Religious Organisations

what did people traditionally belong to?
what has been attempted?

traditionally most ppl w religious belief belonged to some r.o such as the church
there have been attempts to establish the difference with dominations, sects and church

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what is the generic descriptor of r.o/buildings?

churches as the form of christian religion

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what are denominations?

the different types of branches between Christian church from historical schisms such was Roman Catholic Church, methodist church

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what are sets?

they are much more smaller organisations

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which sociologist differentiated between these 3 and what did they say?

weber argued churches were large organisations but sects were smaller ones that noted the social differences between the 2

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what did sociologist use to further establish the idea and who did the original idea stem from?

they used typology of Troeltsch ideas (who developed ideas from weber)

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describe the church's typology?

church claim monopoly over the truth and claim that their position is true, and that other view of groups are false, they are closely connected to the state with many countries having an official state church ie Anglican Church in UK where the queen-

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continuing w previous card
name an evaluation of this specific typology

is head of state, and the head of church/bishops sit in the house of lord
terms associated to christian typology but they are also applied to countries like Iran/Saudi Arabia as islam fits in the typology of church

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continuing w previous card and typology

churches have a developed hierarchal bureaucratic structure, where there are clear line of seniority in clergy (who are paid a salary)
there are a number of rules but despite the rules churches tend to make few demands from-

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continuing w previous card

-members, this is so there can be an active membership where ppl from diff social groups with a normal working life can access from diff range of backgrounds
churches are more mainstream and conservative-

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continuing w previous card

-organisations that seek to defend the status quo, seen to be universal and open but want to attract those form high incomes/mc who have interest in preserving society and resisting social change
often ppl are born into the church rather choosing it-

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continuing w previous card
whats an example of a church

likely for ppl to be included in church prior to even understanding teachings and meanings, so they are not expected to prove their commitment to their faith
Roman Catholic Church

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give the typology for a sect

organisations tray broke away fro, church through schism cuz dissatisfied with teachings/practices, tend to be small scale schism with sect formed by dissatisfied members of of congregation rather then a split in the top hierarchy-

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continuing w previous card

claim monopoly over truth + often hostile to other o, dont have a complex bureaucratic hierarchy, led by charismatic leader, are small, demand a total commitment from members and is not accessible w/o significant sacrifice own part of members-

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continuing w previous card
which sociologist spoke about specific term about their reaction to mainstream society?

usually hostile to state + to mainstream society, Wallis says their are world rejecting, they are made form marginalised/deprived groups ie wc/ethnics

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what is the extreme end of sects? describe them
what does troeltsch refer to them?
which soloists said they would grow into another typology?

extremists ends of church such as cults (examples given at the end). troeltsch refers them as early methodists, calvinists and baptists who over time grew to mainstream denominations (Niebuhr)

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continuing w typology of sects

tend to grow quickly esp if charismatic leader but can also decline very quickly, if sect was built around leader, the leaders death can lead to an end of a sect, or if they have specific predictions that didn't come true, it can lead to end of sect

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what happens if the sects survives and grows?
what is a life cycle of a sect?

it can lose characteristics of a sect ie becoming more formal, established and respectable
suggests that sects dont last miore then 1 generation, they either die or become a denomination

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whats the denomination typology? and which sociologist studied this?

Niebuhr called the established sects denominations, these are closely connected to the state and will comment/campaign on social issues, membership is larger then a sect but smaller then an establish church, have the bureaucracy/ hierarchy-

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continuing w previous card
what is an exampled of this typology?

-but its less established then a church, often down claim monopoly over the truth, being quite accepting of other denominations, churches and religions
example word be methodists + baptist(today)

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name the evaluations of r.o

-typologies dont rlly fit w theory, many r.o have some elements of more than 1 type, o also change over time/between diff places ie roman c.c big in uk but not Iraq
-bruce argues troeltsch’s typology may not apply-

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continuing w previous card

-to contemporary society as modern wstrn societies have religious pluralism (hard to claim monopoly over the truth)
-robertson says there are disagreements between churches+gov due to secularisation and gov-

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continuing w previous card

-caring less about church opinions/globalisation
-modern wstrn societies less usual for society to belong to church ie church of england is established church but has fewer than 1 million active members when population is nearly 66 million

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-New Age Movements and Cults-
what did a sociologists argue about religious and spiritual organisations?

