102,831
edits
Changes
From Nordan Symposia
Jump to navigationJump to searchNew page: Image:lighterstill.jpgright|frame The '''sociology of religion''' is primarily the study of the practices, social structures, [[history|historic...
[[Image:lighterstill.jpg]][[Image:Elementary_forms.jpg|right|frame]]
The '''sociology of religion''' is primarily the study of the [[practices]], social [[structure]]s, [[history|historical]] backgrounds, development, universal themes, and roles of [[religion]] in [[society]]. There is particular emphasis on the recurring role of religion in nearly all societies on Earth today and throughout recorded history. Sociologists of religion attempt to explain the effects of society on religion and the effects of religion on society; in other words, their dialectical relationship.
==Typology of religious groups==
According to one common [[typology]] among sociologists, religious groups are classified as ecclesias, denominations, cults or sects. Note that sociologists give these [[words]] precise definitions which are different from how they are commonly used. Particularly the words 'cult' and 'sect' are used free from negative connotations by sociologists, even though the popular use of these words is often pejorative.
==History and relevance today==
The classical, seminal sociological theorists of the late 19th and early 20th century were greatly interested in [[religion]] and its effects on society. These theorists include [[Émile Durkheim]], [[Max Weber]], and [[Karl Marx]]. Like [[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]] from Ancient Greece, and enlightenment philosophers from the 17th through 19th centuries, the ideas posited by these sociologists continue to be addressed today. More recent prominent sociologists of religion include [[Peter Berger]], [[Robert N. Bellah]], Thomas Luckmann, Rodney Stark, Robert Wuthnow, Christian Smith, and Bryan R. Wilson.
Despite the claims of many classical theorists and sociologists immediately after [[World War II]], religion has continued to play a vital role in the lives of [[individuals]] worldwide. In Africa, the emergence of [[Christianity]] has occurred at a startling rate. While Africa could claim roughly 10 million Christians in 1900, recent estimates put that number closer to 200 million. The rise of [[Islam]] as a major world religion, especially its new-found influence in the West, is another significant development. In short, presupposed [[secularization]] (the decline of religiosity) might seem to be a [[myth]], depending on its definition and the definition of its scope. For instance, some sociologists have argued that steady church attendance and personal religious [[belief]] may coexist with a decline in the influence of religious authorities on social or [[political]] issues.
A major issue in the sociology of religion is its power to predict social trends. Many sociologists predicted a rise in religiosity when cultural and philosophical figures were claiming "God is dead." Of course, many in each group also disagreed. Other examples include:
* James Hunter, noteworthy for anticipating the “[[culture]] [[war]]s” of the late 20th century, especially their religious [[character]].
Among many other predictive endeavors, sociologists of religion (notably Robert Wuthnow) are currently attempting to predict the success of U.S. federal funding of faith-based charities.
==The view of religion in classical sociology==
Durkheim, Marx, and Weber had very complex and developed theories about the [[nature]] and effects of [[religion]]. Durkheim and Weber specifically are often difficult to understand, especially in light of the lack of [[context]] and examples in their primary [[texts]]. Religion was considered to be an extremely important social variable in the work of all three:
==Karl Marx==
Despite his later influence, Karl Marx did not view his work as an ethical or [[Ideology|ideological]] response to nineteenth-century [[capitalism]] (as most later commentators have). His efforts were, in his [[mind]], based solely on what can be called applied [[science]]. Marx saw himself as doing morally-neutral [[sociology]] and [[economic]] theory for the sake of [[human development]]. As Christiano states, "Marx did not believe in science for science’s sake…he believed that he was also advancing a theory that would…be a useful tool…[in] effecting a revolutionary upheaval of the capitalist system in favor of [[socialism]]." (124) As such, the crux of his arguments was that humans are best guided by [[reason]]. Religion, Marx held, was a significant hindrance to reason, inherently masking the [[truth]] and misguiding followers. As we will later see, Marx viewed social [[alienation]] as the [[heart]] of social inequality. The antithesis to this alienation is freedom. Thus, to propagate freedom means to present [[individuals]] with the truth and give them a choice to accept or deny it. In this, "Marx never suggested that religion ought to be prohibited."
