Religion and Society

SYLLABUS
Sociological theories of religion

Types of religious practices

Animism
Monism
Pluralism
Sects
Cults

Religion in modern society

Religion and science
Secularization
Religious revivalism
Fundamentalism
 Defining Religion
Ronald Robertson
It refers to the existence of Supernatural beings which have a governing effect on
life.

But, according to Malcolm Hamilton certain belief systems such as Buddhism

don’t contain a belief in supernatural beings.
Thus, defining religion is a tough and complex task
 Evolutionlists
Tried to explain religion in terms of human needs.
August Comte – animism, polytheism, monotheism
Durkheim – From totemic practices to present day complex religions
Edward Tylor -religion is a response to man's intellectual needs
Max Muller - religion is a response to man’s emotional needs
 Functionalist
Changes the emphasis from human to society's needs.
Society requires a certain degree of social solidarity, value consensus,
harmony and integration.
The function of religion is the contribution it makes to meetings such
functional prerequisites
 Examples
Durkheim – Sacred and Profane
Malinowski – Religion promotes social solidarity by dealing with
situations of emotional stress that threaten the stability of society
Parsons – Religion gives norms, that control human action. Religon
helps provide the consensus that he believes is necessary for order and
stability in Society
 Criticism
Status Quoist
It ignore the dysfunctions of religion.
Many instances where it is seen as a divisive or disruptive force.
Little consideration to hostilities between religions.
 Marxist
Religion is an illusion which eases the pain produced by exploitation
and oppression (opiate of the masses).
It makes life bearable and dilutes demand for change.
Acts as a mechanism of social control and promoting dominating
ideologies by maintaining the existing system of exploitation,
reinforcing class relationships.
Ex caste system in India justified by Hindu religious beliefs, divine right
theory in medieval Europe.
 Criticism
Religion does not always favour legitimate power
It can sometimes provide an impetus for change.
Religion did not die out in Communism as Marx predicted.
 Engles
Social Change
Role played by religion in effecting revolutionary social change (early
Christian sects that opposed Roman Rule)
 Neo-Marxists
Otto Maduro - relative autonomy of religion
He believes that members of clergy can develop revolutionary potential
where oppressed members have no outlet for grievances and can
pressurize the priests to take up their cause.
These conditions led to the development of Liberation Theology.
Bryan Turner has talked about changing roles of religion in modern
society, where religion is also promoting consumerism in youth.
 Feminist Perspective
Religion is a product of patriarchy
An instrument of domination and oppression

Giddens
Christian religion is a resolutely male affair
God is the father, a male figure

Karen Armstrong
All major religions a male affair
Women have been relegated to marginal positions
Jean Holm
Women do have some role in religion, but it is always subordinate and in private sphere
 Mary Daly
Religious language, images need to be changed
They perpetuate the sexist world

Nawal El Saadawi
“The hidden face of eve”
Religion only one aspect of wider patriarchal system, which needs to be
overthrown by struggle
 Simone De Beauvoir
Book “The second Sex”
Women do much of the work for religious organizations, introduce
children to religious beliefs, yet are exploited by religion.
So, there must be a religion for women

Carol Christ
Thea-logy
replacing theology. Thea means Goddess.
 Rational Choice Theories
Religion is seen in similar terms to a market in which individual
consumer choices are important in determining whether a particular
religion is successful or not.
Consumers of religions have choices to choose a religion.
It rejects Secularism.
 Stark and Bainbridge
Relgion and Compensators theory
Compensator
A belief that a reward will be obtained in a distant future or in some other
context which cannot be verified
Compensator brings in the idea of supernatural.

On Secularism
It is not there.
Because religion answers universal questions and its compensators meet
universal human needs.
There is increasing religious pluralism as people have sought new sources of
compensators.
 Criticisms
Steve Bruce
That there is decreasing belief in religious values
That secularization is taking place.
Religious pluralism is leading to lower numbers of church memberships

Max Weber linked religion with social change (PE&SC)

 Origin of Religion

Religion being a complex and intriguing phenomena has been studied

by many psychologist and anthropologists
They tried to study the origin of religion owing to various forces.
 Examples
De Brosses
Theory of fetishism
Religion originated as the magical power associated with certain objects

Auguste Comte
Multiple Fetishism
Magic + Ghosts or Souls

Max Muller
Naturism
Personification of natural phenomenon
 Examples

Spencer
Dream theory
Supernatural beings appear in dreams

Tyler
Animism – Notion of soul

RR Marret
Studied mana theory Animatism
Impersonal force
 Examples
Crawley
Main force is the fear or the danger in social relations or other objects.

