The Structural-functional Approach Points Out How Family Perpetuates Social Inequality.
Main Body
Chapter fifteen. Religion
Ron McGivern
Learning Objectives
15.1. The Sociological Approach to Organized religion
- Talk over historical view of religion from a sociological perspective
- Understand how the major sociological paradigms view organized religion
15.2. Types of Religious Organizations
- Explain the differences betwixt diverse types of religious organizations
- Understand classifications of religion, similar animism, polytheism, monotheism, and atheism
15.three. Religion and Social Change
- Depict electric current North American trends of secularization and religious belief
Introduction to Religion
Why practice sociologists report religion? For centuries, humankind has sought to understand and explain the "pregnant of life." Many philosophers believe this contemplation and the want to understand our place in the universe are what differentiate humankind from other species. Organized religion, in ane grade or another, has been constitute in all human societies since human societies outset appeared. Archaeological digs have revealed ancient ritual objects, formalism burial sites, and other religious artifacts. Much social conflict and even wars have resulted from religious disputes. To understand a culture, sociologists must study its faith.
What is religion? Pioneer sociologist Émile Durkheim described it with the ethereal argument that it consists of "things that surpass the limits of our knowledge" (1915). He went on to elaborate: Faith is "a unified system of behavior and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say set apart and forbidden, beliefs and practices which unite into ane single moral community, called a church, all those who attach to them" (1915). Some people associate faith with places of worship (a synagogue or church building), others with a do (confession or meditation), and however others with a concept that guides their daily lives (like dharma or sin). All of these people can hold that religion is a system of beliefs, values, and practices concerning what a person holds sacred or considers to be spiritually meaning.
Religion can also serve as a filter for examining other bug in social club and other components of a culture. For example, after the September eleven, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United states of america, it became important in North America for teachers, church leaders, and the media to brainwash citizens almost Islam to prevent stereotyping and to promote religious tolerance. Sociological tools and methods, such as surveys, polls, interviews, and analysis of historical data, can be applied to the study of religion in a culture to help us better empathize the office religion plays in people's lives and the way it influences society.
15.1. The Sociological Approach to Religion
From the Latin religio (respect for what is sacred) and religare (to demark, in the sense of an obligation), the term religion describes various systems of belief and practice concerning what people make up one's mind to be sacred or spiritual (Durkheim 1915; Fasching and deChant 2001). Throughout history, and in societies across the world, leaders accept used religious narratives, symbols, and traditions in an effort to give more than meaning to life and understand the universe. Some form of religion is found in every known civilisation, and it is unremarkably practised in a public way by a group. The practice of organized religion can include feasts and festivals, God or gods, marriage and funeral services, music and art, meditation or initiation, sacrifice or service, and other aspects of culture.
While some people remember of religion every bit something private considering religious beliefs can be highly personal, religion is too a social establishment. Social scientists recognize that religion exists as an organized and integrated set of beliefs, behaviours, and norms centred on basic social needs and values. Moreover, religion is a cultural universal constitute in all social groups. For case, in every culture, funeral rites are practised in some manner, although these community vary between cultures and within religious affiliations. Despite differences, in that location are common elements in a ceremony marking a person's death, such as announcement of the decease, intendance of the deceased, disposition, and anniversary or ritual. These universals, and the differences in how societies and individuals feel religion, provide rich material for sociological written report.
In studying religion, sociologists distinguish between what they term the feel, beliefs, and rituals of a religion. Religious experience refers to the conviction or sensation that 1 is connected to "the divine." This type of communion might be experienced when people are praying or meditating. Religious beliefs are specific ideas that members of a particular faith hold to exist true, such every bit that Jesus Christ was the son of God, or assertive in reincarnation. Some other illustration of religious beliefs is that dissimilar religions adhere to certain stories of world cosmos. Religious rituals are behaviours or practices that are either required or expected of the members of a item group, such as bar mitzvah or confession (Barkan and Greenwood 2003).
The History of Organized religion equally a Sociological Concept
In the wake of 19th century European industrialization and secularization, three social theorists attempted to examine the relationship between religion and society: Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Karl Marx. They are among the founding thinkers of modernistic sociology.
As stated before, French sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) divers organized religion every bit a "unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things" (1915). To him, the sacred meant extraordinary—something that inspired wonder and which seemed connected to the concept of "the divine." Durkheim argued that "religion happens" in society when in that location is a separation between the profane (ordinary life) and the sacred (1915). A rock, for example, isn't sacred or profane as it exists. Just if someone makes it into a headstone, or another person uses it for landscaping, it takes on dissimilar meanings—one sacred, one profane.
Durkheim is generally considered the first sociologist who analyzed religion in terms of its societal impact. Above all, Durkheim believed that religion is about community: it binds people together (social cohesion), promotes behaviour consistency (social control), and offers forcefulness for people during life's transitions and tragedies (meaning and purpose). Past applying the methods of natural scientific discipline to the study of society, he held that the source of religion and morality is the collective mind-fix of society and that the cohesive bonds of social gild issue from common values in a society. He contended that these values need to exist maintained to maintain social stability.
Religion then provided differing degrees of "social cement" that held societies and cultures together. Faith provided the justification for lodge to exist across the mundane and partial explanations of existence equally provided in science, even to consider an intentional future: "for faith is earlier all else an impetus to action, while science, no matter how far information technology may exist pushed, always remains at a altitude from this." (Durkheim 1915, p. 431).
