social class and religion

• Despite the upper classes being over-represented in attendance at religious services, a 2015 poll found lower levels of beliefs in the middle classes than the working class
• This can be explained through levels of education and social expectations
• Types of religious organizations that different social classes attend

  • Lower social classes: Religious organizations that promote social changes such as cults, sects, and more progressive denominations
  • Middle classes: New age movements including client cults
  • Upper classes: Traditional religions
• Reason for middle classes attending new age movements

  Greater individualism and a desire for personal fulfilment
• Reason for working class attending alternative religious practices


  As a form of alternative survival in society
• Secularization across the lower social classes has left many disenchanted and turned away from religious practices
• Marx's view on religion

  Religion acted as a conservative force and provided people with a brief respite from the effects of alienation but did little to encourage social change
• Marx saw religion as the opium of the masses, putting down revolutionary further and controlling the behavior of the lower classes
• Gramski and Engels' view on religion


  Religion could be a revolutionary force and as such the working classes may be drawn to religion
• The decline in religious attendance is a symbol of people rejecting ruling class ideologies and as such explains the lower attendance of the working class at religious organizations in post-industrial society
• Weber's view on religious belief

  Religious belief was influenced by an individual's status in society
• Weber's explanation for higher levels of upper class attendance at religious ceremonies

  The Protestant Reformation helped to spread the message of capitalism by promoting ideas of wealth accumulation as being a sign of being blessed by God
• Hunt's explanation for declining beliefs of the middle class

  Higher levels of education and more liberal ideologies have caused the middle classes to become less religious
• The middle class were more focused on rational and scientific thinking whilst also seeking out personal fulfilment in order to maximize their potential, leading more to turn towards new age movements
• Sections of the middle and upper classes remained more conservative in their values and sought to remain with religious organizations that chose not to promote change but to preserve the status quo
• In the post-modern era, the middle classes in particular embrace ideologies of individualism, leading to a spread of religious diversity
• The increased choice of religious and spiritual movements can be seen as a result of increased individualism, more choice and distrust of traditional organizations
• Middle class affluence has allowed the marketization of spirituality and the role of profit-making organizations within the growth of new age and new religious movements
• The increased choice rarely extends to the lower social classes who have limited choice beyond traditional religious organizations or localized sects, cults and denominations
• While the middle class are presented with more opportunities, the working class are often left to accept the status quo or reject religious belief altogether
• The greater choice available to the middle class as impacts of consumerism and their ability to afford to choose their religious and spiritual practices provides them with more choice for example client cults and new age movements
• The upper classes remain closely associated with traditional religion as it cements their position in society with the church remaining closely allies to their personal ideologies
• There is a decline in the influence of the church over state in recent years with increasing disagreement between religious organizations and the policies put forward by the government