Central to Marx's theories was the oppressive economic situation in which he dwelt. With the rise of European [[industrialism]], Marx and his colleague [[Friedrich Engels]] witnessed and responded to the growth of what he called "surplus value." Marx’s view of capitalism saw rich capitalists getting richer and their workers getting poorer (the gap, the exploitation, was the "surplus value"). Not only were workers getting exploited, but in the [[process]] they were being further detached from the products they helped create. By simply selling their work for wages, "workers simultaneously lose connection with the object of labor and become objects themselves. Workers are devalued to the level of a commodity – a [[thing]]…" (Ibid 125) From this objectification comes alienation. The common worker is told he or she is a replaceable tool, alienated to the point of extreme discontent. Here, in Marx’s eyes, religion enters.
==Émile Durkheim==
Émile Durkheim placed himself in the [[positivist]] [[tradition]], [[meaning]] that he [[thought]] of his study of society as dispassionate and scientific. He was deeply interested in the problem of what held complex modern societies together. Religion, he argued, was an expression of social cohesion.
In the fieldwork that led to his famous '''''[http://www.amazon.com/Elementary-Forms-Religious-Life/dp/0029079373 Elementary Forms of Religious Life]''''', Durkheim, a secular Frenchman, spent fifteen years studying primitive religion among the Indigenous Australians. His underlying interest was to understand the basic forms of religious life for all societies. In Elementary Forms, Durkheim argues that the totems the aborigines venerate are actually expressions of their own [[concept]]ions of [[society]] itself. This is true not only for the aborigines, he argues, but for all societies.
Religion, for Durkheim, is not "imaginary," although he does deprive it of what many believers find [[essence|essential]]. Religion is very real; it is an expression of [[society]] itself, and indeed, there is no society that does not have religion. We perceive as [[individuals]] a force greater than ourselves, which is our social life, and give that [[perception]] a [[supernatural]] face. We then express ourselves religiously in [[groups]], which for Durkheim makes the [[symbolic]] [[power]] greater. Religion is an expression of our collective [[consciousness]], which is the [[fusion]] of all of our individual consciousnesses, which then creates a [[reality]] of its own.
It follows, then, that less complex societies, such as the Australian aborigines, have less complex religious systems, involving [[totems]] associated with particular clans. The more complex the society, the more complex the religious system. As societies come in contact with other societies, there is a tendency for religious systems to emphasize [[universal]]ism to a greater and greater extent. However, as the division of labor makes the individual seem more important (a subject that Durkheim treats extensively in his famous Division of Labor in Society), religious systems increasingly focus on individual salvation and conscience.
Durkheim's definition of religion, from Elementary Forms, is as follows:
:"A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden – beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them."
(Marx, introduction) This is a functional definition of religion, [[meaning]] that it explains what religion does in social life: essentially, it unites societies. Durkheim defined religion as a clear distinction between the sacred and the profane, in effect this can be paralleled with the distinction between [[God]] and [[human]]s.
This definition also does not stipulate what exactly may be considered sacred. Thus later sociologists of religion (notably [[Robert Bellah]]) have extended Durkheimian [[insight]]s to talk about notions of [[civil religion]], or the religion of a state. [[America]]n civil religion, for example, might be said to have its own set of sacred "things": the Flag of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., etc. Other sociologists have taken Durkheim in the direction of the religion of professional sports, the military, or of rock music.
==Max Weber==
Max Weber differed from Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim in that he focused his work on the effects of religious action and inaction. Instead of discussing religion as a kind of misapprehension (an "opiate of the people,") or as social cohesion, Weber did not attempt to reduce religion to its [[essence]]. Instead, he examines how religious [[ideas]] and groups interacted with other aspects of social life (notably the economy). In doing so, Weber often attempts to get at religion's subjective meaning to the [[individual]].