But what would happen if religion were to reject? This question led Durkheim to posit that religion is not just a social creation but something that represents the ability of society: when people celebrate sacred things, they celebrate the power of their social club. By this reasoning, even if traditional religion disappeared, society wouldn't necessarily dissolve.
Classical Sociology: Émile Durkheim
Durkheim's father was the eighth in a line of father-son rabbis. Although Émile was the second son, he was chosen to pursue his father'south vocation and was given a skillful religious and secular education. He abandoned the idea of a religious or rabbinical career, notwithstanding, and became very secular in his outlook. His sociological analysis of religion in The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life (1912) was an example of this. In this work he was not interested in the theological questions of God'southward being or purpose, simply in developing a very secular, sociological question: Whether God exists or not, how does organized religion function socially in a society? He argued that beneath the irrationalism and the "barbarous and fantastic rites" of both the virtually archaic and the most modern religions is their power to satisfy existent social and man needs. "At that place are no religions which are simulated" (Durkheim 1912) he said. Religion performs the key function of providing social solidarity in a society. The rituals, the worship of icons, and the conventionalities in supernatural beings "excite, maintain or recreate certain mental states" (Durkheim 1912) that bring people together, provide a ritual and symbolic focus, and unify them. This type of assay became the basis of the functionalist perspective in sociology. He explained the existence and persistence of religion on the basis of the necessary function information technology performed in unifying guild.
Whereas Durkheim saw religion as a source of social stability, German sociologist and political economist Max Weber (1864–1920) believed information technology was a precipitator of social change. He examined the effects of religious conventionalities on economic activities and noticed that heavily Protestant societies—such every bit those in kingdom of the netherlands, England, Scotland, and Germany—were the most highly adult backer societies and that their most successful business organisation and other leaders were Protestant. In his writing The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Commercialism (1905), he contends that the Protestant work ethic influenced the evolution of commercialism by overturning the traditional anti-materialist Christian values of poverty.
Weber noted that certain kinds of Protestantism supported the pursuit of material gain past motivating believers to work hard, be successful, and not spend their profits on frivolous things. Textile wealth was no longer seen as a sign of sin, but every bit a sign of God's favour. (The modern apply of "work ethic" comes directly from Weber's Protestant ethic, although every bit Weber noted, the coercion to work difficult in one's calling had by the 19th and 20th centuries largely lost its religious connotations.) As he summarized, "In [Puritan theologian Richard] Baxter's view the care for external goods should only lie on the shoulders of the 'saint like a light cloak, which could be thrown bated at whatever moment.' But fate decreed that the cloak should become an iron cage" (Weber 1905, p. 181).
The Protestant Work Ethic in the Information Age
Max Weber (1904) posited that, in Europe in his time, Protestants were more likely than Catholics to reflect the values of hard piece of work and savings conducive to capitalist ideology. Focusing on Calvinism, he showed that Protestant values influenced the rise of capitalism and helped create the modern globe social club. Weber idea the emphasis on customs in Catholicism versus the emphasis on individual achievement in Protestantism made a difference. Weber's century-old claim that the Protestant work ethic led to the development of commercialism has been ane of the near important and controversial topics in the sociology of religion. In fact, some scholars take found little merit to his contention when practical to contemporary society (Greeley 1989). (Every bit an aside, if yous relish "who done information technology" detective novels and are interested in Catholicism, the sociologist Reverend Andrew Greeley referenced here was also a prolific acknowledged novelist, whose protagonists Father Blackie Ryan and psychic Catholic Nuala McGrail solve complex crimes while maintaining, fifty-fifty rejoicing in, their faith.)
What does the concept of work ethic mean today? The work ethic in the information age has been affected by tremendous cultural and social change, merely every bit workers in the mid to tardily 19th century were influenced past the wake of the Industrial Revolution. Mill jobs tend to be uncomplicated and uninvolved and require very little thinking or decision making on the part of the worker. Today, the work ethic of the mod workforce has been transformed, as more thinking and decision making is required. Employees besides seek autonomy and fulfillment in their jobs, not just wages. Higher levels of didactics have become necessary, besides every bit people direction skills and access to the most recent data on any given topic. The data age has increased the rapid pace of production expected in many jobs.
Working hard too doesn't seem to have whatsoever relationship with Catholic or Protestant religious beliefs anymore, or those of other religions; data historic period workers expect talent and difficult work to be rewarded by material gain and career advocacy. Equally this is becoming an empty promise for many in Western societies, especially youth, attention has turned to more critical analyses of the place and power of religion in society.
High german philosopher, announcer, and revolutionary socialist Karl Marx (1818–1883) as well studied the social impact of faith. He believed religion reflects the social stratification of society and that information technology maintains inequality and perpetuates the status quo. For him, faith was merely an extension of working-class (proletariat) economical suffering: "Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the centre of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless weather. It is the opium of the people" (1844).
For Durkheim, Weber, and Marx, who were reacting to the keen social and economic upheaval of the late 19th century and early 20th century in Europe, organized religion was an integral part of lodge. For Durkheim, religion was a force for cohesion that helped bind the members of order to the group, while Weber believed organized religion could be understood equally something separate from society. Marx considered organized religion inseparable from the economy and the worker. Religion could not be understood autonomously from its ideological part in perpetuating or mystifying the inequalities of capitalist society. Despite their different views, these social theorists all believed in the axis of religion to club.
