Religious Groups and Spiritual Leaders Can Work to Support Families.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you volition be able to:

• Hash out the historical view of religion from a sociological perspective
• Sympathise how the major sociological paradigms view religion

From the Latin religio (respect for what is sacred) and religare (to bind, in the sense of an obligation), the term religion describes diverse systems of belief and exercise that define what people consider to be sacred or spiritual (Fasching and deChant 2001; Durkheim 1915). Throughout history, and in societies across the world, leaders have used religious narratives, symbols, and traditions in an effort to give more meaning to life and sympathise the universe. Some form of religion is constitute in every known culture, and information technology is usually good in a public way past a group. The practice of faith tin can include feasts and festivals, intercession with God or gods, matrimony and funeral services, music and art, meditation or initiation, cede or service, and other aspects of civilisation.

While some people think of religion as something individual because religious behavior tin can be highly personal, religion is also a social institution. Social scientists recognize that religion exists equally an organized and integrated set of behavior, behaviors, and norms centered on basic social needs and values. Moreover, religion is a cultural universal establish in all social groups. For instance, in every civilisation, funeral rites are practiced in some way, although these community vary between cultures and within religious affiliations. Despite differences, there are common elements in a ceremony marking a person's death, such equally announcement of the death, care of the deceased, disposition, and ceremony or ritual. These universals, and the differences in the way societies and individuals feel faith, provide rich material for sociological report.

In studying religion, sociologists distinguish between what they term the experience, beliefs, and rituals of a faith. Religious experience refers to the conviction or sensation that we are connected to "the divine." This type of communion might be experienced when people are pray or meditate. Religious behavior are specific ideas members of a particular religion hold to exist truthful, such as that Jesus Christ was the son of God, or that reincarnation exists. Another illustration of religious beliefs is the creation stories we observe in different religions. Religious rituals are behaviors or practices that are either required or expected of the members of a particular group, such as bar mitzvah or confession of sins (Barkan and Greenwood 2003).

The History of Faith as a Sociological Concept

In the wake of nineteenth century European industrialization and secularization, 3 social theorists attempted to examine the relationship between faith and society: Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Karl Marx. They are among the founding thinkers of modern folklore.

As stated earlier, French sociologist Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) defined organized religion equally a "unified organisation of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things" (1915). To him, sacred meant extraordinary—something that inspired wonder and that seemed connected to the concept of "the divine." Durkheim argued that "faith happens" in guild when there is a separation between the profane (ordinary life) and the sacred (1915). A rock, for example, isn't sacred or profane every bit it exists. But if someone makes information technology into a headstone, or another person uses it for landscaping, it takes on different meanings—ane sacred, one profane.

Durkheim is more often than not considered the first sociologist who analyzed religion in terms of its societal touch on. Higher up all, he believed organized religion is about community: It binds people together (social cohesion), promotes behavior consistency (social control), and offers strength during life's transitions and tragedies (meaning and purpose). By applying the methods of natural science to the study of society, Durkheim held that the source of religion and morality is the collective listen-gear up of society and that the cohesive bonds of social order upshot from mutual values in a gild. He contended that these values need to be maintained to maintain social stability.

Merely what would happen if organized religion were to decline? This question led Durkheim to posit that religion is not just a social creation but something that represents the power of gild: When people celebrate sacred things, they celebrate the power of their society. By this reasoning, even if traditional religion disappeared, society wouldn't necessarily deliquesce.

Whereas Durkheim saw religion as a source of social stability, German sociologist and political economist Max Weber (1864–1920) believed it was a precipitator of social change. He examined the effects of religion on economical activities and noticed that heavily Protestant societies—such equally those in the Netherlands, England, Scotland, and Germany—were the most highly developed capitalist societies and that their most successful business leaders were Protestant. In his writing The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905), he contends that the Protestant work ethic influenced the development of capitalism. Weber noted that certain kinds of Protestantism supported the pursuit of textile proceeds by motivating believers to work hard, be successful, and non spend their profits on frivolous things. (The mod use of "work ethic" comes direct from Weber'southward Protestant ethic, although information technology has at present lost its religious connotations.)

