2. Religion and social change
- Created by: Amy Parkinson
- Created on: 06-04-15 14:07
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- Religion and social change
- Religion as a conservative force
- Religion's conservative beliefs
- Many of these beliefs oppose changes that would allows individuals more freedom in personal and sexual matters
- Ideas on divorce and division of labour in the home
- The woman used to have to vow to 'love, honour and OBEY'
- Religion's conservative functions
- Religion and consensus (functionalism- religion functions to maintain social stability)
- Religion and capitalism (marxism- religion functions to continue the exploitation of the work force and domination of the rich)
- Religion and patriarchy (feminism- religion functions to maintain the subordination of women in the family and wider society)
- Religion's conservative beliefs
- WEBER: religion as a force for change
- Calvinist beliefs
- Rationality
- Predestination
- Material success
- Asceticism
- Protestant work ethic
- EVAL: chicken or egg? Why economic success? Why did people become Calvinist?
- Hinduism and confucianism
- Weber was not arguing that Calvinism was the only reason that Capitalism emerged but was just one of its causes
- Weber also notes that in other some societies with higher economic development, capitalism did not emerge
- Weber therefore recognises that in order for capitalism to emerge it values must be mirrored by society
- WEBER: religion shapes society as shown by Calvinism which he says lead to the introduction of Capitalism in Western society
- EVAL: MARX: religion is shaped by the economy
- Weber's 'spirit of Capitalism' describes modern capitalism which he argues is based on systematic, efficient, rational pursuit of profit for its own sake
- Weber said we all have different way of making sense of the world and answering difficult questions. These are called 'theodicies'
- Calvinist beliefs
- Religion and social protest
- BRUCE is interested in the relationship between relationship and social changes and compares 2 examples of the role of religiously inspired movements in America
- The American civil right movement
- Lead largely by black clergy with MLK as the leader
- Bruce argues that religion was an ideological resource and argues that religion is useful for promoting social change for 4 reasons:
- Taking the moral high ground
- Channeling dissent
- Acting as an honest broker
- Mobilising public opinion
- Religion was successful in mobilising social change because it shared the values of wider society
- The New Christian Right
- Conservative, politically and morally controversial
- Aimed to take America 'back to God' by making abortion, homosexuality and divorce illegal
- Largely unsuccessful because they are relatively small, are very controversial and there is strong opposition from other groups
- Marxism, religion and change
- Marxists largely say that religion restricts change by keeping the w/c accepting of their exploitation however, some say it can promote social change
- The dual character of religion
- ENGELS: recogises the dual character of religion and argues that it has some relative autonomy meaning that it can be a force for change as well as a conservative forec
- BLOCH: religion is an expression of 'the principle of hope' and as such has the ability to inspire rebellion
- With the correct political leadership and organisation rebellion could lead to social change
- GRAMSCI: the hegemony of the ruling class is not guaranteed and religion can help worker to gain true class consciousness
- MADURO
- Liberation theology: this was a radical movement that grew as a response to poverty. It was led by the catholic church and campaigned to improve the lives of the poor
- WORSLEY
- Millenarian movements: these movements expect some day of judgement and that only members of that faith will be saved. He studied the 'Cargo cults' who gained class-consciousness and protested
- BILLINGS
- Studied 2 w/c protestant communities (miners and textile worker). The miners were more successful because of better leadership, organisation and support
- Religion as a conservative force
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