Social Sciences
Types of Religion
Religions can be categorized into various types based on their beliefs, practices, and organizational structures. Some common types include monotheistic religions (belief in one God), polytheistic religions (belief in multiple gods), animistic religions (belief in spiritual beings in nature), and atheistic religions (lack of belief in a deity). These types help to understand the diversity and complexity of religious beliefs and practices across different societies.
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eBook - PDF- Heather Griffiths, Nathan Keirns, Eric Strayer, Susan Cody-Rydzewski, Gail Scaramuzzo, Tommy Sadler, Sally Vyain, Jeff Bry, Faye Jones(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Openstax(Publisher)
15 Religion Figure 15.1 Religions come in many forms, such as this large megachurch. (Photo courtesy of ToBeDaniel/Wikimedia Commons) Learning Objectives 15.1. The Sociological Approach to Religion • Discuss the historical view of religion from a sociological perspective • Understand how the major sociological paradigms view religion 15.2. World Religions • Explain the differences between various types of religious organizations • Understand classifications of religion, like animism, polytheism, monotheism, and atheism • Describe several major world religions 15.3. Religion in the United States • Give examples of religion as an agent of social change • Describe current U.S. trends including megachurches and secularization Introduction to Religion Why do sociologists study religion? For centuries, humankind has sought to understand and explain the “meaning of life.” Many philosophers believe this contemplation and the desire to understand our place in the universe are what differentiate humankind from other species. Religion, in one form or another, has been found in all human societies since human societies first appeared. Archaeological digs have revealed ritual objects, ceremonial burial sites, and other religious artifacts. Social conflict and even wars often result from religious disputes. To understand a culture, sociologists must study its religion. What is religion? Pioneer sociologist Émile Durkheim described it with the ethereal statement that it consists of “things that surpass the limits of our knowledge” (1915). He went on to elaborate: Religion is “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say set apart and forbidden, beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community, called a church, all those who adhere to them” (1915).
eBook - PDFReadings in the Sociology of Religion
The Commonwealth and International Library: Readings in Sociology
- Joan Brothers, A. H. Richmond(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Pergamon(Publisher)
P A R T IV Types of Research 1. Religious Sociology 2. Institutional Analysis 3. Religion and Society This page intentionally left blank 1 . R E L I G I O U S S O C I O L O G Y Religious Sociology and Science of Religions G . L E BRAS BEHIND this R e v i e w , 1 of which this is the first issue, lies a brief history. Its publication offers a n opportunity to repay some of the debts which the sociology of religion owes to science. W h e n w e recall the birth of this enterprise, the recent contributions from the disciplines sponsoring it a n d the service w e h o p e to render in exchange, it seems that b o t h the form a n d content of this preface, dedicated to all w h o are interested in sacred a n d secular matters a n d in their relationship, are laid d o w n for us. Ever since it was founded by the C . N . R . S . 2 in 1945, the Centre d'Études Sociologiques has incorporated a section for religious sociology, a n d without interruption the pick of y o u n g researchers has m e t in the various offices of the C . N . R . S . for courses a n d conferences, 3 until the directors of the F o n d a t i o n Nationale des Sciences Politiques, with exemplary generosity, m a d e available to us the a c c o m m o d a t i o n which is essential for a n y form of regular activity. 4 1 Archives de Sociologie des Religions. 2 Centre Nationale de Recherche Scientifique. 8 Rue de Montpensier et Boulevard Arago. Despite the goodwill of the C.N.R.S. conditions in the early days were not very comfortable because of the housing crisis. 4 Our group now occupies premises recently furnished by the Foundation at 30 rue Saint Guillaume, where we shall be pleased to welcome anyone interested in our Review and in our work. 129 130 G. LE BRAS T h e Sociology of Religions group, encouraged by H e n r i Desroches a n d François Isambert, set out to collect a n d classify the studies which over the years have b e c o m e widely scattered or gone out of print.
eBook - PDFVision, Tradition, Interpretation
Theology, Religion and the Study of Religion
- Eric J. Lott(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter(Publisher)
Yet the key to how religion is understood does differ in each discipline; social structuring, cultural forms, mental processes — each is seen as the most significant factor in deciphering the hidden dynamics of religious life. Indeed, our understanding of the complex ways in which there is interplay between religious phenomena and diverse kinds of structuring in human life — social, political, cultural, psychological — is in many ways de-pendent on these disciplines. For the shaping of religious traditions has much to do with these dimensions of human life; understanding this interplay con-tributes so much to understanding the dynamics of religious life. What, how-ever, when a behavioural science assumes, as it often does, that religion is to be 162 Vision, Tradition, Interpretation studied in all its manifest forms essentially as no more than a human cultural phenomenon ? Have we to assume that it is on these grounds that empirical investigation is not only appropriate, but is of decisive importance in under-standing what is really happening in religious life, as it were transcendent to the deluded level of theologising? This does not mean that behavioural scientists never take religious life with very great seriousness, nor that they can only see it in a non-realist, reductionist, functional way, as we shall see. The most formative sociologists of religion, Durkheim and Weber, for ex-ample, both saw religion as providing the key to understanding human society as much as the converse (cf. Whaling 1985: chaps. 3-5). But these two formed their questions about society in very different ways, as well as understanding the dynamics of religion differently (Baum, in Eliade and Tracy, 1980, to which the following is considerably indebted). Durkheim's theories were of remarkable seminal importance to the conceptual development of both sociology and anthropology, to some extent even of psychology.