The Protestant Piece of work Ethic in the Information Historic period

Max Weber (1904) posited that, in Europe in his time, Protestants were more likely than Catholics to value capitalist ideology, and believed in hard work and savings. He showed that Protestant values direct influenced the rise of capitalism and helped create the modern world lodge. Weber idea the emphasis on community in Catholicism versus the emphasis on individual accomplishment in Protestantism made a departure. His century-old claim that the Protestant work ethic led to the evolution of capitalism has been i of the most of import and controversial topics in the sociology of religion. In fact, scholars have found little merit to his contention when practical to modern society (Greeley 1989).

What does the concept of piece of work ethic hateful today? The work ethic in the data historic period has been affected by tremendous cultural and social change, merely as workers in the mid- to late nineteenth century were influenced past the wake of the Industrial Revolution. Factory jobs tend to be simple, uninvolved, and crave very little thinking or determination making on the role of the worker. Today, the work ethic of the mod workforce has been transformed, as more than thinking and decision making is required. Employees also seek autonomy and fulfillment in their jobs, not just wages. Higher levels of pedagogy have become necessary, equally well as people management skills and access to the nearly contempo information on any given topic. The information age has increased the rapid step of production expected in many jobs.

On the other hand, the "McDonaldization" of the United States (Hightower 1975; Ritzer 1993), in which many service industries, such equally the fast-food industry, take established routinized roles and tasks, has resulted in a "discouragement" of the work ethic. In jobs where roles and tasks are highly prescribed, workers accept no opportunity to make decisions. They are considered replaceable commodities as opposed to valued employees. During times of recession, these service jobs may be the but employment possible for younger individuals or those with low-level skills. The pay, working conditions, and robotic nature of the tasks dehumanizes the workers and strips them of incentives for doing quality work.

Working hard as well doesn't seem to take any relationship with Catholic or Protestant religious beliefs anymore, or those of other religions; data age workers look talent and difficult piece of work to be rewarded by material gain and career advancement.

German philosopher, journalist, and revolutionary socialist Karl Marx (1818–1883) also studied the social bear upon of religion. He believed faith reflects the social stratification of society and that it maintains inequality and perpetuates the status quo. For him, organized religion was just an extension of working-class (proletariat) economic suffering. He famously argued that faith "is the opium of the people" (1844).

For Durkheim, Weber, and Marx, who were reacting to the great social and economical upheaval of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century in Europe, faith was an integral part of society. For Durkheim, religion was a force for cohesion that helped bind the members of order to the group, while Weber believed religion could exist understood every bit something separate from gild. Marx considered religion inseparable from the economy and the worker. Religion could not be understood autonomously from the capitalist society that perpetuated inequality. Despite their different views, these social theorists all believed in the centrality of faith to social club.

Theoretical Perspectives on Religion

Functionalists believe organized religion meets many of import needs for people, including grouping cohesion and companionship. (Photo courtesy of James Emery/flickr)

Modern-day sociologists often apply one of three major theoretical perspectives. These views offer dissimilar lenses through which to study and sympathise gild: functionalism, symbolic interactionism, and conflict theory. Permit'southward explore how scholars applying these paradigms understand faith.

Functionalism

Functionalists debate that religion serves several functions in society. 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 comfort, and creating a place for social interaction and social control.

In providing answers, religion defines the spiritual globe and spiritual forces, including divine beings. For example, it helps answer questions like, "How was the world created?" "Why practice nosotros suffer?" "Is there a program for our lives?" and "Is there an afterlife?" Equally another role, religion provides emotional comfort in times of crisis. Religious rituals bring club, comfort, and organization through shared familiar symbols and patterns of beliefs.

One of the most of import functions of religion, from a functionalist perspective, is the opportunities it creates for social interaction and the germination of groups. It provides social support and social networking and offers a place to meet others who concord similar values and a identify to seek assist (spiritual and material) in times of need. Moreover, it can foster grouping cohesion and integration. Because organized religion can be central to many people'southward concept of themselves, sometimes in that location is an "in-grouping" versus "out-grouping" feeling toward other religions in our club or within a detail do. 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 appropriate styles of dress, post-obit the law, and regulating sexual behavior.