Classical Theory: Max Weber
Weber is known best for his 1904 book, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. He noted that in modernistic industrial societies, business leaders and owners of uppercase, the college grades of skilled labour, and the well-nigh technically and commercially trained personnel were overwhelmingly Protestant. He too noted the uneven development of capitalism in Europe, and in item how capitalism adult get-go in those areas dominated past Protestant sects. He asked, "Why were the districts of highest economical evolution at the aforementioned time particularly favourable to a revolution in the Church building?" (i.e., the Protestant Reformation (1517–1648)) (Weber 1904). His answer focused on the development of the Protestant ethic—the duty to "work hard in one's calling"—in detail Protestant sects such as Calvinism, Pietism, and Baptism.
As opposed to the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church in which poverty was a virtue and labour just a means for maintaining the individual and community, the Protestant sects began to see difficult, continuous labour equally a spiritual finish in itself. Hard labour was firstly an ascetic technique of worldly renunciation and a defence confronting temptations and distractions: the unclean life, sexual temptations, and religious doubts. Secondly, the Protestant sects believed that God'due south disposition toward the private was predetermined and could never exist known or influenced by traditional Christian practices like confession, penance, and buying indulgences. Nevertheless, one'southward chosen occupation was a "calling" given by God, and the simply sign of God's favour or recognition in this world was to receive expert fortune in one's calling. Thus material success and the steady accumulation of wealth through personal effort and prudence was seen as a sign of an individual's country of grace. Weber argued that the ethic, or mode of life, that developed around these behavior was a fundamental factor in creating the weather condition for both the aggregating of upper-case letter, as the goal of economic activity, and for the cosmos of an industrious and disciplined labour force.
In this regard, Weber has ofttimes been seen every bit presenting an idealist explanation of the development of uppercase, as opposed to Marx's historical materialist explanation. It is an element of cultural belief that leads to social change rather than the concrete organization and class struggles of the economic structure. Information technology might exist more than accurate, nevertheless, to see Weber'due south work building on Marx's and to see his Protestant ethic thesis as function of a broader set of themes concerning the process of rationalization . Why did the Western world modernize and develop modern science, industry, and democracy when, for centuries, the Orient, the Indian subcontinent, and the Middle East were technically, scientifically, and culturally more than avant-garde than the West? Weber argued that the modern forms of gild developed in the West because of the procedure of rationalization: the general tendency of modern institutions and about areas of life to be transformed past the application of instrumental reason—rational bureaucratic organisation, adding, and technical reason—and the overcoming of "magical" thinking (which we earlier referred to as the "disenchantment of the world"). As the impediments toward rationalization were removed, organizations and institutions were restructured on the principle of maximum efficiency and specialization, while older, traditional (inefficient) types of organization were gradually eliminated.
The irony of the Protestant ethic as ane stage in this process was that the rationalization of capitalist business practices and arrangement of labour eventually dispensed with the religious goals of the ethic. At the end of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Commercialism, Weber pessimistically describes the fate of modern humanity as an "atomic number 26 cage." The atomic number 26 cage is Weber's metaphor for the condition of modern humanity in a technical, rationally defined, and "efficiently" organized society. Having forgotten its spiritual or other purposes of life, humanity succumbs to an order "now leap to the technical and economic weather of machine production" (Weber 1904). The mod subject in the iron cage is "only a single cog in an ever-moving mechanism which prescribes to him an substantially fixed route of march" (Weber 1922).
Theoretical Perspectives on Organized religion
Sociologists often apply one of iii major theoretical perspectives. These views offering different lenses through which to study and understand society: functionalism, symbolic interactionism, and critical sociology. Let usa explore how scholars applying these paradigms sympathize religion.
Functionalism
Functionalists debate that faith serves several functions in social club. Organized religion, in fact, depends on society for its existence, value, and significance, and vice versa. From this perspective, religion serves several purposes, like providing answers to spiritual mysteries, offering emotional condolement, and creating a place for social interaction and social control.
In providing answers, faith defines the spiritual earth and spiritual forces, including divine beings. For instance, information technology helps answer questions like "How was the earth created?" "Why exercise we suffer?" "Is at that place a program for our lives?" and "Is there an afterlife?" As another function, organized religion provides emotional comfort in times of crunch. Religious rituals bring social club, comfort, and organization through shared familiar symbols and patterns of behaviour.
One of the most important functions of religion, from a functionalist perspective, is the opportunities it creates for social interaction and the formation of groups. It provides social back up and social networking, offering a identify to meet others who hold similar values and a place to seek aid (spiritual and textile) in times of need. Moreover, information technology tin foster group cohesion and integration. Because organized religion can exist central to many people'southward concept of themselves, sometimes there is an "in-grouping" versus "out-group" feeling toward other religions in our society or within a detail practice. On an extreme level, the Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, and anti-Semitism are all examples of this dynamic. Finally, religion promotes social control: it reinforces social norms such as advisable styles of clothes, following the constabulary, and regulating sexual behaviour.