- Richard K. Fenn(Author)
- 2008(Publication Date)
- Wiley-Blackwell(Publisher)
It does, however, require that social theory for the cross-cultural study of religion be much more aware of its own contingency and dependence on the social context to which it is applied and in which it is framed. It also necessitates taking much more seriously the notion of how religion actually gets used in society. This probably eliminates the possibility of a universal theory for all times and circumstances; and it certainly makes precise theoretical prediction of future states of religion virtually impossible. Admitting these limitations never-theless gives social science a better chance of understanding differences in a world where we realize that the aims of our observations are to a large degree the variable products of our own making. References Bamyeh, M.A. 1993. “Transnationalism,” Current Sociology 41(3):1–95. Beckford, J.A. 1989. Religion and Advanced Industrial Society. London: Unwin Hyman. Bellah, R.N. 1970. “Civil Religion in America,” in Beyond Belief: Essays on Religion in a Post-Industrial World , Ed. R.N. Bellah. New York: Harper & Row, pp. 168–89. Bellah, R.N., Madsen, R., Sullivan, W.M., Swidler, A., and Tipton, S.M. 1985. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. San Francisco: Harper & Row. Beyer, P. 1998. “The Modern Emergence of Religions and a Global Social System for Religion,” International Sociology 13:151–72. Despland, M. 1979. La religion en occident: Evolution des idées et du vécu. Montreal: Fides. Durkheim, E. 1965. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life , Transl. J.W. Swain. New York: Free Press. Durkheim, E. 1969. “Le sentiment religieux à l’heure actuelle,” Archives de Sociologie des Religions 27:73–7. Fitzgerald, T. 1990. “Hinduism and the ‘World Religion’ Fallacy,” Religion 20:101–18. Fitzgerald, T. 1997. “A Critique of ‘Religion’ as a Cross-Cultural Category,” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 9:91–110.
eBook - PDFThe Promise of Salvation
A Theory of Religion
- Martin Riesebrodt, Steven Rendall(Authors)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- University of Chicago Press(Publisher)
71 8 c h a p t e r f o u r Religious Practice and the Promise of Salvation: Outline of a Theory of Religion I t is now time to draw conclusions from the preceding discussions and sketch the outlines of my theory of religion. To that end, I will discuss three elements in the construction of the theory: defining religion, under-standing it, and explaining it. I begin by formulating my position in the manner of a thesis, which I then proceed to explain in greater detail in the course of this chapter. First, I note that only a content-oriented definition based on the mean-ing of religious action allows us adequately to delimit religion as a universal social phenomenon. Like other social phenomena, religion cannot be satis-factorily explained without its meaning being understood. Reference to its actual or presumed effects on society does not represent a definition of re-ligion, since such reference infers the origin from the function and thus ar-gues metaphysically, as if everything were arranged by an “invisible hand.” Religion can be grasped theoretically only if its specific meaning clearly distinguishes it from other types of social action. This specific meaning lies in its relation to personal or impersonal superhuman powers, that is, to powers that control or influence what escapes human control. 1 Only an interpretive, that is, a meaning-oriented theory of action, is capable of bridging the gap between religious internal perspectives and sci-entific external perspectives. Explanations that ignore internal perspectives have to justify the outside point of view they adopt. In contrast, interpretive explanations arrive at their external perspective by abstracting and system-atizing internal perspectives, and thus claim no privileged or even objective status for themselves. Instead, they transform internal perspectives into an external perspective, which differs from the internal perspectives but does not contradict them.
eBook - PDFReligion as a philosophical matter
Concerns about truth, name, and habitation
- Lars Albinus(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Open Poland(Publisher)
3 Philosophy of Religion as a Social Phenomenon Philosophy of religion is a social phenomenon just as religion is a social phenomenon and thus the two are found on the same plane of existence. This is trivial, of course, and it doesn’t prevent us from investigating religion (nor philosophy for that matter), just as we are used to investigate the transactions of value in Economy and institu-tions of law and power in Political Science. The fact that we are part of the reality we behold doesn’t preclude us from perceiving things and sometimes seeing things that internally committed participants don’t see themselves. What the basic condition of our position calls for, more than anything else, is a balanced interaction between understanding and explanation.70 Nevertheless, the Study of Religion differs from other fields of investigation such as Economy, Political Science, Studies of Literature and Art, primarily because of the ontology invested in it. We can engage in social, and various interpretative, sciences without being involved in questions about ontology, that is, the range and nature of existing entities. Yet, religion is about how we humans basically conceive of the world, and therefore incommensurable ideas of existence are at stake in what is generally regarded as an unbridgeable gab between religion and science.71 To speak of religion as an aesthetic or a psychological phenomenon, or even as an anthropological phenomenon, misses the real engagement underlying all inter-actions with religion, namely the question of truth, not about religion, but of reli-gion. In other words, what is at stake, are questions about ultimate existence and the determination of our existence as human beings (regarded as questions from our point of view, that is).