Disharmonize Theory

Conflict theorists view religion as an establishment that helps maintain patterns of social inequality. For instance, the Vatican has a tremendous corporeality of wealth, while the boilerplate income of Catholic parishioners is small. Co-ordinate to this perspective, religion has been used to support the "divine right" of oppressive monarchs and to justify unequal social structures, like India'southward degree system.

Many religions, including the Cosmic religion, have long prohibited women from becoming spiritual leaders. Feminist theorists focus on gender inequality and promote leadership roles for women in religion. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Eatables)

Conflict theorists are disquisitional of the way many religions promote the idea that believers should exist satisfied with existing circumstances because they are divinely ordained. This ability dynamic has been used by Christian institutions for centuries to continue poor people poor and to teach them that they shouldn't be concerned with what they lack because their "true" reward (from a religious perspective) will come up after decease. Conflict theorists also point out that those in ability in a religion are ofttimes able to dictate practices, rituals, and beliefs through their interpretation of religious texts or via proclaimed direct communication from the divine.

The feminist perspective is a conflict theory view that focuses specifically on gender inequality. In terms of faith, feminist theorists assert that, although women are typically the ones to socialize children into a religion, they have 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 nearly.

Rational Choice Theory: Can Economic Theory Be Applied to Religion?

How practise people determine which religion to follow, if whatsoever? How does one pick a church or decide which denomination "fits" best? Rational choice theory (RCT) is one way social scientists take attempted to explicate these behaviors. The theory proposes that people are self-interested, though non necessarily selfish, and that people make rational choices—choices that tin can reasonably exist expected to maximize positive outcomes while minimizing negative outcomes. Sociologists Roger Finke and Rodney Stark (1988) first considered the use of RCT to explain some aspects of religious beliefs, with the supposition that there is a basic human need for religion in terms of providing belief in a supernatural beingness, a sense of meaning in life, and belief in life afterwards death. Religious explanations of these concepts are presumed to be more satisfactory than scientific explanations, which may help to account for the continuation of strong religious connectedness in countries such as the U.s., despite predictions of some competing theories for a great decline in religious affiliation due to modernization and religious pluralism.

Another assumption of RCT is that religious organizations tin can exist viewed in terms of "costs" and "rewards." Costs are not just monetary requirements, but are also the fourth dimension, effort, and commitment demands of any particular religious organization. Rewards are the intangible benefits in terms of conventionalities and satisfactory explanations about life, death, and the supernatural, as well every bit social rewards from membership. RCT proposes that, in a pluralistic lodge with many religious options, religious organizations volition compete for members, and people volition choose betwixt dissimilar churches or denominations in much the same way they select other consumer goods, balancing costs and rewards in a rational mode. In this framework, RCT also explains the evolution and decline of churches, denominations, sects, and even cults; this express office of the very complex RCT theory is the only aspect well supported past enquiry data.

Critics of RCT argue that it doesn't fit well with man spiritual needs, and many sociologists disagree that the costs and rewards of religion can even be meaningfully measured or that individuals use a rational balancing process regarding religious affiliation. The theory doesn't accost many aspects of organized religion that individuals may consider essential (such as faith) and further fails to account for agnostics and atheists who don't seem to have a like need for religious explanations. Critics also believe this theory overuses economic terminology and construction and indicate out that terms such as "rational" and "reward" are unacceptably defined by their use; they would argue that the theory is based on faulty logic and lacks external, empirical support. A scientific caption for why something occurs can't reasonably be supported past the fact that it does occur. RCT is widely used in economics and to a lesser extent in criminal justice, simply the application of RCT in explaining the religious beliefs and behaviors of people and societies is yet being debated in sociology today.

