Beliefs in Society (2017)

Functionalist Theories

• DURKHEIM - sacred [set apart/forbidden] and profane [ordinary], totemism (solidarity [unity] / belonging), collective conscience (shared values etc. => cooperation)
• MALINOWSKI - psychological functions -> imp., uncertain, uncontrollable outcome (Trobidand Islanders - fishing), times of crisis (e.g.death)

Marxist Theories

• ideology - distorts perception of reality, serves ruling class, religion legitimate suffering of W/C (inevitable, comes from God), false class consciousness (distorts, prevents)
• MARX - alienation, religion = opiate (dull pain of exploitation), distracts from true source

Feminist Theories

• patriarchy - male dominated, e.g.priests, marginalisation, places (segregate), limited participation, sacred texts (male figures), laws and customs (fewer rights)
• WOODHEAD - not all (religious forms of feminism), e.g. hijab (oppression vs freedom), increase power and influence

Religion as a Conservtive Force

• upholds traditional beliefs (e.g. patriarchal family), maintains social stability (functionalists),  social control (marxists, feminists)

Religion as Force for Change

• WEBER - calvinism (predetermined, divine transcendence, salvation panic, asceticism)

Religion and Social Protest

• BRUCE - American Civil Rights Movement (moral high ground, channelling dissent, honest broker, mobilising public opinion), New Christian Right (take 'back to God', unsuccessful)

Marxism, Religion and Change

• relative autonomy (partly independent  of economic base of society) => dual character
• GRAMSCI - hegemony [ideological domination]

Secularisation in Britain

• decline in church attendance,  increase in average churchgoers, fewer baptisms/church weddings, greater religious diversity, decline influence of religious institutions

Explanations of Secularisation

• WEBER - rationalisation (protestant reformation => rational scientific outlook, disenchantment)
• PARSONS - structural differentiation (specialisation, 1 to many)
• BRUCE - religious diversity (diff. interpretations, no monopoly, decline in plausibility)
• BRUCE - cultural defence (group identity in struggle against an external force) and transition (support/sense of community for e.g. migrants)

Secularisation in America

• decline in church attendance, secularisation from within (religion psychologised [therapy] ), religious diversity (acceptance)

Postmodernity and Religion

• DAVIE - believing without belonging (privatised form, personal choice not obligation, vicarious religion [small no. practice on behalf of large no.] )
• HERVIEU-LEGER - spiritual shopping (not handed down through generations, individual consumerism replaced collective tradition = choice)
• relocation of religion (globalisation [growing interconnectedness of societies] => movement of ideas and beliefs, media => disembedded ideas, religion = de-institutionalised)

Religious Market Theory

• STARK & BAINBRIDGE - compensators (e.g. immortality), cycle (decline, revival, renewal)

Existential Security Theory

• NORRIS & INGLEHART - meets need for security (e.g. for poor)

Religious Fundamentalism

• GIDDENS - traditionalists who seek to return to the basics of their faith, believe in literal truth of scripture, intolerant, growth due to globalisation (undermines traditional social norms)
• BRUCE - confined to monotheistic religions [one God, authoritative text]

Religion and Development

• NANDA - Hindu ultra-nationalism (legitimates successful version of Indian nationalism, holy men preached desire is not bad but motivates to do things)

Cultural Defence

• Poland - communist rule, Catholic Church = rallying point for opposition + active support to solidarity free trade union movements
• Iran - modernisation and Westernisation (e.g. calendar change), revolution => Islamic Republic (clerics = same power as state)

Types of Religious Organisations

• Church (monopoly), Sect (charismatic leader), Denomination (tolerant), Cult (individualistic)
• New Religious Movements - world-rejecting (critical of outside world, seek radical change), world-accommodating (breakaways, focus = religious matters), world-affirming (accept world)

Explaining the Growth of Religious Movements

• WEBER - Marginality [disprivileged] (sect = solution -> theodicy of dispriviledge [religious explanation/justification for their suffering] )
• Relative Deprivation [subjective sense of being deprived] - spiritually deprived M/C, sects = sense of community
• WILSON - Social Change (rapid change disrupt/undermine norms & values => anomie [normlessness] => uncertainty, sects => sense of community)

Religiosity and Social Groups

• gender - more women, socialisation (passive), work (part-time), associations (nature/healing)
• ethnicity - minorities, cultural defence/transition
• age - older more likely attend, ageing effect (approach death), generational effect (secular)

Science as a Belief System

• POPPER - science = open belief system [open to scrutiny] (falsification)
• MERTON - CUDOS norms (Communism [share], Universalism [judged by universal criteria], Disinterestedness [own sake], Organised Scepticism [open to objective investigation])
• science = closed belief system (paradigm => what to study,methods, what counts as evidence etc., scientific revolution challenges)
• religion = closed belief system [claims absolute knowledge of truth, cannot be challenged, knowledge = fixed, doesn't grow]

Ideology

• [worldview/set of ideas or values - a belief system]
• MANNHEIM - ideology and utopia - ideological thought (justifies keeping things as they are), utopian thought (justifies social change)
• marxism  - prevent change by creating false consciousness among workers
• feminism - patriarchal -> legitimate gender inequality (e.g. exclusion from education - 19th century)