Critical Folklore
Critical theorists view organized religion as an institution that helps maintain patterns of social inequality. For instance, the Vatican has a tremendous corporeality of wealth, while the average income of Cosmic parishioners is small-scale. According to this perspective, religion has been used to support the "divine correct" of oppressive monarchs and to justify unequal social structures, like India'south caste system.
But humankind has a mode of responding to perceived injustices and religions that lose relevancy. Ane of the fastest growing arenas of global Christianity are the evangelical churches that are making formidable inroads not only in North America, but even more than then in Due south America. This growth has been at the expense of the Cosmic Church, long a bastion of strength in Latin and S America. Latin America refers to countries in the subregion of the Americas where Romance languages, primarily Spanish and Portuguese, are spoken. As Christina Vital, an anthropologist at the Constitute of Studies of Organized religion in Rio de Janeiro points out,
[Evangelical] churches adopt less-rigid rules than the Catholic Church … they conform to the customs and values seen today in our society, such every bit the importance of fiscal prosperity, importance of entrepreneurship to reach this prosperity, importance of discipline (Fieser and Alves 2012).
At the aforementioned time, evangelical and fundamentalist Christian sects often introduce strange belief systems that are homophobic or undermine family planning and anti-AIDS strategies. The persecution of gays in Uganda through the Republic of uganda Anti-Homosexuality Act (2014) was prompted by the influence of American evangelicals in the country (Gentleman 2010).
Conversely, the power of Weber's theories of folklore to help empathise religious history was brought to contemporary public and bookish audiences in the publication of the seminal work by Norman Gottwald, The Tribes of Yahweh: A Sociology of the Religion of Liberated Israel, 1250-1050 BCE (1999). Gottwald elucidates this human relationship even more conspicuously in his book The Politics of Ancient State of israel, which was a response to the question posited in Weber'southward 1921 classic Ancient Judaism: "how did Jewry develop into a pariah people [guests hosted by larger societies] with highly specific peculiarities?" (Gottwald 2001, Weber 1921). Even critics of Gottwald's approach such as Kenton Sparks provide alternative Weberian interpretations to early Israel's survival:
Israel'due south survival can be equally attributed to religious innovations of the state-era mono-Yahwistic prophets, who interpreted strange oppression as the hand of Yahweh and then preserved Israel's religious faith and ethnic distinctiveness in contexts where it might otherwise take perished (Sparks 2004 p. 126).
There is still a rich fence on the utility of Weberian theory in the interpretation of social behaviour, including social behaviour dating back thousands of years. Weber still has relevancy in the folklore of religion.
Critical theorists are concerned virtually the way many religions promote the idea that 1 should be satisfied with existing circumstances considering they are divinely ordained. It is argued that this power dynamic has been used past religious institutions for centuries to go on poor people poor, teaching them that they should non exist concerned with what they lack because their "true" reward (from a religious perspective) will come after death. Critical theorists as well bespeak out that those in power in a religion are oft able to dictate practices, rituals, and beliefs through their interpretation of religious texts or via proclaimed straight communication from the divine. In recent history, the statement by George W. Bush that God told him to "end the tyranny in Iraq" is a case in betoken (MacAskill 2005). A central element in the Enlightenment project that remains central to the critical perspective therefore is the separation of church building and state. Public policy that is based on irrational or a-rational religious belief or "revelation" rather than scientific evidence undermines a key component of autonomous deliberation and public scrutiny of the conclusion-making process.
The feminist perspective focuses specifically on gender inequality. In terms of religion, feminist theorists affirm that, although women are typically the ones to socialize children into a organized religion, they take traditionally held very few positions of power within religions. A few religions and religious denominations are more gender equal, but male dominance remains the norm of about. Only even this assertion is advisedly scrutinized past feminist scholars. Those for example following the seminal work of Elaine Pagels's The Gnostic Gospels have been instrumental in rediscovering the identify of women in Christian history (1979). Merlin Stone's When God was a Woman (1976) traces the pre-history of European society back to feminine-centred cultures based on fertility and creator goddesses. It was not until the invasions of the Kurgans from the northeast and Semites from the south in the fifth millennium BCE that hierarchical and patriarchal religions became dominant.
Symbolic Interactionism
Rising from the concept that our world is socially constructed, symbolic interactionism studies the symbols and interactions of everyday life. To interactionists, beliefs and experiences are not sacred unless individuals in a society regard them as sacred. The Star of David in Judaism, the cantankerous in Christianity, and the crescent and star in Islam are examples of sacred symbols. Interactionists are interested in what these symbols communicate. Additionally, because interactionists written report ane-on-one everyday interactions between individuals, a scholar using this arroyo might enquire questions focused on this dynamic. The interaction between religious leaders and practitioners, the role of organized religion in the bland components of everyday life, and the ways people express religious values in social interactions—all might be topics of written report to an interactionist.
It is important to understand that the to a higher place theoretical paradigms each provide only a fractional explanation of religious beliefs and behaviours.
15.2. Types of Religious Organizations
Religions organize themselves—their institutions, practitioners, and structures—in a variety of fashions. For instance, when the Roman Catholic Church emerged, it borrowed many of its organizational principles from the ancient Roman military, turning senators into cardinals, for example. Sociologists utilise different terms, like ecclesia, denomination, and sect, to define these types of organizations. Scholars are also enlightened that these definitions are not static. Nigh religions transition through dissimilar organizational phases. For example, Christianity began as a cult, transformed into a sect, and today exists as an ecclesia.
