Download Religion and social change

Religion and social change
Two Major approaches
Sociologists that have studied the role of religion in society tend to fall into
one of two broad camps:
1. Those who see religion as a CONSERVATIVE force (conservative means
keeping things the way they are.) These sociologists see religion as a
force for stability and order. They may well favour a functionalist or a
Marxist point of view.
2. Those who see religion as FORCE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE– supporters of
this position point to the role of religion in encouraging societies to
change. They may well be influenced by the writings of Max Weber.
CONSERVATIVE FORCE
1. Religion is traditional and upholds traditional
customs and beliefs to how society should be
organised.
2. It functions to conserve or preserve the status
quo
List any examples of religion as a conservative
or force for social control.
Conservative
Social change
Religion’s conservative function
Functionalism
Marxism
Feminism
Religion’s conservative function
Functionalism
• Religion and consensus
• Maintains social stability, social solidarity and value
consensus.
• Outlet for stress that may otherwise disrupt society
Marxism
• Religion and Capitalism
• Religion prevents social change in the interests of
powerful
• Legitimates and reproduces inequality and disguises
exploitation
Feminism
• Religion and Patriarchy
• Religion is an ideology that legitimises patriarchal
power and maintains women’s subordination
Functionalism
Feminism
Conservative
Force
Social
change
Marxism
Conservative
Force
FORCE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
Engels
Engels recognised that religion can play an active
role in society and lead to revolutionary social
change.
He used the example of early Christian sects
opposing Roman rule and compared them to
communist and socialist political movements.
He considered that religion could start as a
response to exploitation and become a source of
resistance and change
Gramsci (neo-Marxist
Rejects traditional Marxist views that the cultural
superstructure reflects the social infrastructure.
Gramsci suggested that the church could work
alongside the working class – religion could
empower the working class.
He recognised the role that the hegemony of the
Catholic Church in Fascist Italy played in serving ruling
class interests, but said that religion doesn’t inevitably
play this role.
Gramsci: Religion and hegemony
• Interested in ISAs – how the government use ideas to
control society.
• Hegemony – the way the RC use ideas (RELIGION) to
control the WC
• Government have popular consent to rule so there is no
need for coercion.
• Catholic Church helped win support
For Mussolini’s fascist regime.
Gramsci: Religion and hegemony
• Hegemony isn't always guaranteed – WC can develop an
alternative vision or a counter hegemony.
• Religion has a dual culture that can challenge as well as
support the RC.
- Offers a vision of what can be
- Leaders support WC organisations - TUs
Marxism, religion and change
• Marxists recognise that religious ideas can have
relative autonomy (can be partly independent from
the economic base) so can sometimes be a force for
change as well as stability
• Marx thinks religion humanises a world that
exploitation has made inhuman
• Engels – inhibits change but can also challenge the
status quo and encourage social change- fight against
slavery
Marxism, religion and change
• Like Engels – (inhibits change but can also
challenge the status quo and encourage social
change)- Ernst Bloch believed that religion
could inspire protest and rebellion.
• Religion is an expression of the ‘principal of
hope’
• Cast a vision of a better world and how this can
be achieved (with political organisation leading
to social change)
Maduro (neo-Marxist)
Religion has some independence from the economic system.
He denies that religion is always conservative and says that
sometimes it can be revolutionary. He states that the clergy
have revolutionary potential for voicing the troubles of the
oppressed and leading to action.
Liberation theology: In Latin America catholic clergy have
become increasingly critical of oppressive regimes and been
involved in popular struggle
The involvement of Catholic clergy in anti-communist activity
in Poland before the abandonment of communism
Liberation theology
• Emerged in 1960s, Catholic church, opposition to military
dictatorships and commitment to helping the poor in Latin
America.
• Big move away for the Church from supporting elites and
accepting poverty.
• Arose due to 3 factors
1. Deepening rural poverty
2. Human rights abuses by military dictatorships
3. Commitment of priests to ideology that supported HR and the
poor
Liberation theology
• Priests harboured freedom fighters, developed literacy programmes, took the sides
of the oppressed and mobilised support.
• In 1980s the Church’s official line changed and it condemned liberation theory on
the grounds that it resembled Marxism.
• The priests had to concentrate on the pastoral activities – not political struggles.
