SOCIOLOGY OF
RELIGION
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SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION
What is society? A group of people who shape their lives in
aggregated and patterned ways that distinguish their group from
other groups
What is Sociology?
- The study of society
- The systematic or scientific study of human society and human
behavior
- The study of people “doing things together
Bibby: Science and religion are compatible
Religion – about faith
Science – limits itself to perceivable, ‘observable parts’ of religion
For example
• Written texts
• Patterns of behaviors
• Individuals’ opinions about religious matters
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WORLD’S 16 LARGEST RELIGIONS
1. Christianity: 2.1 billion
2. Islam: 1.5 billion
3. Hinduism: 900 million
4. Chinese folk: 394 million
5. Buddhism: 376 million
6. Sikhism: 23 million
7. Juche: 19 million
8. Spiritism: 15 million
9. Judaism: 14 million
10.Falun Gong: 10 million
11.Baha'i: 7 million
12.Cao Dai: 5 million
13.Confucianism 5 million
14.New Age 5 million
15.Jainism: 4 million
16.Shinto: 4 million
Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1
Source: Bibby, Reginald W.billion
(2011a). Beyond the Gods & Back:
Religion’s Rise and Demise and Why it Matters. Lethbridge,
AB: Project Canada Books, p.201. Drawn from
SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION
Religious beliefs vary in content and intensity
Religious practices vary in form and frequency
due to structure of society and our place in it
Effect: religious impulse takes thousands of
forms
The task of the sociology of religion is to
account for these variations
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SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION
Analyzes how individuals, social institutions, and
cultures construe God or the sacred
How these ideas penetrate public culture and individual
lives
Implications of those interpretations for individual,
institutional, and societal processes
The sociological study of religion is as old as the
discipline of sociology itself
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SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION
Wide array of research such as:
Religion and organizations (churches,
sects, cults, etc)
Religion and education (role in schools)
Religion and gender (religious leadership)
Religion and politics (religious terrorism)
Religion and law (Charter of Rights and
Freedom)
Religion and mass media (internet)
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SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION
How many and what kinds of people are involved in
religious groups?
Why does one religion predominate here, another there?
Who believes in life after death and what do individuals
think will happen when they die?
The extent to which people have spiritual needs, and what
they mean by spirituality?
What is the impact the religious involvement has on
individuals and societies?
Under what circumstances does religion act as a source of
social stability and act as a force for social change?
Are we becoming more or less religious? Implications of
this?
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WHAT IS RELIGION
Religion is ______?
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DEFINITIONS OF RELIGION
Definitions are “ways of seeing” a complex, multifaceted social
reality, as the literary theorist Kenneth Burke (1935) noted, “Every
way of seeing is also a way of not seeing”
Definitions are not mirrors of reality to be judged as “true” or
“false” but are tools that can been seen by those who use them
as more or less useful.
WHAT IS RELIGION
How do we know what we know?
Historically: Religion
o Offered answers to most of life’s questions (truth/false, right/wrong)
o Imbued every aspect of human social life with meaning (birth, death,
rites of passage)
o Religious beliefs so common that most societies had no word for
religion
Means different things – No consensus on definitions
At least 3 ways in which social scientists have defined religion:
- Substantive definition
- Functional definition
- Symbolic definition
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SUBSTANTIVE DEFINITIONS
This approach hinges on identification of the
“substance” or “essence” of religion.
Substantive definitions focus on what religion is
1) to be religious is to ‘believe’ in something
2) to be religious entails actions
3) to be religious involves emotions
4) religion is a social phenomenon
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SUBSTANTIVE DEFINITIONS
“beliefs in Spiritual Beings" by Edward B. Tylor
beliefs and rituals (behaviors)
a division of sacred and profane realms by Emile Durkheim and
Mircea Eliade
belief in a super human being by Buddhism
Does religion refer only to those who hold a specific kind of belief?
a sacred attitude by Andrew Greeley
Can nationalism be a from of religion?
The individual feels a sort of sacredness toward the nation and its
primary symbol, the flag
Nonindustiral vs. Contemporary societies and religion
FUNCTIONAL DEFINITION
Functional definitions – Focus on what religion does
1) provides meaning and purpose to life
2) promotes social cohesion and a sense of belonging
3) provides social control
Many definitions attempt to combine both, such as sociologist
Emile Durkheim:
Religion as a system of beliefs, symbols, rituals, based
on some sacred or supernatural realm, that guides
human behavior, gives meaning to life, and unites
believers into a community
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SYMBOLIC DEFINITION
Symbolic definitions – Focus on what religion does.
Symbols – objects, behaviours, or stories that represent or remind
one of something else – are powerful forces in human
behaviours, and they are central to human behaviour.
Symbols become indispensible medium of religion.
Clifford Geert (1966) wrote:
Religion is
1) a system of symbols which acts to
2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long lasting moods and
motivations in people by
3) Formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and
4) Clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality than
the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.
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DISTINCTION BETWEEN RELIGION AND
MAGIC
Religion Magic
There is a sense of a "group" of common No faith community or "group
believers: a church, temple, or mosque. consciousness” is involved.
Moral ethos, or a system of ethics, guides No moral ethos or systematic pattern of
behavior ethics is present
Rites are meaningful: They reinforce patters Rites are not necessarily meaningful; they
of belief are used to cast a spell or make something
happen.
Rites occur calendrically (on a regular basis Rites occur at critical (crisis) times.
each week, month, and,/or year).
It functions for both the individual and the It functions only for individuals, not for social
structure structure
Participation is open; a leader leads the The leader is the only one to know ritual and
entire group in performance of ritual. how to perform it; others present are passive
The worship of a transcendent Being or Manipulation of impersonal, transcendent
Power as intrinsically worthy of one's power occurs for utilitarian reason.
attention occurs
SPIRITUAL BUT NOT
RELIGIOUS?
NEXT MONDAY
Find a sociological article about religion and be ready to
present and discuss the research questions, methods and
conclusions of the article