Cults, like sects, are new religious groups. In pop usage, this term oft carries pejorative connotations. Today, the term "cult" is used interchangeably with the term new religious motion (NRM). However, almost all religions began as NRMs and gradually progressed to levels of greater size and organization. In its pejorative apply, these groups are often disparaged as beingness secretive, highly controlling of members' lives, and dominated past a single, charismatic leader.
Controversy exists over whether some groups are cults, mayhap due in part to media sensationalism over groups like polygamous Mormons or the Peoples Temple followers who died at Jonestown, Guyana. Some groups that are controversially labelled equally cults today include the Church of Scientology and the Hare Krishna move.
A sect is a pocket-size and relatively new group. Virtually of the well-known Christian denominations in North America today began as sects. For example, the Presbyterians and Baptists protested against their parent Anglican Church building in England, just equally Henry VIII protested confronting the Catholic Church past forming the Anglican Church building. From "protest" comes the term Protestant.
Occasionally, a sect is breakaway group that may be in tension with larger society. They sometimes claim to be returning to "the fundamentals" or to contest the veracity of a particular doctrine. When membership in a sect increases over time, it may grow into a denomination. Often a sect begins as an adjunct of a denomination, when a group of members believes they should carve up from the larger group.
Some sects evolve without growing into denominations. Sociologists telephone call these established sects. Established sects, such as the Hutterites or Jehovah's Witnesses in Canada fall halfway between sect and denomination on the ecclesia–cult continuum considering they accept a mixture of sect-like and denomination-similar characteristics.
A denomination is a large, mainstream religious organization, but information technology does not merits to be official or land sponsored. It is one religion among many. For example, The Church of England in Canada, the Presbyterian Church, the United Church building, and Seventh-solar day Adventist are all Christian denominations.
The term ecclesia, originally referring to a political assembly of citizens in ancient Athens, Greece, now refers to a congregation. In sociology, the term is used to refer to a religious group that most members of a lodge belong to. It is considered a nationally recognized, or official, religion that holds a religious monopoly and is closely allied with state and secular powers. Canada does non have an ecclesia by this standard.
I way to remember these religious organizational terms is to think of cults (NRMs), sects, denominations, and ecclesia representing a continuum, with increasing influence on society, where cults are to the lowest degree influential and ecclesia are most influential.
Types of Religions
Scholars from a multifariousness of disciplines accept strived to classify religions. I widely accustomed categorization that helps people understand different belief systems considers what or who people worship (if anything). Using this method of nomenclature, religions might autumn into one of these basic categories, as shown in Table 15.1.
| Religious Classification | What/Who Is Divine | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Polytheism | Multiple gods | Ancient Greeks and Romans |
| Monotheism | Single god | Judaism, Islam |
| Atheism | No deities | Atheism |
| Animism | Nonhuman beings (animals, plants, natural world) | Ethnic nature worship (Shinto) |
| Totemism | Human-natural being connection | Ojibwa (First Nations) |
Annotation that some religions may exist practised—or understood—in various categories. For instance, the Christian notion of the Holy Trinity (God, Jesus, Holy Spirit) defies the definition of monotheism to some scholars. Similarly, many Westerners view the multiple manifestations of Hinduism's godhead as polytheistic, while Hindus might draw those manifestations are a monotheistic parallel to the Christian Trinity.
Information technology is also important to note that every guild also has nonbelievers, such as atheists, who do not believe in a divine being or entity, and agnostics, who hold that ultimate reality (such as God) is unknowable. While typically non an organized group, atheists and agnostics represent a pregnant portion of the population. Information technology is important to recognize that being a nonbeliever in a divine entity does not mean the individual subscribes to no morality. Indeed, many Nobel Peace Prize winners and other keen humanitarians over the centuries would have classified themselves as atheists or agnostics.
fifteen.iii. Religion and Social Change
Religion has historically been a major impetus to social change. In early Europe, the translation of sacred texts into everyday, non-scholarly language empowered people to shape their religions. Disagreements betwixt religious groups and instances of religious persecution have led to mass resettlement, state of war, and even genocide. To some degree, the modernistic sovereign state organization and international law might be seen as products of the conflict between religious behavior as these were founded in Europe by the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), which ended the Xxx Years War. As outlined below, Canada is no stranger to religion as an agent of social alter.
Secularization
At the same fourth dimension that religion is nevertheless a major force in Western society, it is within a backdrop of societies becoming more than and more secularized. Secularization as a social and historical process has been outlined by the sociologist Jose Casanova equally three interrelated trends, all open to debate: 1) the decline of religious behavior and practices in modern societies, 2) the privatization of religion, and three) the differentiation of the secular spheres (state, economy, scientific discipline), commonly understood equally "emancipation" from religious institutions and norms (Casanova 2006).
Historical sociologists Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Karl Marx and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud anticipated secularization, claiming that the modernization of club would bring virtually a decrease in the influence of religion. Weber believed membership in distinguished clubs would outpace membership in Protestant sects equally a way for people to gain authority or respect.