Malinowsky
Book – “Totem and Taboo”
In a “Fishermen Village” of Trobriand Islands
Religion originated from the fear of the sea and the unknown
Religion protects from death

RH Lowe
Religion is marked by the presence of mysterious or extra ordinary feelings

Sigmund Freud
Considers religion as protective wall against feeling of guilt
 Examples
Durkheim
Sacred and profane

Parsons
Religion helps to strengthen value consensus

Weber
Religious system influences economic system in his PE&SC

Merton
Functional, dysfunctional and non functional aspects of religion based on the type of society

Peter Berger
Nomos and Cosmos
Nomos – Norms of religion, Cosmos – Supernatural
 Animism
EB Tylor
From the latin word- ‘anima’ means ‘soul’.

It means belief in spirits

Tylor
Religion originated from the belief of spiritual beings
Tylor believes this to be earliest form of religion
 Animism
Experiences of death, disease, visions and dreams lead the primitives
to think about the existence of immaterial power, i.e., the soul.

Soul
Spirit which leaves body temporarily during dreams and permanently
after death

Born to satisfy human being’s intellectual need and to make sense of

death, dreams and vision
 Monism

In sociology monism is existence of one faith and one church.

Simple society & largely medieval societies follow monism.

Monism strengthens religion and stands opposite to pluralism.

Argued when single religion has monopoly over truth effectively reinforces social
norms
 Pluralism
Peter Berger (on secularization and pluralism)
Book- Social reality of religion

Cosmos may not always be considered as sacred thus, attempt to secularize cosmos.

Modern science has played crucial role in this process of secularization

Berger links pluralism to modernization & secularization & establishes link between both.

Pluralism undermined set of beliefs and weakens sacred canopy

 Bryan Wilson
Multiplicity of denominations interpreted as evidence of secularization.

Number of denominations each with own version of truth religious

values no more community values ceases to function traditional role of
social solidarity
 Berge and Luckmann
Pluralism weakens influence of religion no longer single universe of meaning.

Stark and Bainbridge

Called religious economists and contradicted Berger and Bryan.

Study of American society religion becoming stronger.

More options of religions with people competition increases overall religious
involvement.
Establishment of religious tolerance in free market of religious economy.
 Sects and Cults
Sects

They are a religious group and stand for those who dissent from the
established doctrine.
 Stark and Bainbridge
Sects are formed as an offshoot of existing religion as a result of
division or schism within that religion.

Stark and Bainbridge

Sects can be seen as a possible response to relative deprivation
 Ray Wallis
Defined sects as deviant groups that see themselves as uniquely legitimate.

Ray Wallis
People seek salvation in the sense-of-community offered by sects

Example in the early 1916 the Black Muslim sect provided a possible solution to
the problem of poverty and unemployment in broken family.
 Troeltsch
Sects are connected with the lower classes or those who are opposed
to state and society

Peter Berger
Sects openly reject many of the norms and values of the world and
Society.
Therefore it is in tension with the larger society and closed against it
 Max Weber
Sects are most likely to form within groups which are marginal in
society and this marginalisation is justified through “theodicy of
disprivilege”
Where theodicy means a religious explanation
(When marginalized stand up against religious explanations justifying
their marginilisation)

Sects tend to arise during a period of rapid social change.

In this situation traditional norms are disrupted and traditional

universe of meaning is undermined.
 Example
Bryan Wilson sees rise of Methodism as a response to rapid social change
by the New working class.

Reinhold Niebuhr
Sects could be short lived or could convert into dominant or full-fledged
religion depending upon the prevailing social condition.

Rejected by Bryan Wilson

Sects do survive for a long time without becoming denominations
 Conclusion

Thus, sects emerge as a contradiction

Try to seek remedies
Create Counter Culture
and
alternate ideologies.

