Religion and Education
Chapter
 ClassicalOutline
Approaches in the Sociology of Religion
 The Rise, Decline, and Partial Revival of Religion
 The Structure of Religion in the world
 Religiosity
 Education
 Macrosociological Processes
 Microsociological Processes
Durkheim’s Functionalist Approach
to Religion
 According to Durkheim, when people live together,
they share common sentiments and values.
 These form a collective conscience that is larger than
any individual.
 When we experience the collective conscience directly,
we can distinguish the profane from the sacred.
Durkheim’s Theory
of Religion
 We designate certain objects as symbolizing the
sacred, these are totems.
 We invent public practices to connect us with the
sacred, these are called rituals.
 The function of rituals and of religion as a whole is to
reinforce social solidarity.
Durkheim’s Theory and the Super
Bowl
 Durkheim would consider the Super Bowl trophy and
the team logo to be totems.
 The game itself is a public ritual.
 The game is a sacred event in Durkheim’s terms
because it increases social solidarity and cements
society.
Conflict and Feminist Critiques of
Durkheim
1.
2.
Overemphasizes religion’s role in maintaining
social cohesion, when religion often incites social
conflict.
Ignores the fact that when religion increases social
cohesion, it often reinforces social inequality.
The World’s Predominant
Religions
Weber: Routinization of
Charisma
 Weber’s term for the transformation of the unique gift
of divine enlightenment into a permanent feature of
everyday life.
 It involves turning religious inspiration into a stable
social institution with defined roles (interpreters of
the divine message, teachers, dues-paying laypeople,
etc.).
Civil Religion
 A set of beliefs and practices that bind a population
together and justify its way of life.
Weber: A Symbolic
Interactionist Interpretation
 For Weber, a combination of factors prompted
capitalist development in non-Catholic Europe and
North America:
 favorable economic conditions
 the spread of certain moral values by the Protestant
reformers of the 16th century and their followers.
Weber and the Protestant Ethic
 Weber wrote that followers of Protestant theologian
Calvin stressed the need to display industry,
punctuality, and frugality.
 People could assure a state of grace by working
diligently and living simply.
 In contrast, Buddhism and Confucianism hindered
worldly success in competition and capital
accumulation.
Secularization Thesis of Religion
 Religious institutions, actions, and consciousness are
on the decline.
 Critics:
 There has been a religious revival in the U.S. over the
past 30 years.
 Survey evidence shows religion in the U.S. is resilient.
Fundamentalists
 Interpret scriptures literally.
 Seek to establish a direct, personal relationship with
the higher being(s) they worship.
 Are relatively intolerant of nonfundamentalists.
 Often support conservative social issues.
Revised Secularization Thesis
 Holds that worldly institutions break off from the
institution of religion over time.
 As a result, religion governs an ever smaller part of
most people’s lives and becomes largely a matter of
personal choice.
Perceived Adequacy of the
Church
 INSERT FIGURE 11.2 HERE (PG. 264)
Market Model of Religion
 Religious organizations are suppliers of services (e.g.,
counseling, pastoral care, youth activities) and people
who desire religions activities demand such services
 Religious denominations are similar to product brands
offering different “flavors” of religious experiences
Percent Who Think Religion Is Very Important, 44
Countries
Revised Secularization and
Market Theories of Religion
 INSERT CONCEPT SUMMARY 11.1 HERE (PG. 265)
Polling Question

Do you believe that the Bible is the actual word
of God, to be taken literally word for word?
a.
b.
Yes
No
Types of Religious Organization
 Church: bureaucratic religious organization that has
accommodated itself to mainstream society and
culture
 Ecclesia: state-supported churches
 Denominations: various streams of belief and practice
that can coexist under overarching authority
Types of Religious
Organizations, cont.
 Sects: form by breaking away from churches as a result
of disagreement about church doctrine
 Cults: small groups of people deeply committed to a
religious vision that rejects mainstream culture and
society
Religion Affiliation, U.S. 2007
 INSERT FIGURE 11.4 HERE (PG. 266)
Polling Question