Symbolic Interactionism

Rising from the concept that our world is socially synthetic, symbolic interactionism studies the symbols and interactions of everyday life. To interactionists, behavior and experiences are non sacred unless individuals in a society regard them as sacred. The Star of David in Judaism, the cross in Christianity, and the crescent and star in Islam are examples of sacred symbols. Interactionists are interested in what these symbols communicate. Because interactionists study one-on-one, everyday interactions between individuals, a scholar using this approach might inquire questions focused on this dynamic. The interaction between religious leaders and practitioners, the office of organized religion in the ordinary components of everyday life, and the ways people express religious values in social interactions—all might exist topics of study to an interactionist.

Summary

Religion describes the beliefs, values, and practices related to sacred or spiritual concerns. Social theorist Émile Durkheim defined religion as a "unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things" (1915). Max Weber believed religion could be a force for social change. Karl Marx viewed religion every bit a tool used by capitalist societies to perpetuate inequality. Religion is a social institution, because it includes behavior and practices that serve the needs of gild. Organized religion is also an example of a cultural universal, because it is found in all societies in one grade or another. Functionalism, conflict theory, and interactionism all provide valuable ways for sociologists to understand religion.

Brusque Answer

1. Listing some ways that you see religion having social control in the everyday globe.
2. What are some sacred items that you're familiar with? Are there some objects, such as cups, candles, or clothing, that would be considered profane in normal settings but are considered sacred in special circumstances or when used in specific ways?
3. Consider a religion that you are familiar with, and discuss some of its beliefs, behaviors, and norms. Discuss how these meet social needs. So, research a religion that yous don't know much virtually. Explain how its beliefs, behaviors, and norms are like/unlike the other organized religion.

Glossary

religious feel

the confidence or awareness that i is connected to "the divine"

religious beliefs

specific ideas that members of a particular faith hold to be true

religious rituals

behaviors or practices that are either required for or expected of the members of a detail group

Farther Research

For more give-and-take on the study of folklore and religion, bank check out the following web log: http://openstaxcollege.org/50/immanent_frame/. The Immanent Frame is a forum for the exchange of ideas about religion, secularism, and society 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 religion at http://openstaxcollege.org/fifty/flat_Earth, and women in the clergy at http://openstaxcollege.org/l/women_clergy.

Some would argue that the Protestant work ethic is still alive and well in the United States. Read British historian Niall Ferguson's view at http://openstaxcollege.org/l/Protestant_work_ethic.

References

Barkan, Steven E., and Susan Greenwood. 2003. "Religious Attendance and Subjective Well-Being among Older Americans: Evidence from the General Social Survey." Review of Religious Research 45:116–129.

Durkheim, Émile. 1933 [1893]. Sectionalisation of Labor in Club. Translated past George Simpson. New York: Free Press.

Durkheim, Émile. 1947 [1915].The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Translated by J. Swain. Glencoe, IL: Costless Press.

Ellway, P. 2005. "The Rational Pick Theory of Religion: Shopping for Organized religion or Dropping your Organized religion?" Retrieved February 21, 2012 (http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/religion/overview.php).

Fasching, Darrel, and Dell deChant. 2001. Comparative Religious Ethics: A Narrative Approach. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwel.

Finke, R., and R. Stark. 1988. "Religious Economies and Sacred Canopies: Religious Mobilization in American Cities, 1906." American Sociological Review 53:41–49.

Greeley, Andrew. 1989. "Protestant and Catholic: Is the Analogical Imagination Extinct?" American Sociological Review 54:485–502.

Hechter, M. 1997. "Sociological Rational Choice Theory." Annual Review of Sociology 23:191–214. Retrieved January 20, 2012 (http://personal.lse.ac.uk/KANAZAWA/pdfs/ARS1997.pdf).

Hightower, Jim. 1975. Consume Your Heart Out: Food Profiteering in America. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc.

Marx, Karl. 1973 [1844]. Contribution to Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Printing.

Ritzer, George. 1993. The McDonaldization of Society. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pino Forge.

Weber, Max. 2002 [1905]. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism and Other Writings, translated past Peter R. Baehr and Gordon C. Wells. New York: Penguin.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sociology/chapter/the-sociological-approach-to-religion/

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