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beliefs in society - Coggle Diagram
beliefs in society
religious organisations
Neiber (1929):
- Differentiates between denominations & cults
Denominations:
- Denominations lies midway between churches and sects
- Membership is less exclusive than a sect, but doesn't appeal to whole of society like a church
- Like churches, broadly accept society's values, but not linked to the state
- Impose minor restrictions on members, e.g. forbids alcohol, but not as demanding as sects
- Wallis: Unlike both churches and sects they are tolerant of other religious organisations and do not claim a monopoly of truth
Cults:
- World affirming, claims to improve life in this world
- Individualistic and without a sharply defined and exclusive belief system
- Led by 'therapists' who claim special knowledge
- Tolerant of other organisations and beliefs
- Don't require strong commitment
Stark & Bainbridge:
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Identify 3 different types of cults:
- Audience cults
- Client cults
- Cultic movements
1. Audience cults:
- Least organised
- Do not involve formal membership or much commitment
- Little interaction between members
- Participations may be through the media
e.g. astrology and UFO cults
2. Client cults:
- Based on relationship between a consultant and a client
- Provides services to their followers
- Offers 'therapies' promising personal fulfilment and self-discovery
e.g. Scientology
3. Cultic movements:
- Most organised
- Demand a higher level of commitment than other cults
- Aims to meet members' religious needs
- Aren't allowed to belong to other religious groups at the same time
- e.g. the Moonies
Makes some useful distinctions between organisations:
- e.g. idea of using degree of conflict with wider society to distinguish between them
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Wallis (1984):
2 characteristics to sum up similarities and differences between religious organisations:
- How they see themselves
- How they are seen by wider society
1. How they see themselves:
- Churches and Sects: their interpretation of the faith is the only legitimate one
- Denominations and Cults: accept that there can be multiple valid interpretations
2. How they are seen by wider society:
- Churches and Denominations: seen as respectable and legitimate
- Sects and Cults: seen as deviant
Ernst Troeltsch:
Distinguished between two main types of religious organisations:
- Sects
- Churches
Sects:
- Many led by charismatic leader rather than bureaucratic hierarchy
- Expect a high level of commitment
- Small, exclusive groups
- Hostile to wider society
- Draw their members from the poor and oppressed
- Believe they have a monopoly of religious truth
Churches:
- Run by a bureaucratic hierarchy of professional priests
- Claim a monopoly of truth
- Universalistic- aims to include whole of society however more attractive to higher classes because ideologically conservation and often closely linked to the state
- Places few demands on their members
- Large organisations with millions of members- monopoly
Bruce:
- The idea of churches being 'large organisations' only applies to the Catholic Church before the 16th century Protestant Reformation, when it had a religious monopoly over society, symbolised by massive and imposing cathedrals
- In today's society, churches are no longer truly churches in Troeltsch's sense because they have lost their monopoly and have been reduced to status of denominations competing with the rest.
relationships between different social groups and religious organisations, beliefs and practices
Age
Reasons for differences within this group:
- Age gap in religion depend on social + economic context
- Adults aged 18-39 less likely to state religion as 'very important'
Statistics:
- General pattern is that the older the person is, the more likely they are to attend religious services. However, exception is that under 15s have a high level of religious participation.
- 2/5 churches have no one under 11 years of age
- Over 65s are 30% of church goers
- U15s most likely to attend church
- Younger adults less likely to be religious
- No age gap between Jewish community in USA
High attendance of U15s is declining:
- Brierly: by 2025, young people will make up only 2.5% of church attenders and half of all English churches will have no people U20 attending at all.
Wrong:
- In 2024, 16% of 18-24 year olds went to church at least monthly- up from 4% in 2018.
Voas & Crockett:
3 explanations for age differences in religiosity:
- Ageing effect
- Generational effect
- Period effect
1. Ageing effect:
- People turn to religion as they get older as they become more concerned with the afterlife
2. Generational effect:
- Each generation less religious than the one before
3. Period effect:
- If born during specific time period someone may be more or less likely to be religious
- e.g. living through war
Social Class
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Statistics:
- 62% church goers are MC
- 38% church goers are WC
Reasons for differences within this group:
- MC more likely to feel attached to traditional churches, whereas WC people drawn to new religious movements due to lack of hierarchy in their structures
Additional notes:
- Religion is 'conservative force' that maintains social stability by creating false consciousness
- Historically in Britain there was a fairly close relationship between social class and religious participation
- In postmodern world this relationship has fragmented and there is evidence to show that class is less important than other factors as indicators of religious belief and practice
Clemence (2014):
Found that those of higher economic status were less likely to be religious in comparison to members of WC
Ethnicity:
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Additional notes:
- Pakistani & Bangladeshi Muslims in UK see being Muslim as primary identity- prioritise religion over nationality
Statistics:
- Church attendance: 19% of black Londoners attend Church weekly in comparison to 8% white Londoners (London Church census 2012)
Reasons for differences within this group:
- Cultural transition: minority groups use religion to assist the process of immigration
2 Cultural defence: using religion to protect identity in a hostile environment
Cultural transition: How does it lead to increased religiosity?