What is your current religious affiliation?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Protestant
Catholic
Jewish
None
Other
Religious Affiliation by Annual
Income
 INSERT FIGURE 11.5 HERE (PG. 267)
Religiosity
 Refers to how important religion is to people
 People over age 69 attend much more frequently

More time and more need for religion
 African Americans attend much more frequently

Political and cultural role church played in helping
African Americans cope and combat slavery
Religiosity, cont.
 More likely to attend when mothers and fathers
attended religious services

Religiosity is a learned behavior
Factors Influencing How Often Americans
Attend Religious Services
 INSERT TABLE 11.1 HERE (PG. 268)
Education
 Instead of religion, education is the dominant
institution of socialization outside of the family
 A central determinant of opportunities for upward
mobility
Advocates of Affirmative
Action:
 Compensates for historical injustices such as slavery
and expulsion.
 Helps create a level playing field for all races and
ethnic groups.
 Encourages diversity on college campuses.
 Creates a middle-class leadership group in minority
communities.
Opponents of Affirmative
Action:
 We should not have to pay for wrongs committed 300
years ago.
 Note that colleges apply affirmative action criteria to
rich and poor members of selected minority groups.
Meritocracy
 A stratification system in which equality of
opportunity allows people to rise or fall to a position
that matches their talent and effort.
Functional Theory of Education
 Manifest (intended) functions of schools:
 Sorting students based on talent and effort
 Train and socialize students.
 Create social cohesion.
 Transmit culture from generation to generation.
 Sort students, presumably by merit.
Functional Theory of Education,
cont.
 Latent (unintended) functions of schools:
 Create a youth culture and a marriage market.
 Create a custodial and surveillance system for
children.
 Maintain wage levels by keeping students out of the
job market.
 Occasionally becoming a “school of dissent” that
opposes authorities.
Polling Question

How far do you intend to go in school?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Two years of college
Four years of college
Master's degree
Professional degree (law, medicine, dentistry)
Ph.D.
Conflict Theories of Education
 Effects of Economic Inequality on Education:
 Schools of widely differing quality.
 Families with varying access to resources for the support
of children.
 Children enter school with differing levels of
preparation and eagerness to learn.
Standardized Tests
 Standardized tests help reproduce the existing system
of social stratification.
 Schools use tracking to sort students into highability, middle-ability, and low-ability classes based on
the results of intelligence-quotient (IQ) and other
tests.
How Social Background
and IQ Influence Inequality
Gender and Education:
Feminist Contribution
 In some ways, women are doing better than men in the
American education system
 Yet, still see disadvantages for women when we
examine: field of study (high-paying vs. low-paying
fields) and level of degree (Ph.D.s for men)
Symbolic Interactionist Theory
of Education
 Stereotype Threat: Refers to the harmful impact of
negative stereotypes on the school performance of
disadvantaged groups.
Polling
Question
 What is the highest level of education completed
by your father?
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Below high school
High school graduate
Some college or postsecondary training
College degree
Graduate or professional degree
Don't know
Major Reforms Proposed for
American Schools
 Mentoring
 Redistributing and increasing school budgets.
 Substantially improving the social environment of
young, disadvantaged children before and outside
school.
1. The sacred refers to:
a.
b.
c.
d.
sentiments and values people share
the secular, everyday world
the religious, transcendent world
public practices designed to connect people to the
transcendent world
Answer: c
 The sacred refers to the religious, transcendent
world.
2. Which of the following is a criticism frequently
lodged against Durkheim's theory of religion?
a.
b.
c.
d.
Religion often heightens the sense of belonging to
certain groups.
Religion often incites social conflict.
Religion often reinforces social inequality.
Religion often incites social conflict, and religion
often reinforces social inequality
Answer: d
 The ideas that religion often incites social conflict,
and religion often reinforces social inequality are
criticisms frequently lodged against Durkheim's
theory of religion.
3. A civil religion is:
a.
b.
c.
d.
a religion that encourages its members to
participate actively in the political arena
a religion that does not discriminate on the basis
of race, class, gender, or sexual orientation
a religion that contributes to social change
a set of quasi-religious beliefs and practices that
binds the population and justifies its way of life
Answer: d

