Ideology, science and religion
Karl popper - belief systems and monopoly of truth
Weber - definitions of religion
Aldridge - definitions are socially constructed, scientology is considered religion in some places but not in
others
Berger - function of a sacred canopy
Yinger - functional definitions and answering ‘ultimate questions’
Kuhn - paradigm
Gomm - theories are produced from their social context, paradigms avoid falsification
Polanyi - to protect themselves from challenge, religions have a denial of legitimacy and subsidiary
explanations with ‘get out clauses’ e.g. Evans-Pritchard and Azande people
Merton - agrees with Popper; science has grown due to CUDOS norms
Theoretical views of ideologies and religion
Althusser - dominant ideology was spread through a series of ideological state apparatuses
Michalowski and Kramer - pharmaceuticals selling at prices only wealthy societies can afford and sold unsafe
medicines with lack of stringent standards, to developing countries
Ann Oakley - maternal deprivation to taint women as weak ‘development of young children was damaged’ by
working mothers
Lyotard - religion and science are meta-narratives, no longer relevant in postmodern fragmented society
Mannheim - all ideologies are the product of theologians who cannot relate to the everyday individual so their
ideas reflect personal interests with ideological thought and utopian thought. ‘Free-floating intelligentsia’
needed for objective world view
Durkheim -sacred and profane, creates collective conscience and social integration, as well as cognitive
function of intellectual thought and reason
Parsons - religion elevates the values of society into sacred moral codes e.g the ten commandments in
christianity generally underpin UK law
Link to crime and deviance with state and law making (Chambliss)
Malinowski - psychological ‘rites of passage’ vital source of stability e.g. Trobriand Islands
Bellah - promoting integration through civil religion e.g. Americanism and pledge to flag
Hamilton - criticises functionalist theory as religion also has dysfunctions
Marx - superstructure of capitalism and false class consciousness, opium of the masses e.g. Hinduism caste
system
Leach - agrees with Marxist view, between powerful and national religion e.g. only 13% of bishops in COE
attended state comprehensive schools, queen is also head of COE.
Norris and Inglehart - agree as poor are most attracted due to existential security
Halevy - argue that they act as social stability, preventing revolution e.g Corrupt Methodist Anglican church
Worsley - criticised durkheim for misunderstanding separation between sacred and profane and the
significance of totems
Marx - opiate of the masses
Lenin - spiritual gin
Althusser - ideological state apparatus for false class consciousness
Matthew 5:5 - blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth - reward for hard work or reward to sustain
capitalism?
Mark 10:25 - it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of God - prevents action to be taken in this world, by saying it will be justified in heaven
Engels - religion has a dual character; socialism and christianity similar features
Feminism
Simone de Beauvoir - exploitation of women to put up with suffering
Holm - menstruation and pregnancy contribute to the devaluation of women in contemporary religions
Armstrong - exclusion of women from the priesthood exemplified women’s marginalisation in religious and
social life
Woodhead - exclusion from women both from positions of authority and from some religious practices comes
from a deep-seated resistance to women’s freedom and choice.
Armstrong - ‘stained glass ceiling’ COE only recently voted to allow female bishops
Daly - it was the development of monotheistic religions that induced most patriarchy
Saadawi - religions are not the direct cause of women’s oppression, moreso a patriarchal society full of
powerful men who reinterpreted religious beliefs. The veil is described as a ‘tool to oppress women’.
Woodhead - many many muslim women choose to wear the veil, to escape male gaze
Simone de Beauvoir - attendance at religious services more popular amongst women since their ideological
messages are directed at women (cook,clean,reproduce,suffer)
Social change
Weber - protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism 1904
Eisenstadt - criticised weber as capitalism did occur in places where there was Calvinism and indeed pre-dated
Calvinism in some places, e.g. Roman Catholic Italy or other areas such as Scotland where there was dominant
Calvinism but lots of poverty.
Tawney - capitalism helped create protestantism at least as much as the other way around however it was
rationalism, rather than salvation panic, that brought the two together.
