2. Religion in Historical Perspective
Sociological Perspectives on Religion
Types of Religious Organization
Trends in Religion in the United States
Religion in the Future

3. How does religion affect society as a whole
(does it divide/unite)? How does it affect
social institutions like:
› Marriages, Political Structures, Economy
How does religion, as a social institution,
affect the wellbeing of individuals?
What does it mean to be ‘religious’? How
does one define and measure religiosity?

4. Religiosity is the extent to which a person
does one or more of the following:
› (1) believes in and “feels” or experiences certain
aspects of religion
› (2) becomes involved in religious activities such
as attending church or reading sacred texts
› (3) believes in the teachings of the church,
› (4) lives in accordance with those teachings and
beliefs.

5. Religion seeks to answer important
questions such as why we exist, why people
suffer and die, and what happens when we
die-the ‘sacred canopy’
Things that people do not set apart as
sacred are referred to as profane—the
everyday, secular or “worldly” aspects of life.

6. Most religions have four elements:
Ritual (ex. Prayer, communion)
A sense of the Sacred
A system of beliefs-in the supernatural and
a set of ethics OR a set of abstract ideals
Organization-each religion has a public
component

7. Ernest Troeltsch (1931) created a typology of
three varieties of religious organizations:
Ecclesia
Church (Denomination)
Sect
Cult (now called New Religious Movements,
NRMs)

8. Organization Membership Worship Salvation
Attitude
Toward Other
Religions
Church
Large,
bureaucratic
organization,led
by professional
clergy
Open to all;
members
usually from
upper and
middle classes
Formal,
orderly
Granted by
God
Tolerant
Sect
Small group,high
degree of lay
participation
Guarded
membership,
usually from
lower classes
Informal,
spontaneous
Achieved by
moral purity
Intolerant

9. Encompasses all
members of a society
People are primarily
born into the ecclesia,
do not convert
Influential in
government affairs

10. Stable, institutional
organization
Well-educated clergy
Elaborate rituals and
beliefs
Tolerant of religious
pluralism and the
secular world

11. Less organized than
denomination
Charismatic, less
educated ministers
Growth by recruiting,
rather than being born
into church
Higher levels of devotion
Reject worldliness and
‘impure’ denominations
Tend to draw recruits from
the lower classes

12. Offer completely new beliefs,
rituals, and means of
transcendence
Live in stark opposition to the
world
Informally organized, led by
self-styled, charismatic
leadership
Recruit people who have
economic and psychological
deprivation

13. Simple supernaturalism - the belief that
supernatural forces affect people's lives
positively or negatively.
Animism - the belief that plants, animals, and
elements of the natural world are endowed with
spirits that impact events in society.
Theism - belief in a God or Gods.
Transcendent idealism - belief in sacred
principles of thought and conduct, such as truth,
justice, life and tolerance for others.

14. Christianity Islam Hinduism Buddhism Judaism
Confucianis
m
No. of
Adherents
1.7 billion 1 billion 719 million 309 million 18 million 5.9 million
Founder Jesus Muhammad
No specific
founder
Siddhartha
Gautama
Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob
K’ung Fu-Tzu
Dates
Founded
1st century
C.E.
ca. 600 C.E
ca. 1500
B.C.E
500 to 600
B.C.E.
ca. 2000
B.C.E.
500 B.C.E

15. Diverse-85 denominations with atleast 50,000
members *
Positive slant of religion-heaven, personal
blessings, etc. due to ‘religious marketplace’
Freedom from Anticlericalism-Americans do
not have bitter feelings towards priests as
protectors of the status quo
Civil religion-God is frequently invoked in
American rituals, symbols, etc, with little
reference to which God/beliefs

18. ‘Proof’ that the U.S. is more secular ‘Proof’ that the U.S. is NOT more
secular
1 out of 4 people between 18-28 yrs. of
age were unaffiliated with any religion
Slighlty more people (38% of population)
claims to have had a born again
experience in 2008 than 20 yrs earlier
28% of US adults raised in faith have
abandoned faith or chosen another one
Percentage of people believing the Bible is
the ‘inspired Word of God’ is roughly the
same in 2008 as 1984
Major denominations, like the Disciples of
Christ, PC-USA, Episcopalians, AME Zion
have lost at least 20% of their membership
in the last 20 yrs. (link)
In 2007, 38% of 18-29 yrs old ‘strongly
agreed’ that God was ‘angered by human
sin’, the highest of any age group
The no. of Americans having never
attended church doubled between 1973
and 2008 (link)
33% of the same age group reported
witnessing to friends at least once in the
past month, the highest of any age group
(Link)
No. of Americans who believe that the
Bible is the actual Word of God decreased
from 37% in 1984 to 31% in 2008 (link)
Church membership was nearly 62% in
2000, only 17% in 1776 (Starke & Finke)

24. Religion is the ‘opiate of the masses’
according to Karl Marx-a way for the elites to
reinforce the oppression of the lower classes
Later conflict theorists point to the use of
religion to justify racism, sexism, and
oppression of homosexuals
Focus on the ‘hereafter’ blinds people to
current oppression

26. Religion serves as a reference group to help
people define themselves.
People are socialized into certain roles (ex.
Being reverent during communion) through
group expectations
People attach sacred meaning to symbols

27. What does the
head covering for
women represent
in the Christian
faith? (Hint: 1
Cor. 11)
How do head
coverings in
various faiths
function as a
sociological
symbol?

28. Max Weber studied the attitudes of Protestants
and Catholics in Western Europe towards work
and this life in late 19th century
He discovered that Protestants, particularly
Calvnists, developed a rational worldview of
hard work and thrift that propelled their
economic activities
Protestant Ethic spread to America, to non-
Calvinists
› Example: Ben Franklin is famous for his quote “A
penny saved is a penny earned”

30. Modern evangelical leaders often express
their belief that economic freedom and Bible
are compatible
Jerry Falwell once stated:
› “God is in favor of freedom, property, ownership, competition,
diligence, work and acquisition. All of this is taught in the Word of
God, in both the Old and New Testaments”
Pat Robertson
› ”…Communism and capitalism in their most extreme, secular
manifestations are equally doomed to failure,….free enterprise is
the economic system most nearly meeting humanity’s God-given
need for freedom”.

31. Religion is a ‘social glue’ that binds people
with sacred rituals
Religion upholds basic social norms
Legitimates governmental authority
Religion is a balm for the oppressed and
marginalized
But also dysfunctional….
Prevents social change
Enhances political conflict

32. Events like the “Meet You at the
Pole” (pictured below) bind
people by sacred rituals
Most monarchies, like Great
Britain, invoke a ‘divine right’
of the monarchy to rule the
people. Vestiges of this
system can be seen in the
coronation ceremony of
Queen Elizabeth II (1952).

33. People engage in a
rational cost-benefit
analysis when
‘shopping’ for churches
Churches vary in their
promise of rewards in
this life and the
hereafter
Successful churches
are those that promise
the most rewards Rational Choice theory explains
why prosperity gospel churches,
like Joel Osteen’s Lakewood
Church, gather 40,000+ each
week.

34. Secularization theory, which believed that
modernization, democratization, and
globalization would decreased the need for
faith, has been debunked
Worldwide surge of fundamentalism(s)
across religious traditions
Religious devotion will increasingly be
coupled with religious tolerance
Polarization of beliefs within traditions