A civil religion is a set of quasi-religious beliefs
and practices that binds the population and
justifies its way of life.
4. Weber recognized:
a.
b.
c.
d.
importance of the economic factor in explaining of
capitalism
one-sidedness of any exclusively economic
interpretation of the rise of capitalism
role of certain Protestant moral values in stimulating
the rise of capitalism in Western Europe and North
America
b. and c.
Answer: d
 Weber recognized the one-sidedness of any
exclusively economic interpretation of the rise of
capitalism and the role of certain Protestant moral
values in stimulating the rise of capitalism in
Western Europe and North America.
5. According to the secularization thesis:
a.
b.
c.
d.
religious institutions, actions, and conscious are
on the decline worldwide
religious institutions will disappear in the near
future
religiosity is negatively correlated with level of
economic development
Communist governments, which promoted
atheism, lowered the level of religiosity in their
countries0
Answer : a

According to the secularization thesis: religious
institutions, actions, and conscious are on the
decline worldwide.
6. Which of the following is not a characteristic of a
cult?
a.
b.
c.
d.
Cults are groups of people committed to a
religious vision that rejects mainstream culture
and society.
Cults are generally led by charismatic individuals.
Cults tend to recruit members from all segments
of the stratification system.
Cults tend to disappear after a relatively short
period of time.
Answer: c

The following is not a characteristic of a cult:

Cults tend to recruit members from all segments
of the stratification system.
7. The routinization of charisma is Weber's
term for the transformation of divine
enlightenment into a permanent feature of
everyday life.
a. True
b. False
Answer: a
 The routinization of charisma is Weber's term for
the transformation of divine enlightenment into a
permanent feature of everyday life.
8. Revised secularization thesis focuses on:
a.
b.
c.
d.
“re-enchantment” of the world
restriction of religion to just the spiritual part of
people’s lives
the way religion has become a personal matter rather
than one imposed by institutions
all of these choices
Answer: b
 The revised secularization thesis focuses on the
restriction of religion to just the spiritual part of
people’s lives.
9. Affirmative action in college admissions refers to
the practice of:
a.
b.
c.
d.
offering of financial support to students from poor
backgrounds
giving preference to students who have a parent who
graduated from the college to which they are applying
giving preference to applicants from minority groups
all of these choices
Answer : c

Affirmative action in college admissions refers to the
practice of giving preference to applicants from
minority groups.
10. Advocates of affirmative action say:
a.
b.
c.
d.
it compensates for historical injustices such as slavery
and expulsion
it enriches college campuses by encouraging racial
and ethnic diversity
it creates a middle-class leadership group in minority
communities
all of these choices
Answer: d
 Advocates of affirmative action say: it compensates
for historical injustices such as slavery and
expulsion, it enriches college campuses by
encouraging racial and ethnic diversity and it
creates a middle-class leadership group in
minority communities.
11. Which of the following is a latent function that
schools accomplish unintentionally?
a.
b.
c.
serving as a "marriage market" by bringing potential
mates together
keeping children under surveillance and freeing
parents to work
both of these choices
Answer : c

Serving as a "marriage market" by bringing
potential mates together and keeping children
under surveillance and freeing parents to work
are latent functions that schools accomplish
unintentionally.
12. IQ tests measure:
a.
b.
c.
d.
underlying social stratification
genetic endowment
credential inflation
a. and b. only
Answer: d
 IQ tests measure underlying social stratification
and genetic endowment.
13. Self-fulfilling prophecies in the educational
system:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
reinforce background factors
reduce background factors
reproduce existing patterns of inequality
none of these choices
reinforce the effects of background factors, and help
reproduce existing patterns of inequality
Answer: e

Self-fulfilling prophecies in the educational system
reinforce the effects of background factors, and
help reproduce existing patterns of inequality.