eBook - PDFReligion and Truth
Towards an Alternative Paradigm for the Study of Religion
- Donald Wiebe(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- De Gruyter Mouton(Publisher)
After distinguishing 'science of religion' from theology (the latter concerned with the truth of religion and the former with the truth about religion) he proceeds to distinguish it also from the other social sciences concerned with religious phenomena (1973c: 4): . . . the sociology of religion flourishes from the peaks of theory to the plains and marshes of empirical research. Jews in Detroit, Mormons in Salt Lake City, Spiritualists in Wolverhampton, Buddhist peasants in the highlands of Sri Lanka, Nuer prophets and Dinka in the Sudan - the range of sociological and anthropological studies is immense. The psychology of religion is not what it was, but has yet its moments, and earnest inquiry seeks to correlate or contrast the empirical experiences of Teresa and Tauler with the deliverances of drugs. Meanwhile historians of religions probe Zoro-astrian origins and medieval Shaivism, early Christianity and the Gnostic religions. There is, in short, no dearth of scientific-seeming inquiries into religion. Nevertheless an overall strategy of a science of reli-gion is desirable, and has not yet been fully worked out. Ashby's claim that this new science is not yet a fully Is a science of religion possible? 47 conceived science and Smart's comment that the strategy of the science of religion has not yet been fully worked out are understatements, to say the least. It is a well known fact that this area of study displays little or no methodological cohesiveness despite almost a century of discussion and debate. The methodological uncertainty in this area, as Pummer (1972, 1974) points out, is obvious even in the great variety of names used to refer to the so-called discipline. Among others he lists Religionswissen-schaft, sciences(s) of religion(s), comparative (study of) religion(s), history of religions, religion, religious studies, and religiology. And that terminological problem is only compounded by the debate as to the divisions - historical, systematic, etc.
eBook - PDF- R. Tanner, C. Mitchell(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
2 Types of Religions 2.1 The four main Types of Religion It is possible to classify religions into four broad types from the point of view of their environmental impact. These are: extinct ancient religions, tribal religions with subsistence economies, the long-established faiths of south and east Asia, and the great monotheistic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The ancient faiths of Egypt, Mesopotamia and central America owed their buildings to individuals about whom there are quasi-historical data. They were monolithic, authoritarian and characterized by vast expenditures of effort on temples and memorials. Egypt and Mesopota- mia have long periods of recorded development. Estimates of the re- sources required to build the pyramid of Cheops at Giza show that it must have exhausted the country more than a major war would have done. Although the underlying desire for large memorials has survived, no other faith has devoted comparable attention to achieving the spirit- ual survival of its leader. Others such as Hinduism and Shintoism have no clear initiators. Even Buddhism can be considered in this category since so little is known of the Lord Buddha. His written sayings probably date from three centuries after his death. Jainism had an even longer period after the death of Mahavira before his sayings were recorded. These faiths have seen suc- cessions of influential people starting schools of religious thought. On the whole they commit their principles about the spiritual progress of the individual to writing but involve no direct concern for the environ- ment. Tribal communities seldom have written or clearly defined beliefs. They are usually hunter-gatherers, subsistence farmers or pastoralists 17 18 Religion and the Environment and their religions are primarily concerned with their group's survival, the afterlife, and the need to ensure the goodwill of ancestors. They lack the time and resources for complex rituals which do not meet an imme- diate need.
eBook - PDFBeyond Belief
Essays on Religion in a Post-Traditionalist World
- Robert N. Bellah(Author)
- 1991(Publication Date)
- University of California Press(Publisher)
Theoretical Foundations THE TWO CHAPTERS in Part I constitute between them a preliminary reconnaissance of what I believe are the major theoretical and empirical problems in the study of religion. Many of the highly condensed statements in these chapters are developed at greater length in Parts II and III. There is some value, however, in a rela-tively concise statement of theoretical issues. It is particularly helpful in allowing a periodic reassessment of one's position. I have in-cluded as an Appendix a paper, The Systematic Study of Religion, which was written in 1955, some ten years before the chapters of Part I. Comparing the Appendix and Part I will allow the reader to observe the gradual development of a conceptual scheme. Natu-rally further changes have occurred in the last five years. Some of these can be discerned in Part III, most of which is quite recent. Perhaps the major change is an increasing elaboration of the role of symbolism in religious systems. Related to this is the growing aware-ness that theoretical statements like those in Part I are not just objectively scientific but contain within them religious implica-tions as well. PART ONE This page intentionally left blank The Sociology of Religion SOCIOLOGISTS have undertaken three main types of religious study. They have studied religion as a central theoretical problem in the understanding of social action. They have studied the relation between religion and other areas of social life, such as economics, politics, and social class. And finally, they have studied religious roles, organizations, and movements. This article is concerned primarily with the theoretical study of religion and secondarily with the relation between religion and the social struc-ture.
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