads to the dominance of the rational mode of thought

Secularisation -How does the disenchantment of the world enable science according to **Weber**?

It allows science to thrive and provide on the basis for technological advances hat give humans more and more power to control nature

Secularisation - **Bruce**

The growth of a technological worldview has largely replaced religious or supernatural explanations of why things happen

Secularisation - Structural differentiation **Parsons**

The process of specialisation that occurs with the development of industrial society

Secularisation - How has structural differentiation affect religion according to **Parsons**?

Religion dominated pre-industrial society but with industrialisation it has become a smaller and more specialised institution

Secularisation - Disengagement **Parsons**

Its functions are transferred to other institutions such as the state and it becomes disconnected from wider society.

Secularisation - Privatisation **Parsons**

Religion is now confined to the private sphere of the home and family as religious beliefs are now personal choice

Secularisation - Decline of community **Wilson**

In pre-industrial communities shared values were expressed through collective religious rituals and when religion lost its basis in stable local communities it lost its vitality and its hold over individuals

Secularisation - Industrialisation **Bruce**

Undermining the consensus of religious beliefs that hold small rural communities together

Secularisation - Diversity of occupations, cultures and lifestyles undermines religion **Bruce**?

The believability of beliefs is undermined by alternatives. It is also undermined by individualism because the plausibility of religion depends on the existence of practicing community of believers

Secularisation - **Beger**

the trend towards religious diversity where instead of there being only one religious organisation and only one interpretation of the faith there are many

Secularisation - the sacred canopy

Everyone lived under a set of beliefs shared by all. This gave these beliefs greater believability because they had no challengers and the churches version of the truth was unquestioned

Secularisation - What happened to the sacred canopy with the Protestant reformation

Protestant churches and sects broke away from the Catholic Church in the 16th century. With the arrival of religious diversity no church can now claim an unchallenged monopoly of the truth

Secularisation - Plurality of life worlds

Where people’s perceptions of the world vary and where there are different interpretations of the truth

Secularisation - Plausibility structure **Berger**

The reasons why people find religion believable. As there are alternative versions of all of them and this erodes the absolute certainties of traditional religion

Secularisation - Changed views **Berger**

He has changed his views and now argues that diversity and choice stimulate interest and participation in religion

Secularisation - Cultural defence

This is where religion provides a focal point for the defence of national, ethnic, local or groups identity in struggle against an eternal force such as hostile foreign power

Secularisation - Examples of cultural defence

Catholicism in Poland before the fall of communism and The resurgence of Islam before the revolution in Iran

Secularisation - Cultural tranistion

This is where religion provides support and a sense of community for ethnic groups such as migrants to a different country and culture

Secularisation - **Lynd and Lynd**

1924 - 94% of churchgoing young people agreed with the statement ‘ Christianity is the one true religion and all people should be converted to it’

In 1977 it dropped to 41%

Secularisation - criticism of secularisation theory

* Religion is not declining but changing its form
* It focuses on the decline and ignores religious revivals and the growth of new religion
* Secularisation is not universal

Religion, Renewal and choice - **Davie**

We are seeing a major change in religion away from obligation and towards consumption or choice

Religion, Renewal and choice - Believing without belonging **Davie**

Religion is not declining it is taking a different more privatised form. People may not join organisations but they still hold religious beliefs

Religion, Renewal and choice - Vicarious religion **Davie**

Religion practiced by an active minority on behalf of the great minority who thus experience religion at second hand

Religion, Renewal and choice - **Davie’s** tip of the iceberg analogy

Beneath the surface of wat appears to be only a small commitment. Most people may not normally go to church or pray but they remain attached to the church as an institution that provides ritual and support when needed and they continue t share at some level its beliefs

Religion, Renewal and choice - **Voas and Crokett**

They reject **Davie’s** view and said that if **Davie** was right then we would expect higher levels of belief

Religion, Renewal and choice - **Day**

Very few of the 63% of Christians found in the 2011 census mentioned God or Christianity. There reason for describing themselves as Christian was not religious but a way of say they belonged to a ‘White English’ ethnic group

Religion, Renewal and choice - Cultural amnesia **Hervieu-Leger**

Children used to be taught religion however we have largely lost the religion that used to be handed down from generation to generation because parents let children decide for themselves what to believe

Religion, Renewal and choice - Spiritual shoppers **Hervieu-Leger**

People today feel like they have a choice as consumers of religion. Religion is now individualised and we now develop our own beliefs that give meaning to our lives and fit in with our interests and aspirations

Religion, Renewal and choice - The two new religious types that are emerging **Hervieu-Leger**

* Pilgrims: They follow an individual path in a search for self-discovery e.g. exploring New Age spirituality by joining groups. The demand is created by today’s emphasis on personal development
* Converts: They join religious groups that has a strong sense of belonging usually based on a shared ethnic background or religious doctrine

Religion, Renewal and choice - What is the result of the trends that **Hervieu-Leger** describes?