- By providing support & sense of community for minority groups in their new environment
- This is explanation that Herberg (1955) gives high levels of religious participation among first generation immigrants in USA
Cultural transition: How does cultural transition explain decreasing religiosity?
- Once a group has made a transition into the wider society, religion may lose its role + decline in important (as was case with Irish Catholics)
Cultural transition: Pryce (1979) study:
- Shows both cultural transition and defence
- Study of African Caribbean in Bristol showed that both cultural defence + cultural transition have been important
- Argues Pentecostalism helped AC to adapt to British society, playing kind of 'protestant ethic' role in helping its members to succeed by encouraging self-reliance + thrift, and giving people mutual support + hope of improving their situation
Cultural defence: How does this explain the higher religiosity of ethnic minorities?
- Ethnic minorities likely to experience racism, discrimination + hostility within society + religion can be a way of coping with the oppression of this
Cultural defence: Why may immigrants be more likely to be religious?
- Religious one way to preserve culture + language + form basis for community soldarity
- Particular important for newer migrants
Cultural defence: Why is evidence for cultural defence?
Brierley: shows significant growth of new churches in London catering for specific languages + nationalities as a result of recent immigration. The growth of 'black' churches demonstrates need for community solidarity against racist society (exclusion from 'white' churches).
religion, renewal & choice
grace davie: modern view of religion:
- obligation to consumption
- in today's society we are seeing a major change in religion from obligation to consumption
- people used to feel obliged to go to church
- this no longer the case but a personal choice
- believing without belonging
- religion is not declining but becoming more privatised
- people increasingly reluctant to belong to organisations but people still hold religious beliefs (believing without belonging)
- vicarious religion: the spiritual health service
- trend towards religion practiced by minority on behalf of great majority, who then experience religion second hand
- churches seen as 'the spiritual health service' (it is there for everyone to use whenever they need to, e.g. major life events)
- compares vicarious religion to tip of iceberg: what we see at top is minority but underneath that are those who remain attached to the church as an institution that provides ritual + support when needed but do not attend often
- evidence of believing w/o belonging
believing without belonging
voas & crockett (2005):
- don't accept davie's claim that there is more believing than belonging
- evidence shows there is decline in church attendance and believing
- bruce (2011):
- if people not willing to invert time in going to church this is reflection of declining strength of their beliefs
- when people no longer believe they no longer wish to belong so their involvement in religion diminishes
daniele hervieu-leger (2000):
- spiritual shopping
- there has been decline in religion across europe with fewer people attending church in most countries
- partly because of cultural amnesia
- children used to be taught religion by parents, extended family + parish church but now doesn't happen so religion handed down generations is diminishing
- parents let children decide what to believe- no longer have religion imposed on them and have become spiritual shoppers
- religion is individualised + fits in with our own interests
- although religion no longer acts as source of collective identity it does have some influence on society's values (e.g. values of equality)
- as a result there are two new religious types emerging:
- pilgrims: follow individual path in search for self-discovery
- converts: join religious groups that offer strong sense of belonging, based on shared ethnic background or religious doctrine
heelas & woodhead: the kendal project (2005)
- investigating whether traditional religion has declined + how far the growth of spirituality is compensating for this
- two groups:
- the congregational domain: traditional + evangelical christianity
- the holistic milieu: spirituality + new age
- found that a typical week, in 2000, 7.9% of the population attending church and 1.6% took part in the activities of holistic milieu
- explanation of these trends:
- new age spirituality has grown because of a massive subjective turn in today's culture: shift away from idea of doing your duty + obeying external authority to exploring your inner self by following spiritual path
- result traditional religions, which demand duty and obedience, are declining
- evangelical churches are more successful than traditional churches: evangelicals also emphasise the importance of spiritual healing + personal growth through the experience of being 'born again'
- in spiritual marketplace, the winners are those who appeal to personal experience as only genuine source of meaning + fulfilment, rather than the received teachings + commandments of traditional religion
theories of religion
what is religion?
4 types of religion:
- theistic religions
- new age movements
- animism
- a belief in spirits and ghosts that can positively or negatively impact the human + natural world
- more prevalent in pre-industrial + non-industrial societies
- e.g. paganism
- totemism
constructionist definitions:
- interpretivist approach that focuses on how members of society define religion
- argue it isn't possible to produce a single universal definition of religion to cover all cases, since in reality different individuals + groups mean very different things by 'religion'
- interested in how definitions of religion are constructed and challenged
- aldridge: scientology is a religion according to followers but several governments have denied it legal status as such
- do not assume that religion always involves particular beliefs or that it performs similar functions for everyone
- allows them to get close to the meanings people themselves give to religion
- makes it impossible to generalise about the nature of religion, as people may have widely differing views about what counts as a religion
functional definitions:
- defines it in terms of the social or psychological functions it performs for individuals or society
- durkheim (1915): defines religion in terms of the contribution it makes to social integration, rather than any specific beliefs
- yinger (1970): answering 'ultimate questions' about the meaning of life and what happens when we die is a key function religion performs
- inclusive: allows us to include a wide range of beliefs + practices that perform functions such as integration
- no bias against non-western religions (buddhism)
- just because an institution individuals into groups, it does not make it a religion
- e.g. collective chanting at football matches may give individuals sense of integration, but doesn't make it a religion