Example
Lutheranism, Calvinism, Buddhism, Jainism
 Cults

With rapid changes taking place in the Industrial society leading to

- increased individualism
- Heterogeneity
- Alienation
- Powerlessness
It has contributed to the emergence of many voluntary organisations in the metropolitan
centres.

One such voluntary organisation is a cult

Cult is a small group of religious activists whose beliefs are typically esoteric and
individualistic.
 Ray Wallis
Cults are deviant religious organizations that do not claim to have a
monopoly on truth.
(Pluralistically legitimate)

Stark and Bainbridge

Cults are new religions or at least new in a particular society
(cultural innovation or cultural importation).
 Three types of Cults
Audience cults
Least organized and have little face to face interaction

Client cults
More organized and offer services to their followers

Cult Movements
More followers and try to satisfy all the religious needs of their
followers
 Three types of Cults
Cult practices appear to satisfy the needs of alienated sections of urban middle
class youth.

Cult membership is typically transitory and irregular.

People often have different cult memberships

In western societies cults have proliferated in the post war period and often
associated with Counter Culture
 Weber and Troeltsch
Differentiated between Sect and Cult
Sect Cult
Strict Membership Voluntary
Dissent Not necessarily
Not necessarily in modern societies In modern societies
Attracts large crowds Smaller in size
Often have magico-relogious character
Uniquely Legitimate Pluralistically Legitimate
 Ray Wallis
(very very important)
Respectable Deviant

Uniquely Legitimate Church Sect

Pluralistically Legitimate Denomination Cult

Therefore cult addresses the sociological, psychological needs of man in an
expansionist capitalist modern society, that is, it is a new age phenomena.

Andrew Dawson
Due to rapid and large scale industrialization.

Bruce
Due to modernization and urbanisation
Example Theosophical Society, Osho cult of Rajneesh.
 Reasons of Cults in Modern Societies-
Insecurity – Crisis of social and psychological security
Conflict – Between traditional and modern social orders.
Change – Perpetually changing modern societies
Prevalent inequalities
 “Free-Lunches” offered by cults
Political Patronage offered owing to populist politics
Because of Social Media, challenging mainstream religion is becoming
easier.
Gurus seen as middlemen between God and humans
High levels of illetracy in countries like India
 Functions of Religion
Manifest (individual)
Helps to adapt and adjust to changing situations.
Controls anxieties
Motivates
Provides Morals for individuals to live by
Socialisation of individual
 Latent (societal)
Integrates (Durkheim)
Social control
Agent of social change (Weber)
 Dysfunctions of Religion
Accused to be status quoist (Marx, in India- religious angle behind caste
cannot be ignored)
Religionisation of politics
Politicization of religion
Riots, Wars, Violent conflicts in name of religion
Superstitious beliefs take precedence over science (irrational explanation)
Marx – Religion justifies oppression
Bryan Turner – Religion is promoting consumerism in youth leading to
irrational spending at time
Discourages Critical Spirit
 Religion and Science
Historical
Renaissance
Arrival of science to cause departure of religion from public sphere
 Commonalities
Understanding: Both religion and science are forms of human understanding.
Both are COGNITIVE.
Curiosity- Both attempt to satisfy the curiosity by presenting answers to
various questions put forward by people.
Cooperation: Religion is more collectively oriented than science, but science
too emphasises team-spirit and co-operation of the scientific community.
Personnel: Both religion and science prescribe qualifications for their
personnel.
Coming together- Science got legitimacy with rise of protestant ethics.
Wars: On many occasions in the past as well as present, in many a war,
science and religion have acted against humankind
 Differences
Experimentation: Science is taken on face value through experimentation whereas
religion is taken on faith value
Precision and measurement: Science believes in precision and measurement, which
is not possible for religion.
Application: Scientific knowledge has more concrete application in the form of
technology, which might help in manipulating nature. Religion cannot establish
such concrete and immediate results
Universalism: Scientific knowledge and method are valid universally, whereas
principles of religious life differ from society to society.
Pritrim Sorokin- Religion based on unquestionable faith but science based on
questionable thesis.
Religion not only cognitive but also moral. Tells right from wrong. Science makes no
such attempt.
 Berger science played a major role in secularization of cosmos.

Positivists very often tried to contrast religion with science.

They argued that under the impact of rapid industralisation, religion was losing its ground.

