Beliefs 120

1. What is the difference between and open and closed belief system?

2. Who regarding religion as "The opium of the masses”?

3. According to Bruce, what are the 5 main features of a New Age Religion?

4. Identify 2 characteristics of religious fundamentalism.

5. What is meant by the term sect?

6. What are the 4 CUDOS norms?

7. Which sociologist is associated with the inclusivist definition of religion?

8. Who regarding religion as "The gin of the masses”?

9. Who refers to the “female prism” which all feminist perspectives on religion agree?

10. Who found that there are two main characteristics of those that join NRM’s: Social Grievance

and a strong bond with those that recruited them?

11. Who said secularisation is a long term decline in the power, popularity and prestige of religious

beliefs and rituals.

12. What are the three main types of NRM according to Wallis?

13. Outline three characteristics of a sect.

14. What are the three categories of cult according to Stark and Bainbridge.

15. Outline three characteristics of a church.

16. Which gender is the biggest consumer of religion?

17. What is a Millenarian Movement?

18. Give one example where religion could be said to have brought about social change.

19. Decline in what three areas could be said to be evidence of secularisation.

20. What is an ideology?

QUESTION 1

1. Open beliefsystem, open to scrutiny, criticism and testing by others.

2. Karl Marx

3. Emphasis on Self, Everythingis connected,self is the final authority, Global Cafeteria, Therapy.

4. Traditional Beliefs, Them V Us Attitude, Use of modern technology to spread message,

Literalism, Aggressive Action,Patriarchy.

5. A religious group that has broken away from a larger, established religiousdenomination, or

movement, becauseof a set of beliefs that differ in some key way

6. Communism, Universalism, Disinterestedness, OrganisedScepticism

7. Giddens

8. Lenin

9. Abbott and Wallace

10. Stark and Bainbridge.

11. Steve Bruce.

12. World Affirming, World Rejecting and World Accommodating.

13. They are Not Bureaucratic & Hierarchical but are more Egalitarian, They are Radical in Nature, They

withdraw from society, They have Closed/ Controlled Membership, They are Intolerant of others.

14. Audience, Client, CulticMovements.

15. They are Bureaucratic & Closely linked to the State, Conservative, They Integrate with the Social &

Economic Structure of Society, They are Universalist with Open Membership, They tend to be

Intolerant & Hegemonic, They make up the Ecclesiaof a Country.

16. Female

17. Those that believe that a significant event will change the world and lead to 1000 years of

blessedness for the saved.

18. Civil Rights Movement, Latin America in the 1960’s, Iranian Revolution 1979, Poland in 1989

19. Practice, Belief andPower

20. A worldview or set of ideas and values.

ANSWERS 1

21. Who argues that the world is going through a ‘Spiritual Revolution’, what they called

Resacrilisation.

22. Who argue that NRMs emerge as a form of religious or social protest?

23. What is meant by the term “Stained Glass Ceiling”?

24. What four factors determine if religion is a conservative force or a force for social change

according to McGuire & Robinson?

25. What is one of the functions of religion according to Malinowski?

26. Who is associated with the idea of a closed belief system?

27. Wallis defined which group as ‘life positive’ aiming to release human potential and to accept the

world.

28. Who was the leader of the peoples temple?

29. What term is used to explain how women are taught to be submissive, passive and obedient.

Traits that are more compatible with religiosity?

30. What is meant by the term religiosity?

31. What term was used by Voasand Crockett to mean that older generations are more religious due

to the time in which they were brought up?

32. Who examined duel identities of ethnic groups, noting a difference depending on the

generation that was being questioned.

33. What were the three stages that Comte believed religion would inevitably pass through?

34. Who studied “Jesus in Disneyland”?

35. Who said that religion answered the ultimate questions and thus gave life meaning?

36. What did Huntington explore?

37. What is Animism?

38. What did Berger mean by the Sacred Canopy?

39. What is a theistic religion?

40. What did Polanyi mean by subsidiary explanations?

QUESTION 2

21. Heelas

22. Stark and Glock.

23. Women are barred from the higher positions of power within mainstream religion.

24. Nature and extent to religious belief, significance of religion in society, social involvement of

religion, degree of central authority in religious organisation.

25. Psychological functionsto help people overcome life-crisis.

26. Horton

27. World AffirmingMovements

28. Jim Jones

29. Differential socialisation

30. The extent to which someone sees themselves as religious.

31. Period Effect

32. Momood

33. Theoretical, Metaphysical, Positivity

34. Lyon

35. Yinger

36. Clash of Civilisations

37. The belief the spirits and ghosts can impact the human and natural world either

positively or negatively.

38. Religion protectsits believersfrom all dangersin the world. Religion comforts its

followersby answering the bigquestions.

39. A belief in a supernatural power, that could be a single entity or man entities.

40. A series of ‘get out’ clauses which a religiousleader can use when challengedon their belief

system.

ANSWERS 2

41. What is a paradigm?

42. Who studied the Azande tribe?

43. What are the core principals of science?

44. What term is used to describe the changing of beliefs within a religion to remain relevant

in the modern world?

45. Which sociologist is associated with the CUDOS norms?

46. In what way can religion be considered a closed belief system?

47. What did Popper mean by Falsification?

48. What are the 7 civilisations according to Huntington?

49. What are the two types of world view according to Mannheim?

50. What did Durkheim mean by the term Profane?

51. What did Durkheim men by the cognitive functions of religion?

52. Hamilton criticised functionalist views of religion claiming that religion also had

dysfunctions. What two examples did he give to illustrate his point?

53. In what way does Englesargue that socialism and Christianity are similar?

54. Marx suggested that religion supports capitalism in two ways. What are they?

55. Other than Christianity which other religion provides a good illustration of how Religion

justifies inequality?