Wilson argued religious and spiritual organisations operating in contemporary society dont fit in any categories which leads to development of typologies of its and other new religious movements

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how do cults differ from sects and who argued this?

Wallis argued that cults are more loosely organised, tolerant and make fewer demand which is opposite of what is thought go the popular idea of a cult as they dont claim to have found the truth and dont condemn those who are not part of it

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what categories did a sociologist split NRMs into?

Wallis
.World affirming NRMs- or cults, these seek to offer members spiritual environment, dont include belief in god, make few demands on members, focus on person's fulfilment, meditation and how to turn into better ppl-

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continuing w previous card
name an evaluation of W.A cults?

-this allows them to unlock their hidden potential, this focuses on individualised beliefs, there is much overlap with NAM
-some WA cults are more organised and have more demands ie scientology

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what is the next category?

.world accommodating NRM- separate life into spiritual and world spheres, focusing on the spiritual, these either affirm or reject the world but do adapt to ensure they live peaceful to the world

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what is the next category?

.world rejecting NRM- sees the world as evil/corrupt and think that the way society is currently organised is against the will of god(s) /spiritual forces+ needs to radically change eg millenarianism- believe adherents are waiting for radical change

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what are NRM to other sociologists (name sociologists)?
explain the categories

Stark+Bainbridge
.Audience cults- s+b look art r+spiritual movements as it they were bus organisations, referring to pp as customers, this is where the person is a passive customer, ppl attend lectures-

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continuing w previous card
give an example

read books, buy DVDs to hear the message + consume set of ideas, no necessary relationship going apart from hearing the message ie scientology as it initially was ppl reading to Hubbard's book on dianetics

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what is the next category?

.client cults- where cult has a rs w adherents in a doctor/patient rs, this cult is a service provider +clients enter a prolonged rs as they may with a therapist, not like a sect or church as client choses knowing when to receive services-

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which sociologist related it to the example and how?

Afgred argues that scientology started from being an audience client to client cult as it treats ppl through Hubbard's theory

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what is the next category?

.cult movement- doesnt simply provide service but also looks to fulfil spiritual needs of all consumers, rs becomes more like traditional church, denomination or sect, then with the clients being more like members of a-

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continuing w previous card

-congregation, more likely to identify themselves was a member of group/believer, within this typology there are still a wide number of organisations with some still expecting more commitment then other

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how can this category be linked to the example?

argued scientology turned from being a client cult to a cult movement ie with it being established as 'the church of scientology'

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what is the post modernist perspective and which sociologist in particular?

Drane suggests that NAM have increased from the failure of science as a belief system, this connects closely to religion today as while enlightenment /rationalisation leads to ppl dismissing traditional religions, they found increase in that didn't provid

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continuing w previous card

answers either, so instead ppl looking within themselves to turn too spirituality and away from science

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name the evaluations

-real o tend to be harder to pin down in reality, most have fearers between them ie scientology
-some questions to what extent some of these o should be considered religious at all, some of the holistic, spiritual and NAM are ideas that ppl dip-

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continuing w previous card

into to try out w/o any commitment
-bruce dismisses ideas NA belief is a feature of post modernism and that instead he characterises it as a product of modernism; an extreme individualism that is not rlly a religion at all

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give the examples of the extreme sects (not explained revisit notes if needed)

Jim jones (-people's temple shouldn't be considered as r.o as jones preached openly that religion was an opiate of the masses), The Kendals Project by Heelas+Woodhead (-Kendal a mc town, defining the holistic milieu was highly problematic)

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continuing w previous card

the moonies, Rajneesh movement

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Religious Organisations

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