Beliefs in Society

• Alienation: Marx argued that religion is a form of _ as individuals create an all-powerful being which has control over them. By doing so individuals are giving up their right to make decisions which in turn means they are denying themselves of their true humanity.
• Ascetic: One of the main beliefs identified by Weber regarding Calvinism which encouraged followers to lead a frugal lifestyle without indulging in life's pleasures. This aided capitalism to grow as it encouraged making money and reinvesting it in their businesses.
• Belief System: Any set of ideas and beliefs that people user to make sense of the world around them.
• Church: Has a formal organisation structure with a hierarchy of paid officials. Generally, they would be accepting of wider society drawing in a variety of members from differing social backgrounds. They manage to have a close relationship with the state and maintain that they have the monopoly on religious truth.
• Clash of the Civilisations: A theory formulated by Samuel Huntington about civilisations
• Collective Conscience: Durkheim argues that the main function of religion is to create shared values and moral beliefs to be reinforced in society. This is reinforced by collective worship allowing for social solidarity and the collective conscience to be strengthened.
• Cults: Often lack clear guidelines and demands of followers due to the poor structure many possess. The followers are often seen as customers buying a product to help enrich their lives or enhance their spirituality.
• Denominations: A typology created by Niebuhr (1929) - Place minor restrictions on their members. Do not identify with the state and believe that the church and state should be separated. They do not claim to have monopoly on religious truth and they are tolerant of other religions.
• False Class Consciousness: Marxism sees religion as a form of social control as it creates false class consciousness. This allows for the proletariat to be exploited by creating mistaken beliefs about the nature of social life which justifies the position of the bourgeoisie.
• Functional definition: Concerned with the functions religion performs for society and the individual. Durkheim defined religion in terms of two domains the sacred and profane. Things that are sacred produces an element of awe and respect from an individual and society but profane does not.
• Globalisation: Refers to the increasing interconnectedness of different societies throughout the world.
• Holistic Milieu: Describes the environment of a new age movement. The new age movement grows because individuals are encouraged within this environment to focus on their spirituality.
• Liberation Theology: Maduro believes religion has some independence from the ruling class and economic system which means it can act as a revolutionary force for change.
• Monotheistic: A religion is the belief in a single God. For example; Christianity believes in a single God that has control over the world and individual's behaviour.
• New Age Movements: Appeared in the 1980's with a focus on developing spirituality through its belief systems. However, these movements are not as organised as mainstream religions which can ultimately affect the life span of the movement.
• Pick and Mix Culture: Postmodernity has enabled the individual to become a spiritual shopper. As a result, the individual will actively select and choose a religion based on its suitability in answering existential question.
• Positivism: Aims to explain social behaviour using scientific rational and rigour. Comte argues that scientific beliefs would replace traditional religion, due to it providing objective and reliable evidence for phenomena.
• Predestination: The Calvinist belief identified that there are individuals who are amongst the elect who have been chosen by God as one of the saved.
• Religion: A belief system which involves a supernatural being or forces that go beyond an individual's ordinary experience. The system may claim the existence of a supreme God (monotheistic) or several gods (polytheistic).
• Religiosity: Refers to how religious a person defines themselves as.
• Religious beliefs: These beliefs will outline clear guidelines for individuals to follow regarding how they should worship, behave and practice their religion privately and publicly.
• Sacred and Profane: Durkheim noted two distinct areas within religions
• Sects: Has an informal organisational structure with a charismatic leader persuading and encouraging others to follow them. Encouraging members to reject the mainstream values of society. Rcts require a deep commitment from their members and expect them to withdraw from life outside of the sect.
• Secularisation: Commonly defined as the decline of religion and the loss of religions influence over state issues.
• Social Constructivist definition: Uses an interactionist approach to understand what religion means to the individual. Sociologist will take a micro level approach to investigating how people define religion and make sense of the world around them.
• Spirit of Capitalism: Weber identified that this was aided by Calvinism as it enabled economic growth to occur which enabled society to enter industrialised capitalism.
• Theodicies: Attempts to construct and deal with how belief systems work.
• World affirming cult: They tend not to have a belief in a God or gods. The members are not expected to remove themselves from the wider world, instead they argue the followers intend to help enrich their spirituality and gain fulfilment.
• World rejecting cult: The most common type of cult. critical of the outside world and is seeking to change it. They encourage followers to remove themselves from wider society and dedicate themselves to the movement completely by joining and living in a commune.