In his sociology, Weber uses the German term "Verstehen" to describe his method of interpretation of the [[intention]] and [[context]] of human action. Weber is not a positivist – in the sense that he does not believe we can find out "[[fact]]s" in sociology that can be causally linked. Although he believes some generalized statements about social life can be made, he is not interested in hard positivist claims, but instead in linkages and sequences, in historical [[narrative]]s and particular cases.
Weber argues for making sense of religious action on its own terms. A religious group or individual is influenced by all kinds of [[things]], he says, but if they claim to be acting in the name of religion, we should attempt to understand their [[perspective]] on religious grounds first. Weber gives religion credit for shaping a person's image of the world, and this image of the world can affect their view of their interests, and ultimately how they decide to take action.
For Weber, religion is best understood as it responds to the [[human]] need for [[theodicy]] and [[soteriology]]. Human beings are troubled, he says, with the question of theodicy – the question of how the extraordinary [[power]] of a [[divine]] god may be reconciled with the imperfection of the world that he has created and rules over. People need to know, for example, why there is undeserved good fortune and suffering in the world. Religion offers people soteriological answers, or answers that provide opportunities for salvation – relief from suffering, and reassuring meaning. The pursuit of salvation, like the pursuit of [[wealth]], becomes a part of human motivation.
Because religion helps to define motivation, Weber believed that religion (and specifically Protestant [[Calvinism]]) actually helped to give rise to modern [[capitalism]], as he asserted in his most famous and controversial work, '''''[http://books.google.com/books?id=fo9OIS7I0XAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=protestant+ethic+and+the+spirit+of+capitalism&lr=&ei=A337SbnbM5OCygSuiZ36Dw The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism]'''''.
In The Protestant Ethic, Weber argues that capitalism arose in Europe in part because of how the [[belief]] in [[predestination]] was interpreted by everyday [[English]] [[Puritans]]. Puritan [[theology]] was based on the Calvinist notion that not everyone would be saved; there was only a specific number of the elect who would avoid damnation, and this was based sheerly on God's predetermined will and not on any action you could perform in this life. Official doctrine held that one could not ever really know whether one was among the elect.
Practically, Weber noted, this was difficult psychologically: people were (understandably) anxious to know whether they would be eternally damned or not. Thus Puritan leaders began assuring members that if they began doing well financially in their businesses, this would be one unofficial sign they had God's approval and were among the saved – but only if they used the fruits of their labor well. This led to the development of rational bookkeeping and the calculated pursuit of [[financial]] success beyond what one needed simply to live – and this is the "spirit of capitalism." Over [[time]], the habits associated with the spirit of capitalism lost their religious significance, and rational pursuit of [[profit]] became its own aim.
The Protestant Ethic thesis has been much critiqued, refined, and disputed, but is still a lively source of theoretical debate in sociology of religion. Weber also did considerable work in world religions, including Hinduism and Buddhism.
==References==
* Kevin J. Christiano, et al., (2nd ed., 2008), Sociology of Religion: Contemporary Developments, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9780742561113
* Marx, Karl. 1844. A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, February.
* Max Weber, Sociology of Religion
* Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Los Angeles: Roxbury Company, 2002. ISBN 1891487434
==External links==
*[http://www.sociologyofreligion.com/ Association for the Sociology of Religion (ASR)]
*[http://www.sssrweb.org/ Society for the Scientific Study of Religion]
*[http://www.portcult.com/OPS_02.htm Sociological work of Moisés Espírito Santo]
*[http://www.thearda.com Association of Religion Data Archives]
*[http://hirr.hartsem.edu/sociology/sociology.html Sociology of Religion resources on Hartford Institute for Religion Research website]
*[http://csrs.nd.edu/religionlinks.shtml Religion resources at [[Center for the Study of Religion and Society]]]
*[http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~jkh8x/soc203/paradigm.html Hadden: Religion and the Quest for Meaning and Order]
*[http://www.holysmoke.org/sdhok/joining.htm A test of the Stark-Bainbridge theory of affiliation with cults and sects]
*[http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/~felwell/Theorists/Weber/Whome.htm Verstehen: Max Weber's Homepage]
[[Category: Sociology]]
[[Category: Religion]]
The '''sociology of religion''' is primarily the study of the [[practices]], social [[structure]]s, [[history|historical]] backgrounds, development, universal themes, and roles of [[religion]] in [[society]]. There is particular emphasis on the recurring role of religion in nearly all societies on Earth today and throughout recorded history. Sociologists of religion attempt to explain the effects of society on religion and the effects of religion on society; in other words, their dialectical relationship.
