Sociological Perspectives on Religion
- Created by: Jacob Keyte
- Created on: 06-01-16 15:03
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- Sociological perspectives on religion
- Functionalism
- Durkheim (1912) believed that religion performed a important function for society
- Binding people together with a "social cement"
- Religion provides a set of moral values that form the collective conscience, ensuring social stability
- Durkheim argued that all societies are divided into sacred and profane
- Sacred - Symbols and ceremonies that have a holy meaning
- Profane- Everything that makes up our ordinary everyday lives
- Parsons (1965) : He claimed that is helps people to deal with "life crisis"
- Which would cause ANOMIE, threatening social order.
- For Example , love one dies, family and friends attend a religious ceremony
- Religion gives us a comfort by answering difficult questions such as, what happens after death
- For Example , love one dies, family and friends attend a religious ceremony
- Which would cause ANOMIE, threatening social order.
- Evaluation of Functionalist
- Marxists point out that religion can actually be dysfunctional for society. One example is Northern Ireland, where there has been a history pf violent conflict between Catholics and Protestants
- Western society are becoming secular with less people attending religious attendance.
- Durkheim focused his studies on societies where there was "one moral community of the Church" to unite members
- How would this work in a modern multi faith cultures
- Durkheim (1912) believed that religion performed a important function for society
- Marxism
- Both Marx and Engels saw religion as a tool of social control, used by the ruling class to keep the masses in control
- Engels recognized that in order for the ruling class to maintain the status quo
- Religion acts as a "social opium" a drug that lessons the pain of hardship experienced by the working class
- Told that God will reward them in heaven
- Althusser (1971) calls an ideological apparatus, used to legitimatized ruling class domination
- Working class brainwashed into accepting social class inequalities as God-given and inevitable.
- False consciousness prevents them from doing anything from improving there situation, leaving the ruling class to exploit them
- Working class brainwashed into accepting social class inequalities as God-given and inevitable.
- Evaluation of Marxism
- The Marxist view doesn't take secularization into account
- The church does not always support the ruling class
- There is no evidence ti support the idea of false consciousness That the working class is blind to it's opportunities
- Both Marx and Engels saw religion as a tool of social control, used by the ruling class to keep the masses in control
- Feminism
- All agree that women are subordinated in society, they disagree about the cause of this subordination
- the solution is the non-gendered socialization of children and the introduction of laws ensuring sexual equality's
- Glass ceiling, even in the Church there is only a particular place women can rise too
- Daly (1971) religion is infused with patriarchal ideology
- Women having to cover up in Catholic Churches while Men don't
- Radical Feminists assert that it is men who are responsible for women oppression
- Daly (1971) religion is infused with patriarchal ideology
- Marxist Feminists: they point out that it is mainly capitalism that benefits from the free domestic labor provided by women
- Evaluation of Feminism
- he situated of women in some religious organisations has improved
- Western feminists give ethnocentric analyses of the religious practices in cultures
- All agree that women are subordinated in society, they disagree about the cause of this subordination
- Functionalism
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