August Comte
Theological, metaphysical and then positivistic (scientific) stage was the last in the
evolution of human.

Intellectualism school tries to build bridges between science and religion by propounding
that religion is a reasoned or rational response of the individual to the natural phenomena.
Weber and Marx both predicted an end of religion with time but even
if science is growing we see a resurgence in religion in different forms.

Example - A day before, when Mars Orbiter Mission was about to enter
Mar’s orbit, India’s ISRO scientists offered a model of the artificial
satellite at a temple.

Thus, religion seems to be fulfilling some higher purpose for those

scientists who go to temple not in position of ISRO scientist but in
position of a human being.
 Science, Technology and social change

Sociology was born out of response to rise of technology (induatrial

revolution)

Science is systematic body of certified and changing knowledge based

on observable facts and the methods used to acquire this knowledge.

Technology is applied science. Tools tend to be much more efficient

when they’re made using science.
 LH Morgan
One of the first to discuss role of technology. Human society passed
through savagery, barbarianism and civilization. These 3 stages rep diff
levels of tech.

Parsons
Talks about change in information flow or energy flow in the system.
Change in energy flow is a result of change in technology
Leslie White tried to explain process of social evolution in terms of
technology.
Has 3 components techno-economic, organisational and ideational.
Said culture changes due to change in tech.
Primitive man used muscular energy but now its more mental.
William Ogburn every technological innovation when absorbed by society needs a
support system. To absorb automobile education system, family system,
occupational system undergoes change.
Chain reaction/domino effect.

Change in demographics with rise of tech.

5 stages of demographic transition

Gender equality and technology-easier for women participation & emancipation

(services sector)

Education seen as a form of investment

Ecology and environment.

Work and leisure undergoes change.

 Secularization
It means influence of religion in all areas of social life is steadily
diminishing
Bryan Wilson defines secularization as the process whereby religious
thinking, process and institutions lose social significance.
Theological Society  secularization  Secular society
In the 19th Century it was widely believed that industrialisation and the
growth of scientific knowledge would lead to secularization

Early sociologists auguste comte, Durkheim, Karl Marx, Weber all

believed that the process of secularization was found to occur as
societies modernized and became more reliant on science and
technology to control and explain the social world

Contemporarily there is debate over the secularization thesis.

 Evaluation of Secularisation
Secularization is a complex sociological concept because there is little consensus on what
secularization is and how to measure it -
Secularization can be evaluated according to number of aspects and dimensions

1) Institutional religion - participation has decreased according to some.

2) Disengagement of the Church from the wider Society - David Martin sees this view as concerned
with decline in power, wealth, influence and Prestige of the church

3) Differentiation - that is church no longer performs or it has been delinked from other social
Institutions.
Specialised institutions have come up in the political and economic arenas and the religious
institutions in contemporary society confines themselves to purely religious matters.
 4) Religious pluralism - the continuing proliferation of sects and
denominations has been interpreted by some researchers as the
decline of religion

5) Secularization of Religious Institutions - that is region itself has

undergone a process of secularization. Religious Institutions engaged in
tasks which may not be strictly speaking religious. Example running
hospitals, educational institutions, et cetera

6) Generalisation- Parsons argues that as religious Institutions become

more specialised religious values become increasingly generalized.
Religious beliefs no longer specifically direct particular actions.
However they are incorporated into the society’s value system they
provide general guidelines for conduct.
 7) Individuation - Robert N Bellah - that is religion is increasingly an
individual quest for meaning rather than a collective actor worship.

8) Transformation - rather than seeing religious beliefs as generalized or

“individuated” a number of sociologists argue that these beliefs have now
become transformed into secular guides to action into Western society.
Example Weber sees the logic of the spirit of capitalism in ascetic
Protestantism

9) Desacralization - this means that supernatural forces are no longer seen

as controlling the world. Action is no longer directed by religious belief.
Man's consciousness has become secularized.
Max Weber claims that Industrial society is characterized by rationalisation
and intellectualization
Thus, the term secularization has been used in many different ways.
David Martin states that the concept of secularization includes “a large
number of discrete separate elements loosely put together in an
intellectual hold all”

Bryan Wilson although is convinced that secularization and its various

forms is occurring in western societies, admits that there is “no
adequate way of testing the strength of religious commitment”.
 Thus, the problem of research methodology has dogged the
secularization debate.

