A Level Sociology

Beliefs in Society

Topic 2

Theories of religion

1

Objectives:

Outline the functionalist, Marxist and feminist views of religion Understand the key studies that are used as evidence for each theory Evaluate the key theories

Functionalism overview:

Re-cap below the key ideas associated with functionalism:

For functionalists, society is a system of inter-related parts or social institutions, such as religion, the family and the economy. Society is like an organism, with basic needs that it must meet in order to survive. These needs are met by the different institutions. Each institution performs certain functions – that is – each contribute to maintaining the social system by meeting a need. Society’s most basic need is the need for social order and solidarity so that its members can cooperate.

For functionalists, what makes order possible is the existence of value consensus – a set of shared norms and values by which society’s members live. Without this, individuals would pursue their own selfish desires and society would disintegrate.

2

Functionalism – key beliefs

Durkheim:

For Durkheim, the key feature of religion was not a belief in gods, spirits or the supernatural, but a fundamental distinction between the sacred and the profane found in all religions.

The SACRED are things set apart and forbidden that inspire feelings of awe, fear and wonder, and are surrounded by taboos and prohibitions.

The PROFANE are things that have no special significance, things that are ordinary and mundane.

List as many examples of the SACRED

List as many examples of the PROFANE

Christianity Christianity

Islam Islam

Hinduism Hinduism

Buddhism Buddhism

Furthermore, a religion is not simply a set of beliefs. It also involves definite rituals or practices in relation to the sacred and these rituals are collective – performed by social groups.

The fact that sacred things evoke such powerful feelings in believers indicates to Durkheim that this is because they are symbols representing something of great power. In his view, this thing can only be society itself, since society is the only thing powerful enough to command such feelings. When they worship the sacred symbols, therefore, people are worshipping society itself. For Durkheim, although sacred symbols vary from religion to religion, they all perform the essential function of uniting believers in to a single moral community.

3

Totemism

Durkheim believed that the essence of all religion could be found by studying its simplest form, in the simplest type of society – clan society. For this reason he used studies of the Arunta, an Australian Aboriginal tribe with a clan system.

The Arunta clans consist of bands of kin who come together periodically to perform rituals involving worship of a sacred totem. The totem is the clan’s emblem, such as an animal or plant that symbolises the clan’s origins and identity. The totemic rituals surrounding it serve to reinforce the group’s solidarity and sense of belonging.

For Durkheim, when clan members worship their totemic animal, they are really worshipping society – even if they themselves are not aware of this. The totem inspires feelings of awe in the clan’s members.

Questions:

1. What is a totem pole?

2. Why did Durkheim study the Arunta clan?

3. What were they really worshipping?

4. What function does this provide?

4

The collective conscience

In Durkheim’s view, the sacred symbols represent society’s collective conscience, the shared norms, values, beliefs and knowledge that make social life and cooperation between individuals possible – without these, society would disintegrate.

For Durkheim, regular shared religious rituals reinforce the collective conscience and maintain social integration. Participating in shared rituals binds individuals together, reminding them that they are part of a single moral community to which they owe their loyalty. Such rituals also remind the individual of the power of society – without which they themselves are nothing, and to which they owe everything.

In this sense, religion also performs an important function for the individual. By making us feel part of something greater than ourselves, religion reinvigorates and strengthens us to face life’s trials and motivates us to overcome obstacles that would otherwise defeat us.

Cognitive functions of religion

Durkheim sees religion not only as the source of social solidarity, but also of our intellectual or cognitive capacities – our ability to reason and think conceptually. For example, in order to think at all, we need categories such as time, space, cause, number etc. And secondly, in order to share our thoughts, we need to use the same categories as others.

In Durkheim’s view, religion is the origin of the concepts and the categories we need for reasoning, understanding of the world and communicating. Religion provides basic categories such as time, space and causation – for example, with ideas about a creator bringing the world into being at the beginning of time.

5

List the differences between the society Durkheim studied and British society today:

Evaluation:

Malinowski:

Psychological functions

Malinowski agrees with Durkheim that religion promotes solidarity. However, in his view it does so by performing psychological functions for individuals, helping them cope with emotional stress that would undermine social solidarity. Malinowski identifies two types of situation in which religion performs this role:

6

EVALUATION – evidence on totemism is unsound. Worsley (1956) notes that there is no sharp division between the sacred and the profane, and that different clans share the same totems. And even if Durkheim is right about totemism, this does not prove that he has discovered the essence of all other religions.