Religion no longer acts as the source of collective identity that it once did

Religion, Renewal and choice - **Lyon**

Traditional religion is giving way to a variety of new religious forms that demonstrate its continuing vigour

Religion, Renewal and choice - How has globalisation changed the nature of religion according to **Lyon**?

Religious ideas have become ‘disembedded’ the media lift them out of physical churches and move them to a different place and time

Religion, Renewal and choice - What does **Lyon** mean by religion is de-institutionalised?

It has become detached from its place in religious institutions floating in cyber space

Religion, Renewal and choice - Religion online **Helland**

Top-down communication where a religious organisation uses the internet to address members and potential converts. No feedback or dialogue between the parties

Religion, Renewal and choice - Online religion **Helland**

This is a form of ‘cyber-religion’ that may have no existence outside the internet. This is an non-hierarchal relationship and has a sense of community where they can visit virtual worship or meditation spaces

Religion, Renewal and choice - Meta-narratives

These are the theories or worldviews that claim to have the absolute authoritative truth

Religion, Renewal and choice - re-enchantment of the world **Lyon**

That we are now in a period of re-enchantment with the growth of unconventional beliefs, practices and spirituality

Religion, Renewal and choice - Weaknesses of the new age **Bruce**

* *The problem of scale*: Even if New Age forms of individualised religion are springing up this would have to be on a much larger scale if it is to fill up the gap left by the decline of traditional institutionalised religions
* *Socialisation of the next generation*: For a belief system to survive it must be passed own to the next generation
* *Weak commitment*: Although many people dabble in meditation, alternative medicine etc serious commitment to New Age beliefs and practices was very rare
* *Structural weakness:* New Age spirituality is itself a cause of secularisation because of its subjective, individualistic nature. As it is based on the idea that there is no higher authority that the self

Religion, Renewal and choice - **Stark and Bainbridge**

They see the secularisation theory as Eurocentric.

Religion, Renewal and choice - Religious market theory **Stark and Bainbridge**

* People are naturally religious and religion meets humans needs. This creates the demand for religion constant
* It is human nature to seek rewards and avoid costs

Religion, Renewal and choice - Why does religion thrive in America according to **Stark and Bainbridge**?

There has never been a monopoly of religion as the constitution guarantees freedom of religion and the separation of church and state. This had encouraged the growth of a healthy religious market

Religion, Renewal and choice - Supply not demand **Stark and Bainbridge**

Participation increases when there is ample supply of religious groups to choose from but declines when supply is restricted

Religion, Renewal and choice - What does the growth of televangelism in America show us according to **Hadden and Shupe**?

That the level of religious participation is supply-led

Religion, Renewal and choice - **Norris and Inglehart**

They reject the religious market theory as it only applies to America and fails to explain the different levels of religiosity between different societies

Religion, Renewal and choice - Exsistential security theory **Norris and Inglehart**

The feeling that survival is secure enough that it can be taken for granted.

* Poor societies: people face life threatening risks (like famine, disease and environmental disasters) have high levels of insecurity and thus high levels of religiosity
* Rich societies: where people have a high standard of living and are at less risk have greater sense of security and this lower levels of religiosity

Religion, Renewal and choice - **Gill and Lundegaarde**

The more a country spends on welfare the lower the level of religious participation

Religion, Renewal and choice - **Vasquez**

* **Norris and Inglehart** only uses quantitative data about income levels and they don’t evaluate people’s owns definition of existential security
* **Norris and Inglehart** only see religion as a negative response to deprivation. They ignore the positive reasons people have for religious participation and the appeal that some types of religion have for the wealthy