==Typology of religious groups==
According to one common [[typology]] among sociologists, religious groups are classified as ecclesias, denominations, cults or sects. Note that sociologists give these [[words]] precise definitions which are different from how they are commonly used. Particularly the words 'cult' and 'sect' are used free from negative connotations by sociologists, even though the popular use of these words is often pejorative.
==History and relevance today==
The classical, seminal sociological theorists of the late 19th and early 20th century were greatly interested in [[religion]] and its effects on society. These theorists include [[Émile Durkheim]], [[Max Weber]], and [[Karl Marx]]. Like [[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]] from Ancient Greece, and enlightenment philosophers from the 17th through 19th centuries, the ideas posited by these sociologists continue to be addressed today. More recent prominent sociologists of religion include [[Peter Berger]], [[Robert N. Bellah]], Thomas Luckmann, Rodney Stark, Robert Wuthnow, Christian Smith, and Bryan R. Wilson.
Despite the claims of many classical theorists and sociologists immediately after [[World War II]], religion has continued to play a vital role in the lives of [[individuals]] worldwide. In Africa, the emergence of [[Christianity]] has occurred at a startling rate. While Africa could claim roughly 10 million Christians in 1900, recent estimates put that number closer to 200 million. The rise of [[Islam]] as a major world religion, especially its new-found influence in the West, is another significant development. In short, presupposed [[secularization]] (the decline of religiosity) might seem to be a [[myth]], depending on its definition and the definition of its scope. For instance, some sociologists have argued that steady church attendance and personal religious [[belief]] may coexist with a decline in the influence of religious authorities on social or [[political]] issues.
A major issue in the sociology of religion is its power to predict social trends. Many sociologists predicted a rise in religiosity when cultural and philosophical figures were claiming "God is dead." Of course, many in each group also disagreed. Other examples include:
* James Hunter, noteworthy for anticipating the “[[culture]] [[war]]s” of the late 20th century, especially their religious [[character]].
Among many other predictive endeavors, sociologists of religion (notably Robert Wuthnow) are currently attempting to predict the success of U.S. federal funding of faith-based charities.
==The view of religion in classical sociology==
Durkheim, Marx, and Weber had very complex and developed theories about the [[nature]] and effects of [[religion]]. Durkheim and Weber specifically are often difficult to understand, especially in light of the lack of [[context]] and examples in their primary [[texts]]. Religion was considered to be an extremely important social variable in the work of all three:
==Karl Marx==
Despite his later influence, Karl Marx did not view his work as an ethical or [[Ideology|ideological]] response to nineteenth-century [[capitalism]] (as most later commentators have). His efforts were, in his [[mind]], based solely on what can be called applied [[science]]. Marx saw himself as doing morally-neutral [[sociology]] and [[economic]] theory for the sake of [[human development]]. As Christiano states, "Marx did not believe in science for science’s sake…he believed that he was also advancing a theory that would…be a useful tool…[in] effecting a revolutionary upheaval of the capitalist system in favor of [[socialism]]." (124) As such, the crux of his arguments was that humans are best guided by [[reason]]. Religion, Marx held, was a significant hindrance to reason, inherently masking the [[truth]] and misguiding followers. As we will later see, Marx viewed social [[alienation]] as the [[heart]] of social inequality. The antithesis to this alienation is freedom. Thus, to propagate freedom means to present [[individuals]] with the truth and give them a choice to accept or deny it. In this, "Marx never suggested that religion ought to be prohibited."