EVALUATION – Durkheim’s theory may apply to small-scale societies with a single religion. It is harder to apply it to large-scale societies, where two or more religious communities may be in conflict. He doesn’t explain the conflicts between them.

EVALUATION – Post-modernists such as Mestrovic argue that Durkheim’s ideas cannot be applied to contemporary society, because increasing diversity has fragmented the collective conscience, so there is no longer a single shared value system for religion to reinforce.

Aboriginal society in 1915 Today’s society

Where the outcome is important but is uncontrollable and thus uncertain

In his studies of the Trobriand Islanders of the Western Pacific, Malinowski contrasts fishing in the lagoon and fishing in the ocean. Lagoon fishing is safe and uses predictable and successful methods of poisoning. When the Islanders fish in the lagoon there is no ritual. When they fish in the ocean it is dangerous and uncertain and a trip to the ocean is always accompanied by ‘canoe magic’ – rituals to ensure a safe and successful expedition. This gives people a sense of control, which eases tension, gives them confidence to undertake hazardous tasks and reinforces group solidarity. He sees ritual serving as a ‘god of the gaps’ – it fills the gaps in human beings’ control over the world, such as being unable to control the outcome of a fishing trip.

At times of life crises

Events such as birth, puberty, marriage and especially death mark major and disruptive changes in social groups. Religion helps to minimise disruption. For example, funeral rituals reinforce feelings of solidarity among the survivors, while the notion of immortality gives comfort to the bereaved by denying the fact of death.

Parsons:

Psychological functions

Like Malinowski, Parsons sees religion helping individuals to cope with unforeseen and uncontrollable outcomes. In addition, Parsons identifies two other essential functions that religion performs in modern society:

It creates and legitimates society’s central values It is the primary source of meaning

7

Religion creates and legitimates society’s basic norms and values by making them sacred. It is also provides a source of meaning, by answering life’s ultimate questions, such as why the good suffer or the poor die young. Religion provides answers to such questions, for example explaining it as a test of faith.

Bellah:

Civil religion

Robert Bellah is interested in how religion unifies society, especially a multi-faith society like America. What unifies American society is an overarching civil religion – a belief system that attaches sacred qualities to society itself. In the American case, civil religion is a faith in Americanism of the ‘American way of life’.

Bellah argues that civil religion integrates society in a way that individual religions cannot. While none of the many individual churches and denominations can claim the loyalty of all Americans, civil religion can. American civil religion involves loyalty to the nation state and a belief in God, both of which are equated with being a true American.

It is expressed in various rituals, symbols and beliefs; such as the pledge of allegiance to the flag, singing the national anthem and phrases such as ‘One nation under God’.

Define civil religion in three words:

8

Evaluation using other perspectives:

Perspectives disagree, and situations show functionalism to be problematic.

9

Marxists

Feminists

Postmodernists

Signs of secularisation

Religious diversity within societies

Places of religious related conflict

Can ignore what makes religion distinct

Key functionalist concepts:

KEY CONCEPT DEFINITION Sacred

Profane

Totemism

Canoe magic

Times of life crisis

Cognitive functions

Civil religion

Psychological functions

Social solidarity

Value consensus

10

Marxism overview:

Re-cap below the key ideas associated with Marxism:

Religion and ideology:

Religion serves as an ideology, a belief system that distorts people’s perception of reality in ways that serve the interests of the ruling class. Marx argues that the class that controls economic production also controls the production and distribution of ideas in society, through institutions such as the church, the education system and the media.

Which theorist discussed the notion of Ideological State Apparatus?

