Role of Religion
- Created by: FCarter
- Created on: 30-05-19 10:00
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- Role of Religion
- Marxist
- Marx and Engels - Social control, ruling class ideology, and compensation
- Social control: Religion distorts reality by encouraging the belief that people are dependent on supernatural beings or sacred powers.
- This discourages the realisation that working for social change is possible, as people rely on other things
- Ruling class ideology: It obscures the true nature of reality, by creating a false class consciousness
- People's religious beliefs reflect their alienation
- Compensation: It promises happiness, which is an illusion.
- True happiness and fulfilment are only possible when the exploited rise up
- STRENGTH= Halevy claims Methodism distracted the 19th century British proletariat from their class grievances by encouraging them to see enlightenment in spirituality
- True happiness and fulfilment are only possible when the exploited rise up
- Social control: Religion distorts reality by encouraging the belief that people are dependent on supernatural beings or sacred powers.
- Neo-Marxist, Antonio Gramsci - hegemony and counter-hegemony (1968)
- Religious beliefs and practices could develop and be popularisedsupport working class consciousness and liberation
- WEAKNESS = plenty of examples of religion thriving in Communistsocities
- Neo-Marxist, Otto Maduro - liberation theology
- Religion allows a pathway for the oppressed to take their discontent to the churches
- The anguish of the oppressed may be reflected by members of the clergy
- WEAKNESS = As a result of recruiting from the upper-class, the Church has lost contact with ordinary people
- Marx and Engels - Social control, ruling class ideology, and compensation
- Functionalist
- Emile Durkheim - Collective consciousness
- Society cannot survive without a collective consciousness.
- Religion strengthens social solidarity by repeating rituals that unify and bind together society's members
- STRENGTH = based upon empirical evidence of Australian aborigines
- WEAKNESS = only found one example in a primitive society
- Bronislaw Malinowski - emotional stress; life crises & uncontrollable events
- Minimises the potential disruption of death through a forceful assertion of immortality.Without this, nothing would counteract the sense of meaninglessness
- STRENGTH= based upon empirical evidence of Trobriand islanders
- WEAKNESS = only found one example in a primitive society
- Minimises the potential disruption of death through a forceful assertion of immortality.Without this, nothing would counteract the sense of meaninglessness
- Talcott Parsons - universe of meaning
- Promotes social solidarity and stability.
- Also helps people to adjust to their personal circumstances
- Without religion, injustices would threaten to undermine people's sense that life has meaning.
- STRENGTH= similar to Animism and Naturism in that it supports the idea that religion answers questions
- WEAKNESS = our universal meaning now comes from science, rather than religion
- Neo-Functionalist,Robert Belllah - civil religion
- Civil religion = a belief system that attaches sacred qualities to a secular society
- Functionally important to have unification
- STRENGTH= lots of examples in American society
- WEAKNESS = conventional religions are still thriving in America
- Emile Durkheim - Collective consciousness
- Feminist
- Radical Feminist, Simone de Beauvoir - Female oppression
- Oppressorscan use religion to control the oppressed group
- Religion also serves as a way of compensating women for their 2nd class status
- Radical Feminist, Mary Daly - Goddess religions
- Existing religions are based on an "inadequate God"
- Argued for a new feminist spirituality, which can lead to the revolutionary overthrow of dominant, male gods
- Liberal Feminist, Jean Holm - Progress to greater equality
- Patriarchal oppression of women within religion is not universal
- 1. Some religions are generally patriarchal but aspects of them can still provide significant opportunities for women
- 2. Few religions have always been relatively egalitarian; for example, Quakerism
- 3. Patriarchal aspects of some religions are changing
- Patriarchal oppression of women within religion is not universal
- Radical feminist, Nawal El Saadawi - Dominationof religion by patriarchy
- Discusses female oppression in the Arab world
- Religion is one aspect of a wider patriarchal system which needs to be overthrown
- Female oppression is not essentially due to religion but to patriarchy
- Radical Feminist, Simone de Beauvoir - Female oppression
- Postmodern
- Castells - Religious Fundamentalists
- Reached outwards in search of a collective form of religiosity which they tend to practice in the public sphere
- A defensive reaction to modernisation and globalisation
- Provide certainty in an uncertain world by selectively retrieving traditional religious truths
- Reached outwards in search of a collective form of religiosity which they tend to practice in the public sphere
- Zygmunt Bauman - New Age Movements
- Turned inwards in search of an individualised expression of religiosity which they tend to practice in the private sphere
- The postmodern condition has produced a crisis of meaning
- Traditional religious meta narratives cannot deal with this crisis, but new religions can restore meaning
- Turned inwards in search of an individualised expression of religiosity which they tend to practice in the private sphere
- Lyotard - Atheism
- Rejected any form of religiosity in favour of atheism
- Postmodern society is characterised by loss of confidence in meta narratives
- Religious authority and certainty have been undermined, their claim to the truth has been questioned
- Rejected any form of religiosity in favour of atheism
- Castells - Religious Fundamentalists
- Social Action
- CAPITALISM (Calvin's influential religious teachings, popularised and interpreted, had significant consequence for the economic system.
- BELIEFS (John Calvin's teachings on predestination)
- PRACTICES (required to pursue an intensively active life of labour)
- They encouraged among believers a rational, calculating, efficient, and highly committed approach to work which provided Capitalism with the soil to take root
- CAPITALISM (Calvin's influential religious teachings, popularised and interpreted, had significant consequence for the economic system.
- Marxist
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