Conversely, some people fence that secularization is a root crusade of many social issues, such as divorce, drug use, and educational downturn. U.Due south. presidential contender Michele Bachmann even linked Hurricane Irene and the 2011 convulsion felt in Washington D.C. to politicians' failure to mind to God (Ward 2011).
While some scholars encounter the Western globe, including Canada, becoming increasingly secular, others observe that religion is nevertheless all around us. For example, recent statistics show that about 75 per centum of Canadian marriages still involve a religious anniversary. But this varies from a a high of 90 percent in Ontario to less than 40 percent in British Columbia (Black 2007, B.C. Vital Statistics 2011).
At the time of this writing, religion impacted mail service-secondary education in Canada. Trinity Western University, a respected individual Christian university in British Columbia, is embroiled in controversy every bit several provincial bar associations have voted not to accept graduates of Trinity's proposed law program. 1 of the central bug is the "covenant" the academy requires its students to sign that forbids sex unless it is within a marriage betwixt a human and a woman. The academy intends to take the bar associations in British Columbia, Ontario, and Nova Scotia to court "to respond to what information technology calls threats confronting freedom of religion" (CBC 2014). At this time, law societies in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nunavut have decided to accept Trinity Western's graduates.
This is not a new battle for Trinity Western University. In 2001, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled against the B.C. College of Teachers in its bid to uphold the original decision not to accept Trinity Western graduates into the educational activity profession. This action would have effectively blocked Trinity graduates from didactics in British Columbia (Wikipedia North.d.). The 2001 courtroom decision makes for an interesting read, fifty-fifty providing insights into Trinity'southward next legal boxing to affirm its rights as a religious organization (Supreme Court of Canada 2001).
Religious contained schools teaching from kindergarten to grade 12 receive varying degrees of public funding across Canada. In British Columbia, these schools are countering the educatee population declines found in the public schools and have generally increased enrolments annually (B.C. Ministry of Education 2014).
Compared to other autonomous, industrialized countries, Canada is generally perceived to be a adequately religious nation. Whereas 42 percent of Canadians in a 2009 Gallup survey said religion was an important office of their daily lives, 65 percent make this claim in the United States. The numbers were also higher in Spain (49 percent), but lower in France (30 percent), the United Kingdom (27 percent), and Sweden (17 per centum) (Crabtree and Pelham 2009). Secularization interests social observers because it entails a pattern of alter in a fundamental social institution.
The above information on the importance of organized religion in daily lives tell us much near our views on other problems. For example, countries such as Canada that have a bottom level of bear on from organized religion on our twenty-four hours-to-day routine are more than tolerant, even accepting of, homosexuality (Trinity Western University still). A contempo written report shows that countries where religious influence is low are generally besides the richest countries (Pew Research 2013). They are more than accepting of homosexuality than poor countries where religious influence is high. Predominantly poor and/or Muslim countries take virtually no levels of credence of homosexuality. There is a strong relationship between a country's religiosity and opinions well-nigh homosexuality. The fact that Canada has go more than secular is evidenced in the ten pct increase in acceptance of homosexuality over the final decade.
While less than one-half of Canadians land that religion is of import, fourscore per centum of Canadians claim a religious amalgamation (Statistics Canada 2011). Canada is known for its religious diversity, yet it is predominantly Christian, with 72 percent declaring membership in one of its denominations or sects. Catholicism stands out as the most popular choice with near 50 percent of Christian Canadians. Religious affiliations among contempo immigrants to Canada are similar for Christians and those claiming no organized religion, according to statistics gathered between 2001 and 2011 (Statistics Canada 2011). Other mutual affiliations for new immigrant are Muslim (18 percentage), Hindu (eight percent), and Sikh (5 percent).
The ability of the sociological written report of organized religion goes well beyond how nosotros think and behave over religion. These views and behaviours spill over in cardinal ways into other of import arenas within our lives. Whether we consider our views on politics, homosexuality, or our children's educational activity, the sociological study of religion provides valuable insights into our commonage behaviour.
Central Terms
animism the organized religion that believes in the divinity of nonhuman beings, similar animals, plants, and objects of the natural world
atheism belief in no deities
cults religious groups that are pocket-sized, secretive, and highly controlling of members and have a charismatic leader
denomination a large, mainstream religion that is non sponsored past the state
ecclesia a religion that is considered the state faith
established sects sects that concluding merely exercise not get denominations
interactionists individuals who believe that experiences are not sacred unless individuals in a society regard them every bit sacred
monotheism a religion based on conventionalities in a single deity
new religious motility (NRM) run across "cult"
polytheism a religion based on belief in multiple deities
religion a organisation of behavior, values, and practices concerning what a person holds to be sacred or spiritually pregnant
religious beliefs specific ideas that members of a particular faith agree to be truthful
religious experience the conviction or awareness that 1 is connected to "the divine"
religious rituals behaviours or practices that are either required for or expected of the members of a particular group
sect a small, new offshoot of a denomination
symbolic interactionism study of the symbols and interactions of everyday life.
totemism belief in a divine connection between humans and other natural beings
Section Summary
15.ane. The Sociological Approach to Faith
Faith describes the beliefs, values, and practices related to sacred or spiritual concerns. Social theorist Émile Durkheim divers religion equally a "unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things" (1915). Max Weber believed organized religion could be a forcefulness for social alter. Karl Marx viewed religion as a tool used past capitalist societies to perpetuate inequality. Religion is a social institution considering it includes beliefs and practices that serve the needs of gild. Organized religion is besides an instance of a cultural universal because it is found in all societies in one course or another. Functionalism, disharmonize theory, and interactionism all provide valuable means for sociologists to sympathise organized religion.
