Sociology- Chapter 12- Religion

four broad conditions set the stage for the sociological study of religion

1. Sociologists are not concerned with whether religious beliefs are true or false. 2. Sociologists are especially concerned with the social organization of religion. 3. Sociologists often view religions as a major source of social solidarity because religions provide their believers with a common set of norms and values. 4. Sociologists tend to explain the appeal of religion in terms of social forces rather than purely personal, spiritual, or psychological factors.

How do Sociologists Think About Religion?

3 Key Elements: 1. Religion is a form of culture. 2. Religion involves beliefs that take the form of ritualized practice 3. Perhaps most important, religion provides a sense of purpose- a feeling that life is meaningful

Theism

A belief in one or more supernatural deities. (Belief in a god or gods)

Sect

A relatively small group that has broken away from an established denomination.

Sect

A religious movement that breaks away from orthodoxy and follows its own unique set of rules and principles. (A religious subgroup that breaks away fro the larger organization and consequently follows its own unique set of rules and principles. They'er smaller, less highly organized groups of committed believers usually set up in protest against an established church.)

Religious Economy

A theoretical framework within the sociology of religion that argues that religions can be fruitfully understood as organizations in competition with one another for followers. (Religions fight with eachother for followers)

Liberation Theology

An activist Catholic religious movement that combines Catholic beliefs with a passion for social justice for the poor. (Quizlet definition: a movement within the Catholic church to understand Christianity from the perspective of the poor and oppressed, with a focus on fighting injustice.)

Cults

Fragmentary religious groupings to which individuals are loosely affiliated but that lack any permanent structure.

Religious Nationalism

The linking of strongly held religious convictions with beliefs about a people's social and political destiny

Alienation

The sense that our own abilities as human beings are taken over by other entities. The term was originally used by Karl Marx to refer to the projection of human powers onto gods. Subsequently, he used the term to refer to the loss of workers' control over the nature and products of their labor. (The idea that human beings tend to attribute their own culturally created values and norms to divine forces or gods because they do not understand their own history.)

Secular thinking

Wordly thinking, particularly as seen in the rise of science, technology, and rational thought in general. (Religion is threatened by this)

Denomination

a religious sect that has lost its revivalist dynamism and become an institutionalized body, commanding the adherence of significant numbers of people. (A sect that's cooled down and become an institutionalized body rather than an activist protest group.)

Religion

a set of beliefs adhered to by the members of a community, incorporating symbols regarded with a sense of awe or wonder together with ritual practices. Religions do not universally involve a belief in supernatural entities. (A cultural system of commonly shared beliefs and rituals that provides a sense of meaning and purpose by creating an idea of reality that is sacred, all-encompassing, and supernatural.) Also, sometimes some religions believe in spiritual forces rather than a God. Religions are among the most important institutions in society.

Sacred

holy. Describing something that inspires awe or reference among those who believe in a given set of religious ideas. (The realm of the profane)

Secularization

indifference to or rejection of religion or religious consideration. (A process of decline in the influence of religion. Secularization can refer to levels of involvement with religious organizations, the social, and material influence wielded by religious organizations, and the degree to which people hold religious beliefs. Basically where religious belief and involvement decline and thus result in a weakening of the social and political power of religious organizations.)

Churches

large, established religious bodies, normally having a formal, bureaucratic structure and a hierarchy of religious officials. The term is also used to refer to the place in which religious ceremonies are carried out.

Profane

that which belongs to the mundane, everyday world