Beliefs in Society

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177 Terms

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Beliefs in Society

Sociological explanations of ideology, science and religion, and their relationship to social change and stability.

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Religious Organizations

Religious organizations including cults, sects, denominations, churches and New Age movements.

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Social Groups and Religious Beliefs

Relationship between different social groups and religious/spiritual organizations, movements, beliefs and practices.

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Religion in the Contemporary World

Significance of religion and religiosity in the contemporary world, including secularization and globalization's impact.

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Substantive Definition of Religion

  • Definitions that involve belief in a supernatural power that cannot be explained rationally or scientifically

  • Weber

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Max Weber's View

Argued that true religion involves belief in God or gods.

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Functions of Religion

Providing psychological support, community, and rewards in an afterlife.

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Religion and Social Norms

Supporting the morals or behavior norms of a society.

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Richard Dawkins

Describes himself as a 'Cultural Christian' without believing in God.

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Functional Definitions

Define religion in terms of social and psychological functions.

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Durkheim's View

Argued religion promotes stability, social solidarity, and collective conscience.

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which tribe did Durkheim study

  • Arunta tribe

  • remote indigenous tribe in Australia

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four main functions of religion

  • discipline

  • cohesion

  • vitalising

  • euphoric

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Sacred and Profane

Division between things considered sacred and things considered profane.

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Discipline Function

Religious rituals impose self-discipline and encourage sociable behavior.

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Cohesion Function

Shared worship brings the community together, creating social cohesion.

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Vitalising Function

Religious belief maintains traditions and values passed down through generations.

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Euphoric Function

Reminds people of their place in a society bigger than themselves.

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Parsons' View

Socialisation into the value consensus of society is a key function

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Religion Answers Ultimate Questions

Answering life’s 'ultimate questions' that science cannot.

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Structural Differentiation

  • Specialised state institutions replacing the original functions of the church

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Malinowski's View

  • Religious rituals provide psychological support in times of transition, stress, or danger.

  • psychological benefits

  • preserve stability

  • maintain the status quo

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Malinowski’s study

  • a community in the Trobriand Island

  • during ww1

  • observed that religious practices and rituals of the islanders varies according to how safe or threatened they felt

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Canoe Magic Rituals

Practiced when fishing in dangerous waters, providing psychological support.

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Neo-functionalist View

Psychological benefit for individuals and stability for wider society.

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Civil Religion

  • Bellah

  • Essential social function of creating unity and a sense of belonging in secular states.

  • unity is based around the worship of society itself

  • ‘Americanism’ has become the civil religion in the USA- making the ‘pledge of allegiance’ to the flag every morning

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Unity in Civil Religion

Unity based around 'sacred' symbols not linked to any one religious tradition, but instead around 'worship' of society itself.

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Americanism

Symbols of society such as the American flag, national anthem, Statue of Liberty, and historical documents.

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USA in 2025

  • Deeply divided, making it harder for a unifying civil religion to function

  • due to Presdient Trumps USA

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Rise of the "Nones"

Suggests traditional religious elements may resonate less in liberal areas.

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Movements like Black Lives Matter

Incorporate moral language and national ideals, functioning as alternative civic faiths.

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Marxist Views of Religion

Essentially a conservative force that reproduces and legitimizes inequalities between social classes.

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Althusser's View

  • Religion is part of the Ideological State Apparatus maintaining ruling class power.

  • religion acts as a conservative force

  • it maintains the status quo

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Karl Marx

  • Described religion as the 'opiate of the masses'.

  • cushioned people from fear, alienation and desperation

  • creates a false consciousness

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Lenin's View

  • Religion as 'spiritual gin' obscuring working-class oppression.

  • obscures the reality of working oppression and alienation behind mystical fog

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Role of Religion

Religion acted as compensation and social control, preventing revolution.

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Caste System in Hindu Countries

Carried out a similar function in keeping the poorest people in society in their place.

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Friedrich Engels

Religion has a dual character, both maintaining the status quo and challenging it.

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Ernst Bloch

Religious beliefs can create the desire to build a utopian future.

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Feminist Views of Religion

  • Religion maintains patriarchal control in society.

  • acts a conservative force

  • has an ideological function in society

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Simone de Beauvoir

Exercises patriarchal control over women through:

  • scriptures- Ephesians 5:22

  • ceremonies- segregation

  • power relations- women are not permitted to lead worship

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Control over Women

Traditional religions have strict doctrines around the role of women, restricting their fertility and autonomy.

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Feminist Counter-Arguments

Many religions featured prominent goddesses and other female figures.

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Karen Armstrong

Development of monotheistic religions imbued religion with a patriarchal core.

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Nawal El Sadaawi

Religions are not the direct cause of women’s exploitation; the cause lies in patriarchal societies.

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Linda Woodhead on Hijab

Many Muslim women choose to wear it as a positive and liberating choice.

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Typology

Classifying religious organizations and movements.

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Definition of a Church- according to the typology of Troeltsch

Traditional established organisation with close links to the state and a significant institutionalised role within society i.e. the CofE in the UK

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Membership of Churches

Churches tend to have a large inclusive membership, often through infant baptism meaning most people are born into a church

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Churches and Truth

  • Churches traditionally claimed a monopoly of the truth.

  • Galileo challenged the Church’s teachings on the universe

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Galileo

Led him to dispute the geocentric model of the universe.