15.two. Types of Religious Organizations
Sociological terms for different kinds of religious organizations are, in order of decreasing influence in club, ecclesia, denomination, sect, and cult. Religions tin be categorized according to what or whom its followers worship. Some of the major types of religion include polytheism, monotheism, atheism, animism, and totemism.
xv.iii. Religion and Social Alter
Many of the classical sociological theories predicted that levels of religiosity in Western societies would pass up due to the process of secularization. All the same, while social club has certainly become more than secular, a large majority of people in Canada still claim religious affiliation. The clash of secular and religious values in modern society produces bug that are difficult to resolve.
Department Quiz
fifteen.1. The Sociological Approach to Organized religion
one. In what ways does religion serve the role of a social institution?
- Religions have a complex and integrated set of norms.
- Religious practices and beliefs are related to societal values.
- Religions often encounter several bones needs.
- All of the above
2. A cultural universal is something that:
- Addresses all aspects of a grouping'south behaviour
- Is found in all cultures
- Is based on social norms
- May or may non be of value in coming together social needs
3. Which of the main theoretical perspectives would approach religion from the micro-level, studying how religion impacts an private's sense of support and well-existence?
- Functionalism
- Symbolic interactionism
- Conflict theory
- Feminism
iv. Which perspective well-nigh emphasizes the ways in which religion helps to continue the social organisation running smoothly?
- Functional perspective
- Symbolic interactionist perspective
- Conflict perspective
- Feminist perspective
5. Which socialist perspective most emphasizes the ways in which religion helps to maintain social inequalities within a society?
- Functional
- Symbolic interactionist
- Disharmonize theory
- Feminist perspective
6. Which of the following practice the functionalist and disharmonize perspectives share?
- Position that organized religion relates to social command, enforcing social norms
- Emphasis on religion equally providing social support
- Belief that religion helps explain the mysteries of life
- None of the higher up
7. The Protestant piece of work ethic was viewed in terms of its human relationship to:
- Evolution and natural choice
- Capitalism
- Determinism
- Prejudice and bigotry
15.ii. Types of Religious Organizations
viii. What are some denominations of the Christian Protestant church?
- Catholic and Jewish
- Jehovah's Witnesses and the United Church of Canada
- Scientology and Hare Krishna
- The Church of England (Anglican) in Canada and the Roman Catholic Church
ix. A sect:
- Has generally grown so large that information technology needs new buildings and multiple leaders
- Often believes it must split from the larger group to return to important fundamentals
- Is some other term for a cult
- All of the above
ten. The main difference between an ecclesia and a denomination is:
- The number of followers or believers is much larger for denominations
- The geographical location varies for ecclesia versus denominations
- Ecclesia are state-sponsored and considered an official faith
- There are no important differences; the terms are interchangeable
11. Some controversial groups that may be mislabelled every bit cults include:
- Scientology and the Hare Krishna
- the Peoples Temple and Heven'southward Gate
- the Branch Davidians and the Manson Family
- Quakers and Petecostals
xv.3. Organized religion and Social Change
12. Secularization refers to a number of interrelated trends including:
- The Protestant work ethic
- Television ministries
- Separation of church and state
- Liberation theology
xiii. The pct of people in Canada claiming a religious affiliation is:
- 50 percent
- 12 pct
- 95 percent
- eighty pct
Brusk Answer
15.1. The Sociological Arroyo to Organized religion
- Listing some ways that you see faith having social command in the everyday world.
- What are some sacred items that you're familiar with? Are there some objects, such as cups, candles, or vesture, that would exist considered profane in normal settings but are considered sacred in special circumstances or when used in specific ways?
- Consider a religion that y'all are familiar with and discuss some of its behavior, behaviours, and norms. Discuss how these meet social needs. And so research a religion that y'all don't know much about. Explain how its behavior, behaviours, and norms are like/unlike the other religion.
15.ii. Types of Religious Organizations
- Consider the unlike types of religious organizations in Canada. What role did ecclesia play in the history of Canada? How have sects tended to modify over fourth dimension? What role do cults have today?
- What is your agreement of monotheism, polytheism, and animism? What are examples of these belief systems in Canada? How exercise these dissimilar conventionalities systems touch relationships to the environs, sexuality, and gender?
- In Canadian gild, do you lot believe there is social stratification that correlates with religious behavior? What about within the practitioners of a given organized religion? Provide examples to illustrate your betoken.
fifteen.3. Religion and Social Alter
- Exercise you believe Canada is becoming more secularized or more than fundamentalist? Comparing your generation to that of your parents or grandparents, what differences do you see in the relationship between religion and society? Why do you remember Canada differs from the United States in the part that religion plays in public and political life?
Farther Research
15.1. The Sociological Approach to Religion
For more discussion on the study of folklore and organized religion, check out the post-obit blog: http://openstaxcollege.org/l/immanent_frame/. The Immanent Frame is a forum for the exchange of ideas virtually religion, secularism, and social club by leading thinkers in the social sciences and humanities.