56. Who claimed that religion has a duel character?

57. What did Bloch mean by religion having a duel character?

58. Who argued that the church can act as a safe outlet for frustration within a dictatorship?

59. Which movement developed as a response to the Vatican's failure to help its followers

out of poverty in Latin America?

60. What are the three types of religious leadership according to Weber?

QUESTION 3

41. A set of guidelines which define a theory or idea.

42. Evans-Pritchard

43. Pursuit of facts, Objectivity, Establishing cause and effect, reliable methods.

44. Internal Secularisation

45. Merton

46. It holds a monopoly on the truth and doesn’t tolerate challenge.

47. That theories and ideas are open to being proven wrong, and only become fact when they

cannot be.

48. Western, Islamic, Japanese, Slavic-Orthodox, Hindu, Confucian, Latin American

49. Ideological Thought and Utopian Thought

50. Thingsthat are ordinary and mundane. They have no special meaning to an individual or society.

51. Religion gave its followersthe intellectual capacity to understandthe world around them, by

giving meaning to conceptssuch as time, space and causation.

52. Religion as a cause of conflictand encouraging irrational thought.

53. They are both aimed at the poor and promise a better life for their followers.

54. Inequality is God-givenand therefore unchangeable. Poverty is a test from God and will be

compensated inthe after life.

55. Hinduism and theCaste System

56. Bloch

57. It could act as a conservative force as well as a principal of hope which could inspire social

change.

58. Otto Maduro

59. Liberation TheologyMovement

60. Charismatic Leader, Traditional Leader, Legal rational Leader

ANSWERS 3

61. What doe the term Theodicies mean?

62. What did Weber believe was the role of religion?

63. What is meant by the term predestination?

64. What are the 4 main beliefs of Calvinism?

65. Which group does Steve Bruce use to show how religious groups can try influence change

but not always be successful?

66. What two reasons does Bruce given to explain why the New Christian Right is unsuccessful in

creating social change?

67. Give three reasons that Bruce determines is the reason for the success of the American Civil

Rights Movement.

68. Outline two ways in which religion could be seen as patriarchal.

69. Who suggests that the only way equality can be achieved in monotheic religion is to consider

that God could be a woman.

70. Who suggests that Islam is not patriarchal in nature but Arab culture is which has led to

patriarchal interpretations of the Qur’an.

71. Who coined the phrase “Stained Glass Ceiling”?

72. Why do Postmodernists see religion as a meta-narrative?

73. What do postmodernists mean by ‘Spiritual Shoppers’?

74. What do postmodernists believe have replaced traditional religions?

75. Give two examples of a church as defined by Troeltsch.

76. Which religious group is defined by Niebuhr as revolving around a charismatic leader who claims

to be chosen by a supernatural being.

77. What are the 5 types of sect according to Wilson?

78. Give two reasons for the short lifespan of a sect according to Neibuhr.

79. Who suggested that the short lifespan of a sect is due to the sectarian cycle?

80. What are the 5 stages of the Sectarian Cycle?

QUESTION 4

61. The different religious ideas that different social groups would create in order to understand and

explain their experiences.

62. To meet the social and psychological needsof the population.

63. The beliefthat God has alreadydecided who will enter heaven and who will not and his

decision is unchangeable.

64. Predestination, Devine transcendence, Asceticism, The value of work.

65. The New ChristianRight

66. Negative Tone of the message, Lack of co-operation with wider society.

67. Peaceful Protest, Achieved public support, Negotiated with opposition, shamed those with

prejudicial values as beingunchristian.

68. God portrayed as a man, restricting women's access to top levelsin the religions hierarchy,

depicting women as a bad influence within sacred texts.

69. MaryDaly

70. El Saadawi

71. Karen Armstrong

72. Becausethey claim to have a monopoly on the truth.

73. Followers are rarely loyal to a single religion or movement but try out different ideas an beliefsto see

what suits their identityat that time.

74. New Age Movements

75. Roman Catholics, Islam, Judaismetc.

76. Sect

77. Introversionist, Conversionist, Reformist, Manipulationist,Millenerian.

78. Loss of the leader, Children of the original members do not hold the same intensity of belief,

movement developsinto denomination, dilution of beliefs.

79. Stark and Bainbridge

80. Schism, Initial Fervour, Denominationalism, Establishment, Further Schism

ANSWERS 4

81. Give two reasons for the growth of new religious movements.

82. What are the three types of women identified by Woodhead in relation to religiosity

and participation?

83. What type of religious organisations are Transcendental Meditation and Scientology?

84. What are the 4 main Reasons for Ethnic minority Religiosity

85. Which religious group is associated with Eastern philosophy and the promotion of self spirituality?

86. Which social class is more likely to be life long theists according to Lawes?

87. According to Lawes who are most likely to be lifelong Atheists?

88. What term is used to describe the phenomenon that people who are closer to the end of their life

are

more religious.

89. What three reasons are given for the decline in religiosity in young people?

90. Who claims that women are more religious than men due to them being involved in the

creation of life?

91. How does Wilson define the term secularisation?

92. What three areas are looked at when measuring secularisation?

93. Who argues that decline in public religious practices doesn’t equate to decline in religious belief?

94. Hervieu-Leger argues that two types of believer have been created by religious pluralism. What

are they?

95. Who argues that fundamentalism is a unique feature of monotheism?

96. What does Giddens mean when he refers to Cosmopolitanism?

97. What is meant by the term Crisis of credibility?

98. What term did Parson’s use to explain how some functions of the church have been taken over by

other social institutions?

99. What did Weber mean by Desacralisation of Consciousness?

100. What is the cause of third world fundamentalism according to Bruce?

QUESTION 5

81. Marginalisation, relative deprivation, response to social change, practicality, postmodernism,