Central to Marx's theories was the oppressive economic situation in which he dwelt. With the rise of European [[industrialism]], Marx and his colleague [[Friedrich Engels]] witnessed and responded to the growth of what he called "surplus value." Marx’s view of capitalism saw rich capitalists getting richer and their workers getting poorer (the gap, the exploitation, was the "surplus value"). Not only were workers getting exploited, but in the [[process]] they were being further detached from the products they helped create. By simply selling their work for wages, "workers simultaneously lose connection with the object of labor and become objects themselves. Workers are devalued to the level of a commodity – a [[thing]]…" (Ibid 125) From this objectification comes alienation. The common worker is told he or she is a replaceable tool, alienated to the point of extreme discontent. Here, in Marx’s eyes, religion enters.
==Émile Durkheim==
Émile Durkheim placed himself in the [[positivist]] [[tradition]], [[meaning]] that he [[thought]] of his study of society as dispassionate and scientific. He was deeply interested in the problem of what held complex modern societies together. Religion, he argued, was an expression of social cohesion.
In the fieldwork that led to his famous '''''[http://www.amazon.com/Elementary-Forms-Religious-Life/dp/0029079373 Elementary Forms of Religious Life]''''', Durkheim, a secular Frenchman, spent fifteen years studying primitive religion among the Indigenous Australians. His underlying interest was to understand the basic forms of religious life for all societies. In Elementary Forms, Durkheim argues that the totems the aborigines venerate are actually expressions of their own [[concept]]ions of [[society]] itself. This is true not only for the aborigines, he argues, but for all societies.
Religion, for Durkheim, is not "imaginary," although he does deprive it of what many believers find [[essence|essential]]. Religion is very real; it is an expression of [[society]] itself, and indeed, there is no society that does not have religion. We perceive as [[individuals]] a force greater than ourselves, which is our social life, and give that [[perception]] a [[supernatural]] face. We then express ourselves religiously in [[groups]], which for Durkheim makes the [[symbolic]] [[power]] greater. Religion is an expression of our collective [[consciousness]], which is the [[fusion]] of all of our individual consciousnesses, which then creates a [[reality]] of its own.
It follows, then, that less complex societies, such as the Australian aborigines, have less complex religious systems, involving [[totems]] associated with particular clans. The more complex the society, the more complex the religious system. As societies come in contact with other societies, there is a tendency for religious systems to emphasize [[universal]]ism to a greater and greater extent. However, as the division of labor makes the individual seem more important (a subject that Durkheim treats extensively in his famous Division of Labor in Society), religious systems increasingly focus on individual salvation and conscience.
Durkheim's definition of religion, from Elementary Forms, is as follows:
:"A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden – beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them."
(Marx, introduction) This is a functional definition of religion, [[meaning]] that it explains what religion does in social life: essentially, it unites societies. Durkheim defined religion as a clear distinction between the sacred and the profane, in effect this can be paralleled with the distinction between [[God]] and [[human]]s.
This definition also does not stipulate what exactly may be considered sacred. Thus later sociologists of religion (notably [[Robert Bellah]]) have extended Durkheimian [[insight]]s to talk about notions of [[civil religion]], or the religion of a state. [[America]]n civil religion, for example, might be said to have its own set of sacred "things": the Flag of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., etc. Other sociologists have taken Durkheim in the direction of the religion of professional sports, the military, or of rock music.
==Max Weber==
Max Weber differed from Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim in that he focused his work on the effects of religious action and inaction. Instead of discussing religion as a kind of misapprehension (an "opiate of the people,") or as social cohesion, Weber did not attempt to reduce religion to its [[essence]]. Instead, he examines how religious [[ideas]] and groups interacted with other aspects of social life (notably the economy). In doing so, Weber often attempts to get at religion's subjective meaning to the [[individual]].
In his sociology, Weber uses the German term "Verstehen" to describe his method of interpretation of the [[intention]] and [[context]] of human action. Weber is not a positivist – in the sense that he does not believe we can find out "[[fact]]s" in sociology that can be causally linked. Although he believes some generalized statements about social life can be made, he is not interested in hard positivist claims, but instead in linkages and sequences, in historical [[narrative]]s and particular cases.