‘It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven’

Religion misleads the poor in to believing that their suffering is virtuous and that they will be favoured in the afterlife

Such ideas create a false consciousness – a distorted view of reality that prevents the poor from acting to change their situation

It stops a revolution from happening

It legitimates the suffering of the poor as something inevitable and God-given

‘Religion as Spiritual Gin’ Lenin (1870 – 1924)

11

Marxism – key beliefs

Lenin argued that religion was an intoxicant doled out to the masses by the ruling class to confuse them and keep them in their place

The ruling class use religion cynically to manipulate the masses

This keeps them from attempting to overthrow the ruling class by creating a ‘mystical fog’ that obscures reality

Religion serves ideological functions and works in the interests of the bourgeoisie in a capitalist society

Religion and oppression:

Religion helps to dull the pain of oppression through various different guises:

1. The promise of eternal bliss in life after death

2. Some religions make a virtue of suffering produced by oppression

3. Religion offers the hope of supernatural intervention to solve the problems of earth eg prayer

4. Religion justifies social order and a person’s position within it

‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth’

The meek can be described as those who are humble and patient

This encourages poor people to become more humble and not to challenge the way things are

They are promised rewards in heaven and so are persuaded not to rebel so as to achieve these rewards in the next life

12

This stops a revolution from happening

‘The rich man in his castle, the poor man at his gate, God made them high and lowly, and ordered their estate’

Religion legitimates the power and privilege of the powerful

Marx argues how religion justifies the position of the powerful – ‘the rich man in his castle’

It appears that his position was God given and must not be questioned

Religion misleads the poor in to thinking that their suffering is virtuous and that they will be rewarded in the next life

This stops a revolution from happening as the poor do not act to change their situation

Religion and alienation:

Marx sees religion as the product of alienation. Alienation involves becoming separated from or losing control over something that one has produced or created. Alienation exists in all class societies, but it is more extreme under capitalism.

Under capitalism workers are alienated because they do not own what they produce and have no control over the production process and thus no freedom to express their true nature as creative beings. Alienation reaches a peak with the detailed division of labour in the capitalist factory, where the worker endlessly repeats the same minute task, devoid of meaning or skill. In these dehumanising conditions, the exploited turn to religion as a form of consolation.

13

‘Religion is the opium of the people. It is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, the soul of soulless conditions, the spirit of a spiritless situation’ Marx

Religion acts as an opiate to dull the pain of exploitation

But just as an opium masks pain rather than treating its cause, so religion masks the underlying problem of exploitation that creates the need for it

Religion is a distorted view of the world, it can offer no solution to earthly misery

Its promises of the afterlife create an illusory happiness that distracts attention away from the true source of suffering, namely capitalism

‘The Divine Right of Kings’ Medieval Europe

Religion legitimates the power and privilege of the dominant class by making their position appear to be divinely obtained

In the 16th century people believed that the king is God’s representative on earth is owed total obedience

Disobedience is not just illegal but a sinful challenge to God’s authority

Religion preserves the interests of the dominant class

14

Caste case study:

The Hindu caste system is another example of religion justifying social inequality. Caste is a system of social stratification based on ascribed status. You are born into the same caste as your parents and marriage between castes is forbidden. The highest caste is that of the ...................., followed by a warrior caste, a merchant caste and the lowest caste of servants and labourers. Beneath these four groups are the........................... who are not considered to have a caste at all.

The doctrine of ................. teaches that if you behave well in this world by accepting and observing the rules of caste, after death you will be reincarnated (........................) into a higher caste. These rules include strict norms about ........................ and impurity, governing what food may be eaten and what social contact allowed between members of different castes. Higher castes must maintain higher levels of purity. For example, touching someone from a lower caste may be seen as .......................... and must be followed by elaborate cleansing rituals.

The doctrines of ..................... and karma serve to maintain inequality by assuring those at the bottom of the caste system that their obedience will be rewarded or disobedience punished by reincarnation into a higher or lower caste. Meanwhile, ............ castes receive their privileged positions as a reward for a virtue in a past life.

Missing Words:

Reincarnation Re-born Priests Higher Purity

Pollution Untouchables Karma

Questions:

1. What is karma?

2. What key Marxist concepts does this case study illustrate?

3. How do you change caste?

15

Evaluation:

Highlight below which statements are positive statements supporting Marxism and which statements are criticisms of Marxism:

16

It is difficult to empirically prove the ideological function of religion as Marxists suggest

Marxists see religion as the product of a class based society, in which religion serves to mask and legitimate the power of the ruling class

Religion is no longer important due to secularisation, as such Marxist theories have no relevance

It is not only the oppressed who turn to religion, many church-goers are middle class. According to Marxist thinking the middle-class have no reason to attend church

Alienation as an unsound and unscientific concept as it is based on a romantic idea that human beings have a ‘true self’

In Marx’s view religion operates as an ideological weapon used by the ruling class

Marx shows how religion may be a tool of oppression that masks exploitation and creates a false consciousness, however he ignores the positive functions of religion, as discussed by Functionalism

Key Marxist concepts:

KEY CONCEPT DEFINITION Ideology

Alienation

Social stratification

False consciousness

Legitimates the suffering of the poor

Opium of the people

Religion as a spiritual gin

Easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle

Divine right of kings

Capitalism

17

Feminism overview:

Re-cap below the key ideas associated with feminism:

Feminists see society as patriarchal, based on male domination. Many feminists regard religion as a patriarchal institution that reflects and perpetuates this inequality. Religious beliefs function as a patriarchal ideology that legitimates female subordination.

