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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