Weber argues for making sense of religious action on its own terms. A religious group or individual is influenced by all kinds of [[things]], he says, but if they claim to be acting in the name of religion, we should attempt to understand their [[perspective]] on religious grounds first. Weber gives religion credit for shaping a person's image of the world, and this image of the world can affect their view of their interests, and ultimately how they decide to take action.
For Weber, religion is best understood as it responds to the [[human]] need for [[theodicy]] and [[soteriology]]. Human beings are troubled, he says, with the question of theodicy – the question of how the extraordinary [[power]] of a [[divine]] god may be reconciled with the imperfection of the world that he has created and rules over. People need to know, for example, why there is undeserved good fortune and suffering in the world. Religion offers people soteriological answers, or answers that provide opportunities for salvation – relief from suffering, and reassuring meaning. The pursuit of salvation, like the pursuit of [[wealth]], becomes a part of human motivation.
Because religion helps to define motivation, Weber believed that religion (and specifically Protestant [[Calvinism]]) actually helped to give rise to modern [[capitalism]], as he asserted in his most famous and controversial work, '''''[http://books.google.com/books?id=fo9OIS7I0XAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=protestant+ethic+and+the+spirit+of+capitalism&lr=&ei=A337SbnbM5OCygSuiZ36Dw The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism]'''''.
In The Protestant Ethic, Weber argues that capitalism arose in Europe in part because of how the [[belief]] in [[predestination]] was interpreted by everyday [[English]] [[Puritans]]. Puritan [[theology]] was based on the Calvinist notion that not everyone would be saved; there was only a specific number of the elect who would avoid damnation, and this was based sheerly on God's predetermined will and not on any action you could perform in this life. Official doctrine held that one could not ever really know whether one was among the elect.
Practically, Weber noted, this was difficult psychologically: people were (understandably) anxious to know whether they would be eternally damned or not. Thus Puritan leaders began assuring members that if they began doing well financially in their businesses, this would be one unofficial sign they had God's approval and were among the saved – but only if they used the fruits of their labor well. This led to the development of rational bookkeeping and the calculated pursuit of [[financial]] success beyond what one needed simply to live – and this is the "spirit of capitalism." Over [[time]], the habits associated with the spirit of capitalism lost their religious significance, and rational pursuit of [[profit]] became its own aim.
The Protestant Ethic thesis has been much critiqued, refined, and disputed, but is still a lively source of theoretical debate in sociology of religion. Weber also did considerable work in world religions, including Hinduism and Buddhism.
==References==
* Kevin J. Christiano, et al., (2nd ed., 2008), Sociology of Religion: Contemporary Developments, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. ISBN 9780742561113
* Marx, Karl. 1844. A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, February.
* Max Weber, Sociology of Religion
* Weber, Max. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Los Angeles: Roxbury Company, 2002. ISBN 1891487434
==External links==
*[http://www.sociologyofreligion.com/ Association for the Sociology of Religion (ASR)]
*[http://www.sssrweb.org/ Society for the Scientific Study of Religion]
*[http://www.portcult.com/OPS_02.htm Sociological work of Moisés Espírito Santo]
*[http://www.thearda.com Association of Religion Data Archives]
*[http://hirr.hartsem.edu/sociology/sociology.html Sociology of Religion resources on Hartford Institute for Religion Research website]
*[http://csrs.nd.edu/religionlinks.shtml Religion resources at [[Center for the Study of Religion and Society]]]
*[http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~jkh8x/soc203/paradigm.html Hadden: Religion and the Quest for Meaning and Order]
*[http://www.holysmoke.org/sdhok/joining.htm A test of the Stark-Bainbridge theory of affiliation with cults and sects]
*[http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/~felwell/Theorists/Weber/Whome.htm Verstehen: Max Weber's Homepage]
[[Category: Sociology]]
[[Category: Religion]]