Despite the widespread support for the theory of secularization a

number of doubts have been raised and the opponents of the concept
argue that religion remains a significant force though in new and
unfamiliar forms.
 Religious Revivalism
The role of religion in different modern societies varies considerably.
Secularization is a feature of some societies but not of others.
For example religion appears to be much more influential in USA the UK.
 Postmodernist argue that when societies move beyond modernity
they will also move beyond the secular.
Faith and religion will be rediscovered in the world in which the
achievements of Science and rationality will have less appeal than they
once had.
David Martin - takes a wider view of secularization. By looking at the
changing role of religion in a range of societies.
Based on this he argues that there is little evidence of a General trend
towards secularization in the world as a whole.
Gilles Kepel – Claims that any trend towards secularization was
reversed in around 1970s when various religious revivals sprang up
These revivals were aimed at recovering a sacred foundation for the
organisation of the society by changing society if necessary.
He gives the example of Christians in USA and Europe, Jews in Israel
and Muslims along the world to support his case

Since 1978 in France rechristianisation of society by Catholic

charismatic groups.
In USA - Evangelical new Christian right attracting Americans to reassert
Christian values.
Israel - Lubavitch campaigned against the watering down of traditional
Jewish beliefs.
Islamisation movements have had success in many parts of the world.
Example in Algeria, Iran.
Palestine - Radical Islam groups such as Hamas have been prominent in
opposing Israeli occupations of West Bank.
 Gilles Kepel also points to the Salman Rushdie affair.
The campaign by British Muslims against Rushdie’s book The Satanic
Verses indicates Islamic values continue to be important even in
western Europe.
To Kepel all these are example of counter secularism and also the
emergence of new religions movements countering the secularization
thesis.
These new religious movements can be classified as

World rejecting
World accommodating
World affirming
 Conclusion - Jose Casanova, thus, believes that in contemporary
Societies of world religious beliefs and practices are not dying out but
have increasingly re-entered public sphere.
Therefore, it can be concluded that though religion no longer has a
central position in the structure of modern society it has not faded
away and religion remains a significant force though in new and
unfamiliar forms.
 Fundamentalism
It refers to a movement or a belief calling for a return to the basic texts
or fundamentals of revealed religions, which are believed to be pure
and contain original values and behavior.
It is usually contrasted with modernism and liberalism in religion.
Without political legitimacy and power, fundamentalism is mere
revivalism.
 When religious values are threatened by some common enemy, which is
Modernity as seen by Fundamentalists, more and more members are recruited into
the fundamentalist fold.

The term has been applied to protestant trends within Christianity in the 1920s
and recently to trends within Islam.

The forces of social change that is “High Modernity and Globalization”, as Anthony
Giddens calls it, are responsible for the emergence of fundamentalism.
Whenever there are drastic changes in society and change of pace which disturbs
community life, very often there is a loss of identity and rootlesness among
people. In such situations people clutch any support for solace.
 Fundamentalism promises certitude and restitution of an earlier
better age of stability.
The psychological appeal of this is difficult for people to resist
To achieve and restitute this earlier better age, the Fundamentalist
evolves a comprehensive and absolutist rigid belief system and
practice.
This belief and practice which promises to bring happiness is capable
of motivating intense commitment among its followers.
 So much so non believers are denied there rights.

That is why fundamentalism very often takes on a rather aggressive

militant form, where killing and terrorism are justified.
Since the end, usually the establishment of Homeland, that is Israel or
Khalistan or Caliph, justifies the means.

The two most prominent forms of religious fundamentalism are Islamic

fundamentalism and Christian fundamentalism. Recently we also
witnessing and increasing trend of Hindu fundamentalism.
Christian fundamentalism in the US - reaction against secular values
and a perceived moral crisis in American society.
Islamic - Khomeini in 1979 and has been spreading ever since.
Also leading to ISIS and related terrorism across the world.
 Conclusion - the challange for the modern muslim nations lies in
achieving a balance to return to the fundamental religious values
conducive to the Welfare of society rather than those that obstruct it.
The strength of religious fundamentalism is another indication that
secularization has not triumphed in the modern world.