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Bureaucratic hierarchical Structures

Churches have bureaucratic hierarchical structures such as archbishops, bishops and priests

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Paid Clergy

Churches have professional paid clergy who often get benefits i.e. accomodation

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Ties to the State

Churches tend to be closely tied to the state, with historic responsibilities.

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Demands on Members

Churches make relatively few demands on their members.

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Conservative Force

  • Churches act as a conservative force, maintaining the status quo.

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Steve Bruce

  • Troeltsch’s definition may have been true up until the 17th century, but is no longer useful.

  • the CoE does not simply act as a conservative force anymore i.e. supporting climate action

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Roland Robertson

Increasing disagreements between the established state church and governments due to secularization.

  • Sunday trading act of 1994

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Definition of a Sect

Religious organizations that had broken away from a church.

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Sects and Truth

Claim a monopoly over the truth and are hostile to other organizations.

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Sects Leadership

Do not have a complex bureaucratic hierarchy.

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Commitment to Sects

Demand total commitment from their members, often involving sacrifices.

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Sects and Society

Usually hostile to the secular state, the established church, and mainstream society.

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Recruitment by Sects

Actively recruit people from marginalized groups.

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Weber on sects

  • large number of impoverished people join sects due to the promise of salvation in the afterlife

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Theodicy of Disprivilege

  • Belief that salvation in the afterlife may be granted as a reward for earthly poverty.

  • Weber

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Extreme Views in Sects

Adopt views which are ‘extreme’ and fundamentalist in nature.

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Lifecycle of a Sect

Depends on a number of factors:

  • when the orignial leader dies it might die out

  • if its survives it may become more formal

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Niebuhr

Sects such as Methodists and Baptists had gradually become more formal and ‘churchlike’.

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Denominations and the State

Comment and campaign on social issues, but not closely connected to the state.

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Membership of Denominations

Membership is larger than a sect but smaller than the established church.

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Hierarchy in Denominations

Have some degree of bureaucracy and hierarchy.

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Denominations and Truth

Do not claim a monopoly over the truth.

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wallis

there are 3 types of New Religious Movements

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World-Affirming NRMs

  • Offer members spiritual and personal enrichment

  • without requiring belief in a supernatural god.

  • methods to becomes ‘better’ people in their own efforts

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Focus of World-Affirming NRMs

The ‘self’ is considered to be the final authority.

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Landmark Organization

Offers a model of transformative learning to participants.

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World-Accommodating NRMs

Separate life into spiritual and worldly spheres, focusing on the spiritual.

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World-Rejecting NRMs

Organizations see the world as inherently evil or corrupt and seek radical change.

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The Peoples Temple

  • leader: Jim Jones

  • Founded: 1950s

  • promoted socialist and Christian ideals

  • rejected mainstream society- viewed it as corrupt

  • became increasing authoritarian and isolated

  • Jonestown Massacre 1978

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Shincheonji

  • Leader: Lee Man-Hee

  • Founded: 1984

  • world rejecting

  • believes its leader is the “promised pastor” prophesied in the Bible

  • rejects mainstream Christianity

  • teachers only its own member will be saved in the end times

  • criticised for secretive recruitment tactics

  • during Pandemic, leader faced backlash for insisting attendance at church, leading to Covid spreading and people dying

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The Branch Davidians

Followed leader David Koresh, who claimed to be a messianic figure.

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Religious Market Theory

  • Stark and Bainbridge

  • Traditional religion may be declining, but remained strong in the USA

  • people make rational choices in a competitive marketplace.

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Audience Cult

  • S&B

  • Participant is a passive consumer attending seminars or reading books.

  • no expectation of an ongoing relationship

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Client Cult

  • S&B

  • Cultivates a doctor/patient relationship with its followers

  • client still has choice over the services

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Cult Movement

  • S&B

  • Attempts to fulfil the ‘spiritual’ needs of its clients.

  • becomes like a religious denomination

  • clients become more like members of congretion

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Religion and Social Change

Sociologists disagree about the extent to which religion causes social change.

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Secularisation Theory

religion is unlikely to be the catalyst for social change in a diverse pluralist society in which people hold a variety of different beliefs, or no particular beliefs at all.

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euocentric view

  • too focused on the decline of Christianity in western Europe

  • neglects religions such as Islam which is gaining strength in the 21st centry

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The Protestant Ethic

Calvinism played a key role in the development of capitalism in Europe.

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Predestination

  • Individuals seek signs of their “elect” status through wordly success and hard work and they became convinced that success in business

  • salvation panic

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Weber vs. Marx

Economic change driven by religious beliefs and values.

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Dual Character of Religion

Although religion often acted as a conservative force, it could also challenge the status quo and support social change

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Ernst Bloch's View

Religion could offer people the hope of a better society (utopia).

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Hegemony

  • Gramsci

  • Bourgeoisie dominated society through ‘culture’.

  • religion reinforced this

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Gramsci

Religious leaders could take on the role of organic intellectuals.

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Liberation Theology

Performed a political role in protecting people from military dictatorship.

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Revd Martin Luther King Jr

Took a leading role in the civil rights movements in the 1950s and 1960s.

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Social Class and Religion

Extremely difficult to investigate in a diverse multi-cultural society.

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Varying Definitions of Social Class

Difficult and can lead to inconsistent findings.