Although the formal teachings of religion often stress equality between the sexes, there is considerable evidence of patriarchy within many of them.

Religious Quote How might this maintain a patriarchy?

‘men are in charge of women.....hence good women are obedient’

‘let the women learn in silence and with all subjection’

‘blessed art thou, O lord....that I was not born a woman’

18

Feminism – key beliefs

Evidence of patriarchy:

Examples and discussion Religious organisations

Sacred texts

Places of worship

Religious laws and customs

19

Evaluation:

Women have not always been subordinate to men within religion, Armstrong argues that early religions often placed women at the centre. For example, earth mother goddesses, fertility cults and female priesthoods were found throughout the Middle East until about 6,000 years ago. From about 4,000 years , the rise of monotheistic (religions which only believe in one God) religions saw the establishment of a single, all-powerful male God

Saadawi argues that while religion may be used to oppress women, it is not the direct cause of their subordination. Rather, this is the result of patriarchal forms of society coming in to existence in the last few thousand years. However, once in existence, patriarchy began to influence and re-shape religion. It is not religion that is patriarchal but society

Woodhead:

Woodhead criticises feminist explanations that simply equate religion with patriarchy and the oppression of women. While accepting that much traditional religion is patriarchal, she emphasises that this is not true of all religions. She argues that there are ‘religious forms of feminism’ – ways in which women use religion to gain greater freedom and respect.

Examples –

While Western families tend to see the hijab or veil worn by many Muslim women as a symbol of oppression, to the wearer it may symbolise resistance to oppression. Woodhead argues that some Muslim women choose to wear the hijab to escape the confines of the home and enter education and employment. For them the hijab is a symbol of liberation that enables them to enter the public sphere without losing their culture and history.

Women also use religion to gain status and respect within the private sphere of home and family. For example, being involved in an evangelical group can be empowering for some women. Women can use religion to increase their power and influence.

20

The position of women within some religions is changing. Within the Church of England women have been ordained into the priesthood since 1992 and a fifth of all its priests are now female.

Women are also becoming empowered in less traditional religions, including the New Age. These movements are very popular amongst women and often give them a greater sense of self worth

Questions:

1. What is patriarchy?

2. What evidence is there that religion is patriarchal?

3. What evidence is there against the view that religion is patriarchal?

4. What are religious forms of feminism?

5. What examples does Woodhead use?

21

Key feminist concepts:

KEY CONCEPT DEFINITION Patriarchy

Religious organisations

Places of worship

Sacred texts

Laws and customs

Armstrong

Saadawi

Woodhead

Religious forms of feminism

Oppression

Empowering

22

Overview of the key theories:

Theory Key debatesFunctionalism

Marxism

Feminism

23

Exam technique:

Outline and explain two ways in which religion promotes social stability in today’s society (10 marks)

POINT ONE

POINT TWO

Item A

Some sociologists see religion as performing a positive role in the lives of individuals and society, whereas others argue that it helps to dull the pain that people experience in a society bound by conflict.

Applying material from Item A, analyse two functions of the role of religion (10 marks)

POINT ONE

POINT TWO

24

Item B

Some sociologists argue that religion performs an ideological function and operates in the interests of powerful groups in society. For example, feminists see religion as helping to sustain male domination of society. They point to the patriarchal nature of sacred texts, such as the biblical story of Eve causing humanity’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and their role in legitimating the subordination of women. Marxists, too, see religion as an ideology that distorts people’s perception of reality in capitalist society and helps prevent revolution.

However, religion may also perform positive functions for society, and subordinate groups may also use religion to serve their interests.

Applying material from Item A and your knowledge, evaluate the claim that religion performs an ideological function in the interests of powerful groups (20 marks)

25