Read more than about functionalist views on religion at http://openstaxcollege.org/l/Grinnell_functionalism, symbolic interactionist view on organized religion at http://openstaxcollege.org/50/flat_Earth, and women in the clergy at http://openstaxcollege.org/l/women_clergy.
Some would contend that the Protestant piece of work ethic is yet live and well in Due north America. Read British historian Niall Ferguson'southward view at http://openstaxcollege.org/l/Protestant_work_ethic.
15.two. Types of Religious Organizations
PBS's Frontline explores "the life of Jesus and the rise of Christianity" in this in-depth documentary. View the piece in its entirety here: http://openstaxcollege.org/50/PBS_Frontline.
Sorting through the different Christian denominations can be a daunting task. To help clarify these groups, become to http://openstaxcollege.org/l/Christian_denominations
Ayahuasca ("the vine of the soul") is a ceremonial tea used traditionally in animistic healing practices in the Amazonian bowl. Information technology is an entheogen that induces visions. For more on how ayahuasca ceremonies have come to the attention of North Americans and Europeans as a promising healing modality, come across the CBC Nature of Things episode "Jungle Prescription": http://world wide web.cbc.ca/natureofthings/features/what-is-ayahuasca
15.3. Religion and Social Modify
What are megachurchs and how are they changing the face of organized religion? Read "Exploring the Megachurch Phenomena: Their Characteristics and Cultural Context" at http://openstaxcollege.org/fifty/megachurch
Secularization is an cryptic tendency, non least because the concept of secularization suggests that being secular or being religious is an either/or proffer. For an exploration of contemporary relationship between secularism and religion see the CBC Ideas serial "Subsequently Disbelief: New Perspectives on God and Religion": http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2014/07/14/after-atheism-new-perspectives-on-god-and-religion-office-5-1/
References
15. Introduction to Religion
Durkheim, Émile. 1947 [1915]. The Simple Forms of Religious Life, translated by J. Boyfriend. Glencoe, IL: Free Printing.
15.1. The Sociological Approach to Religion
Barkan, Steven Due east. and Susan Greenwood. 2003. "Religious Attendance and Subjective Well-Existence amongst Older Americans: Show from the Full general Social Survey." Review of Religious Inquiry 45:116–129.
Durkheim, Emile, 1915, "The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life", The Project Gutenberg EBook #41360, p. 431, Release Date: November xiii, 2012. Retrieved May fifteen, 2014: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41360/41360-h/41360-h.htm#Page_445)
Durkheim, Émile. 1933 [1893]. Segmentation of Labor in Gild. Translated past George Simpson. New York: Free Press.
Durkheim, Émile. 1947 [1915]. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Translated by J. Swain. Glencoe, IL: Gratuitous Printing.
Fasching, Darrel and Dell deChant. 2001. Comparative Religious Ethics: A Narrative Approach. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwel.
Fieser, Ezra, and Alves, Lise, 2012, Latin evangelicals' explosive growth, May 08, Cosmic San Fransisco, Retrieved June 18, 2014 from http://world wide web.catholic-sf.org/ns.php?newsid=ii&id=59891
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Gottwald, Norman. 1999. The Tribes of Yahweh: A Sociology of the Religion of Liberated Israel, 1250-1050 BCE, Bloomsbury Academic.
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MacAskill, Ewen. 2005. "George Bush: 'God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq'." The Guardian. October 7. Retrieved September 23, 2014, from http://www.theguardian.com/earth/2005/october/07/iraq.usa
Marx, Karl. 1973 [1844]. Contribution to Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Correct. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Pagels, Elaine, The Gnostic Gospels, (1979) Random Firm, New York.
Sparks, Kenton, 2004. "Review of The Politics of Aboriginal Israel." Journal of the American Oriental Society, Volume 124, 1.
Weber, Max. 1967 [1921]. Aboriginal Judaism. Hans H. Gerth (ed.), Don Martindale, Gratis Press.
Weber, Max 1958 [1905]. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, translated by Talcott parsons. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
15.3. Religion and Social Modify
B.C. Ministry of Education. 2014. Independent School Reports. BC Ministry of Education Website. Retrieved June 14, 2014 from http://world wide web.bced.gov.bc.ca/reporting/ind.php
B.C. Vital Statistics. 2011. "Selected Vital Statistics and Health Condition Indicators." British Columbia Vital Statistics Bureau. Retrieved September 23, 2014, from https://www.vs.gov.bc.ca/stats/annual/2011/pdf/ann2011.pdf
Black, Debra. 2007. "Marriages ascension in Ontario, B.C. while Canadian rate plateaus". The Star Newspaper. January 18, 2007. Retrieved June xviii, 2014 from http://world wide web.thestar.com/news/2007/01/18/marriages_rise_in_ontario_bc_while_canadian_rate_plateaus.html
Casanova, Jose. 2006. "Rethinking Secularization: A Global Comparative Perspective." The Hedgehog Review, Spring and Summer, 06. Retrieved May 22, 2014 from http://iasc-culture.org/THR/archives/AfterSecularization/8.12CCasanova.pdf
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Solutions to Section Quiz
1. D | 2. B | 3. B | four. A | v. C | 6. A | seven. B | eight. D | 9. B | 10. C | eleven. A | 12. C | xiii. D |
Source: https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/chapter/chapter-15-religion/
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