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Religion as a Model for
Welfare
Martti Muukkonen
http://marttimuukkonen.pp.fi
23RD NORDIC CONFERENCE FOR THE SOCIOLOGY OF
RELIGION
17. – 19.8. 2016 Helsinki, Finland
Finnish reality in past years has
been this
”Listen, if the bus doesn’t come soon, I resign from the church!”
Sociological theories have
commonly expected disappearence
of teligion – or at least its
marginalisation
Beyond
the
eastern
border
it was
for a
long
time
like this
However, the times, they are
changing.
In our eastern neighbour
Changing in good…
…and bad
As well as peacemakers…
…as war promoters
Religious
leaders have
became pop
stars
The first
set of
Luther
Playmobil
–figure
was sold
in 72
hours
Party leaders speak about values
The theory of the death of the
religion might be a bit hasty
How sociologists frame
it?
Samuel Huntington framed that the
cultural spheres are based on
religions
Clifford Geertz
”Religion is a model of the
society and a model for the
society”
According to Geertz, religion is
”(1) a system of symbols which acts to
(2) establish powerful, pervasive and long-lasting
moods and motivations in men by
(3) formulating conceptions of a general order of
existence and
(4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura
of factuality that
(5) the moods and motivations seem uniquely
realistic. ”
Levels of religion
•Metaphysical level
– World view
– Epistemology
•Personal level
– Feelings and expriences
– Meaning of life
•Cultural level
– Religion as a value memory of culture
Religion and welfare
• Esping-Andersen’s welfare regimes:
– Nordic (= Lutheran)
• ”There should be no poor among you”
• Luther created municipal poor relief
• Pietism hasa project to eliminate poverty by education
– Central and Southern European (=Catholic)
• Subsidiarity principle
• Focus on the centrality of the family
– Anglo-Saxon (=Anglicanic-Methodistic)
• Early leaders of the Labour Party were Methodists
• Focus on the role of the voluntary associations
A model for the study of religion
and welfare
Context
• Opportunity structures
–
–
–
–
Idea comes from theories of social movements
Are not determinants so that when A then B
Are like the rules of Chess: Define what moves are possible
The actor makes always the final decision
• The analysis of the opportunyty structures seeks
potentials – a bit like in SWOT analysis
• The model asks: ”What kinds of potentials the
context created for the forms of religion?”
• E.g. ”Which kind of cosmology is a result of an
irrigation farming in the midst of a desert?”
Context
Dimensions of religion
Religion / doctrine
• Elements of religion are mostly defined by
the situations of the period of its birth
and/or significant crisis periods (see
Berger & Luckmann’s routinisation thesis)
• Religion gives an explanation of the reality
• Durkheim’s famous dictum: ”In religion
society is worshipping itself.”
• Religion legitimates the deep values of the
society (”Do not kill”, ”Do not steal” etc.)
Religion / cult
• Ritus is the acting of the myth
• With rites the society is renewing the deep
values
• Official state cult (great tradition)
– Rites of the state religion
– Civil religion –rites
– Upper class
• Popular piety (great-/ small tradition)
– Communal popular religiosity
– Lower class, ethnic
• Home religion (small tradition)
– Family traditions, forefather cults
Religion / ethics
• Ethical systems
– Basic values in societies
– Models for solving value conflicts
• Social ethics
– How the society is build?
– What are the roles of society, different groups
and individuals?
• Personal ethics
– How to live with your neighbor?
Aspects of welfare
Aspects of welfare
• How the prosperity is made and
distributed?
• Who has the responsibility of the welfare?
• Who has the access to which services?
• What is the attitude towards the weakest
of the society?
Analytical tool
• The reality is not, of
course, so simple one
way process.
• There is feedbact
from religion and
welfare to context
(e.g. religion has
effects on economy)
• This is just an
analytical tool to
check