Chapter 13 - Religion

• Religion


  A system of beliefs, practices, and philosophical values shared by a group of people; it defines the sacred, helps explain life, and offers salvation from the problems of human existence
• Profane


  Pertaining to things that are part of common, ordinary, everyday experience
• Sacred


  Pertaining to things that are awe inspiring and knowable only through extraordinary experience
• Rituals


  Regularized and prescribed patterns of behavior or practices that are related to the sacred
• Magic


  The use of spirits to control supernatural forces
• Supernaturalism


  Belief in the existence of non-personalized, extraordinary, nonhuman forces that can and often do influence human events
• Mana


  A diffuse, non-personalized force that acts through anything that lives or moves
• Taboo


  A sacred prohibition against touching, mentioning, or looking at certain objects, acts, or people
• Animism


  Movements that typically prophesy the end of the world, the destruction of all evil people and their works, and the saving of the just
• Polytheism


  A type of religion in which there are several gods
• Revitalization Movement


  Religious movements that stress a return to traditional religious values and practices of the past
• Millenarian Movement


  Movements that typically prophesy the end of the world, the destruction of all evil people and their works, and the saving of the just
• Aleination


  In Marxian theory, the process by which people lose control over the social institutions they themselves invented
• Universal Church


  A church that includes all members of a society
• Ecclesia


  A national or society-wide religion that is separate from civil society but closely parallel to it
• Denomination


  One of several established churches in a society that tends to limit its membership to a particular class, ethnic, or religious group
• Sect


  A small religious group that usually includes unconventional beliefs and practices
• Secularism


  The emphasis on nonreligious ideas and beliefs
• Ecumenism


  The trend among many religious communities to draw together and project a sense of unity and common direction despite doctrinal differences
• Max Weber


  Proposed, in The Protestant Ethnic and the Spirit of Capitalism, the idea that the ideology of Calvinism promoted the development of capitalism
• Bronislaw Malinowski


  An anthropologist who explained the functional differences between religion and magic, with the former uniting a group of believers and the latter helping the individual who used magic
• Marvin Harris


  Argued that the Hindu belief in the sacredness of cows is a practical strategy for adapting the the environment in India and therefore quite rational
• Karl Marx


  Saw religion as a tool that the upper class use to maintain control of society and to dominate the lower class
• Emile Durkheim


  The first sociologist to distinguish between the sacred and the profane and who discussed religion's role in promoting social cohesion

  -the distinction is between the social and nonsocial
• How did Emile Durkheim view religion?


  Durkheim thought that all religions divide the universe into two mutually exclusive categories. The profane consists of empirically observable things, or things knowable through common, everyday experiences. In contrast, the sacred consists of things that are awe inspiring and knowable only through extraordinary experience. Almost anything may be designated as sacred. Sacred traits or objects symbolize important shared values.
• What are rituals?


  Patterns of behavior or practices that are related to the sacred are known as rituals. All religions have formalized social rituals, but many also feature private rituals such as prayer, which is a means for individuals to address or communicate with supernatural being or forces. One of the functions of ritual and prayer is to produce an appropriate emotional state.
• How do functionalists view religion?


  Structural functionalists examine the role of religion in social life. Religion, they say, offers individuals ways to reduce anxiety and promote emotional integration. They also believe religion provides for group unity and cohesion not only through its own practices but also, sometimes, through the hostility and prejudice directed at members of a religious group by outsiders.
• How did being a structural functionalist influence Emile Durkheim's view of religion?


  Durkheim believed religion served a vital function in maintaining the social order. He believed religion frequently legitimizes the structure of the society within which it exists. It also establishes world-views that help people to understand the purpose of life. These world-views can have social, political, and economic consequences. Religion can also help a society adapt to its natural environment or to changing social, economic, and political circumstances. Durkheim believed that when people recognize or worship supernatural entities, they are really worshiping their own society.
• How do conflict theorists view religion?


  Conflict theorists emphasize religion's role in justifying the political status quo by cloaking political authority with sacred legitimacy and thereby making opposition to it seem immoral. Alienation, the process by which people lose control over the social institutions they themselves have invented, plays an important role in the origin of religion according to this view. Conflict theorists believe religion tends to conceal the natural and human causes of social problems in the world and discourages people from taking action to correct these problems.
• What is religion?


  Religion is a system of beliefs, practices, and philosophical values shared by a group of people that define the sacred, helps explain life, and offers salvation from the problems of human existence. Religion is one of society's most important institutions. All religions endorse a belief system, which usually includes a supernatural order and set of values to be applied to daily life.
• What themes can be seen in religion in America?


  Four main themes that characterize religion in America:

  -diversity

  -widespread

  -belief

  -secularism

  -ecumenism
• What else does religious affiliation tell us about people?


  Religious affiliation seems to be correlated with other important aspects of people's lives. Direct relationships can be traced between membership in a particular religious group and a person's politics, professional, and economic standing, educational level, family life, social mobility, and attitudes toward controversial social issues.