Neo-Marxist on social change
Engels - dual character
Bloch - The Principle of Hope, religions did offer people the idea of a better sort of society, like a glimpse of
Utopia in order for people to organise to bring about revolutionary change
Gramsci - through culture, the bourgeoisie were able to maintain hegemony however workers were also able
to organise against this through a counter hegemony, led by organic intellectuals, e.g. Liberation Theology and
Martin Luther King for Jim Crow laws
Maduro - liberation theology in El Salvador provides guidance for political campaigns, criticised for being
eurocentric. Safe outlet of frustration as charismatic figures were untouchable by the oppressive government
Lehmann - criticises: encourages followers on escaping poverty, benefiting capitalism
Social change today
Shah - leader of Islamic revolution in iran
Bruce - New Christian Right was mostly unsuccessful and did not fit with US mainstream
ISIS & Daesh
Religious organisations
Troeltsch - typologies on religious organisations
Niebuhr - denominations
Jim Jones the People’s Temple sect
Bruce - criticises Troeltsch’s typology as it isn’t fully applicable to today’s society with religious pluralism
New Age movements and cults
Wallis - cults differ from sects as they are individualised, loosely-organised, tolerant and little commitment and
typologies of NRM’s
Stark and Bainbridge - typologies of NRM’s
Heelas and Woodhead - The Kendal Project and holistic milieu
Drane - New Age movements have grown as a result of an apparent failure of science as a belief system, people
are turning away from science and looking within themselves for spirituality
Bruce - criticises idea that New Age belief is postmodernist as individualism is not religious at all
Eileen Barker - the Making of a Moonie
Social class and belief
Weber - theodicy of disprivilege
Link to crime and deviance in which religion can act as a subculture to tackle relative deprivation rather than
criminal subcultures like Pryce’s study in Bristol
Bruce - M/C - spiritual needs seem more important to those with few materials needs
Ahern - study in London found w/c to be distrustful of mainstream Church of England
Glock - spiritual compensation from sects
Wallis - denominations more appealing as they are run by their congregations
Holden - study with people from Jehovah’s witness realising they were most low class
Gender and belief
Simone de Beauvoir - false ideology of reward in heaven makes them devoted to faith
Glock and Stark - material, spiritual and relative deprivation faced more than men
Woodhead - women attracted to the holistic milieu once drifting from mainstream organisations, whereas men
haven’t replaced them with anything
Miller and Hoffman - risk between genders, men take more risks and lack of religion is risky of not going to
heaven
Woodhead - churches have become feminised as secularisation had bigger effect on men
Age and Belief
Brierley - average age of church goers went from 37 to 49 between 1979 and 2005 and group with lowest
church attendance was those between 15 and 19
Christianity has a rapidly ageing population
Link to family and households in which ageing population resulted in greater dependency ratios therefore
families may not have had the time they had before for church
Durkheim - sacred and profane differences in age - young see secular heroes as sacred whereas old see religion
as sacred
Lynch - the functions of religion are provided by many other things e.g. music, subculture
Voas and Crockett - the ageing effect - afterlife and disease call for holistic milieu; the generational effect - as
society becomes more secular, each generation is less religious
Ethnicity and Belief
Modood et al - almost all ethnic minority groups in Uk more religious than white British
Bruce - cultural transition and cultural defence
Johal and Davie - important in multicultural society for sense of identity & belonging
John Bird - greater level of religiosity in country of immigrant origin with less secularisation; membership of a
religious group providing a sense of community and identity; maintaining cultural identity and tradition;
religious socialisation from parents; deal with oppression
Chryssides - immigrants can either choose apostasy, accommodation or renewed vigour
Secularisation
Wilson - “process whereby religious thinking, practices and institutions lose their social significance”
Gill et al - used surveys to show significant decline in belief in god & the afterlife
Crockett - 50% of the population attended church in the 1850s, compared to 7.5% in 2000, collected by census
and analysed by Crockett about the 19th century as the ‘golden age’.
Bruce - if the number of clergy and congregations continue to decline at their current rate, methodism will
cease to exist by 2030. Technological world views taking over.
Weber - rationalisation and disenchantment, middle age enchanted garden with spirits before enlightenment
period
Davie - believing without belonging, privatised religion & vicarious practice
Lyon - “pick n mix” society outside churches and mosques
Berger - no longer a shared sacred canopy due to pluralism and rationalisation. Western academics were
blinded by their own atheism, nevertheless there has been desecularisation in the world and it is eurocentric;
% of religious people is increasing in developing world mostly due to demographic changes
Lynd and Lynd - 1920s - 94% of churchgoers thought US christianity was ‘the one true religion’ compared to
41% in 1970s
Stark and Bainbridge - religious market theory and rational choice theory (right)
Norris and Inglehart - existential security theory, lack of safety net (left)
Parsons - structural differentiation from other institutions performing functions
Globalisation
Beyer - particularism and impact on fundamentalism; universalism and clash of civilisations prevented through
inter-faith dialogue through global communications ; religion is increasingly marginalised
Nanda - Hinduism is closely related to Indian nationalism, 93% of indians consider their culture ‘superior to
others’, India has become what Bellah called the civil religion
Martin - growth of Pentecostalism by endearing to poor parts of world during globalisation
Fundamentalism
Giddens - fundamentalism is becoming ever-more apparent in contemporary society due to globalisation
causing insecurity and fundamentalist religion offers very simple answers
Almond - “a pattern of religious militancy led by self-styled true believers”
Armstrong - fundamentalist religions are not mediaeval throwbacks but quite contemporary
Postmodernism and religion
Lyon - Jesus in Disneyland - religion has become disembedded leading to ‘pick n mix’, religion viewed as
consumption not obligation
Lyotard - religion is just another narrative competing with all the others
Bauman - in modernity people were looking for universal truths whereas in post modernity they look for belief
that helped them at that time and place