Religion in a Global context - Key features of fundamentalism

* An authoritative text
* An ‘us and them’ mentality: Fundamentalists separate themselves form the rest of the world and refuse to comprise with it
* Aggressive reaction: They aim to draw attention to the threat to their beliefs and values and their reactions are therefore aggressive
* Use of modern technology: they use it to achieve their aims
* Patriarchy
* Prophecy: Proclaim the relevance of biblical prophecies to contemporary events
* Conspiracy theories

Religion in a Global context - **Aldridge**

No texts speaks for itself it as to be interpretated so in reality what fundamentalists hold to be true is not the text itself but their interpretation of the meaning

Religion in a Global context - **Davie**

They seek to establish islands of certainty against what they see as social and cultural chaos

Religion in a Global context - **Hawley**

Fundamentalists favour a world in which control over women’s sexuality, reproductive powers, and their social and economic roles is fixed for all time by divine decree

Religion in a Global context - What does **Davie** say about fundamentalism occuring?

It occurs where hose who hold traditional orthodox beliefs and values are threatened by modernity and feel the need to defend themselves against it

Religion in a Global context - cosmopolitanism **Giddens**

This is a way of thinking that embraces modernity and is in keeping with today’s globalising world. It is tolerant of the views of others and open to new ideas

Religion in a Global context - **Bauman**

He sees fundamentalism as a response to living in postmodernity. Postmodern society brings freedom of choice and uncertainty undermining the old certainties about how to live that were grounded in tradition. Some embrace the new freedom but others are attracted to fundamentalism as it claims of absolute truth and certainty

Religion in a Global context - The two responses between postmodernity **Castells**

* Resistance identity: a defensive reaction of those who feel threatened and retreat into fundamentalist communities
* Project identity: the response of those who are forward-looking and engage with social movements such as feminism and environmentalism

Religion in a Global context - **Beckford’s** criticism on **Giddens', Bauman and Castells**

* They distinguish too sharply between cosmopolitanism and fundamentalism ignoring hybrid movements
* Giddens lumps all types of fundamentalism together ignoring important differences between them

Religion in a Global context - **Bruce**

Sees the main cause of fundamentalism as he perception of religious traditionalists that today’s globalising world threatens their beliefs

Religion in a Global context - Monotheism and Fundamentalism **Bruce**

Monotheistic religions are based on the notion of God’s will as revealed through a single authoritative text which lays down the rules for them to follow. Polytheistic religions lack a single all-powerful deity and a single authoritative text so there is much more scope for different interpretations and none has an over-riding claim the legitimacy or absolute truth

Religion in a Global context - Two fundamentalisms

* In the West: fundamentalism is most often a reaction to change taking place within a society especially the trends towards diversity.
* In developing countries: Fundamentalism is usually a reaction to changes being thrust upon a society from outside. It is triggered by modernisation and globalisation

Religion in a Global context - Secular forms of fundamentalism **Davie**

Recently we have seen the emergence of secular forms of fundamentalism. There are two phases of modernity:

* The first phase gave rise to religious fundamentalism: Enlightenment held an optimistic secular belief in the certainty of progress based on the power of science and human reason to improve the world
* The second phase is giving rise to secular fundamentalism: Since the 1970s the optimism of the enlightenment project has itself come under attack.

Both religious and secular movements can become fundamentalist as a result of the greater uncertainties of life in the late modern or postmodern world in which reasserting truth and certainty is increasingly attractive

Religion in a Global context - The seven civilisations according to **Huntington**

Western, Islamic, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin American, Confucian, Japanese and Hindu

Religion in a Global context - Clash of civilisations **Huntington**

That religious differences between civilisations are now a major source of conflict. This is because globalisation has made nation-states less important as a source of identity creating a gap that religion has filled. Globalisation increases the chance of a clash to happen

Religion in a Global context - **Casanova**

**Huntington’s** view is simplistic and it ignores important religious divisions within the ‘civilisations’ he identifies

Religion in a Global context - Cultural defence: Poland

Poland was under communist rule imposed by the Soviet union. During this time the Catholic Church was suppressed but for many Poles this continued to embody their Polish national identity. The church served as a rallying point for opposition against the soviet union and the Polish communist party

Religion in a Global context - Cultural defence: Iran

Western capitalist powers and oil companies had influence over Iran. During the 1960s and 70s they went on a modernisation and Westernisation polices which included banning the veil and replacing the Muslim calendar.

Islam became the focus for resistance against the Shah regime. The revolution brought around the creation of the Islamic Republic