• The movement has since lost influence.
• Most countries are now democracies and Catholicism has got more conservative.
• But still defends democracy and HR
Liberation theology
• Liberation theory has led Marxists to believe that religion can be a force for
social change.
• Otto Maduro – religion can be a revolutionary force that brings about
change. The religious ideas radicalised the clergy in the fight for the
peasants and workers
• Lowy – questions Marx’s view that religion always legitimises social
inequality.
• Other Marxists disagree that it can bring about change – depends on
definition of the social change
Liberation theology
•
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeaqOfvPiMc
•
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4enR1Xc4xng
•Read the Liberation Theology
fact files and make notes
GK Nelson (1986)
• Northern Ireland – Roman Catholicism and Republicanism
• USA 1960s Martin Luther King
• 1960s Roman Catholicism in Latin America – 1979 supported Sandinistas
• Iran – Islamic fundamentalism played a big part in 1979 revolution
• South Africa – Archbishop Tutu vs. apartheid
‘far from encouraging people to accept their place,
religion can spearhead resistance and revolution’
Religion and Social protest
• Steve Bruce – Relationship between religion and social
change.
• Compares the role of religiously inspired protest movements
in the USA
http://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=gBPeCQzHu5w
• Civil Rights
• The new Christian Right
The American Civil Rights
Movement
• Bruce –
• CRM = Religiously motivated social change
• Campaigning involved direct action (marches, boycotts, demonstrations).
• Segregation outlawed in 1964
• The Black Clergy played a major role (Dr Martin Luther King) giving moral
legitimacy to activists. They provided sanctuary and unity. Appealed to
common Christian values of equality
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
1QZik4CYtgw&feature=related
Bruce – Religion is an ideological resource
•CRM helped religion get
involved with a secular
struggle and bring about
change.
Channelling
dissent
Taking the
moral high
ground
Religious
organisations
role in social
change
Mobilising
public
opinion
Acting as an
honest
broker
•It had the shared values
of those in power and
those in wider society and
could use these to push
for change
Martin Luther King
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CwK_d9drIU
Desmond Tutu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeVtTOFxNWQ
There can be equality with a religion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hk496McrzE
Religion and social change
• N.Ireland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwcsSHF3A9w
• M.L.K:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CwK_d9drIU
• Sandinistas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpEhi9XYllA
• Tutu:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeVtTOFxNWQ
Meredith McGuire (1981)
• Meredith McGuire (1981) agrees that religion can be a force for
social change – she looked at the factors that determine whether
religion acts as a radical force or not.
• Beliefs – stronger moral codes are more likely to produce critical
members
• Close links between culture and religion means that religion can
be an incredibly powerful force in these societies.
• Social location – if an established church has socio-economic
power it it much more likely to create change
• Religions with a strong centralized source of authority are more
likely to affect events
Max Weber
The protestant
ethic
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/religion-and-socialchange-in-protestantism-and-liberation-theology.html#lesson
Weber
Weber (1922) identifies that every society in history has had some
form of religious belief.
Religion helps people make sense of everyday life.
Like Marx, he argued that religion justifies the status quo.
But Weber took a micro view – individuals use religion to explain why
some people have wealth, status and power and others do not =
theodicy of privilege or non privilege.
Social change
Weber argued that religion can lead to social
change. Rejecting the Marxist view that religion
is always shaped by economic factors.
Sometimes the reverse can happen.
Weber
Religion as a force for change
An Example:
The Protestant Ethic
Calvinism
Capitalism
Calvinism brought about a work ethic that
gave rise to capitalism (was one of the
contributing factors, others resources, trade
etc)
“For religion must necessarily produce
industry and frugality, and these cannot but
produce riches…”
(John Wesley – Leader of Methodist revival in
18thC)
Weber
Religion as a force for change
• ‘The spirit of capitalism’
• Capitalism is based on the systematic, efficient,
rational pursuit of profit for its own sake, rather then
consumption (not spent on greed for wealth as in
past).
• The spirit had Elective affinity (unconscious similarity)
to the Calvinist beliefs and attitudes.
Calvinist beliefs
•Predestination
Divine
Transcendence
Asceticism
The idea of vocation or calling
•God has
predetermined
which souls will
be saved
•The individual
can do nothing
to change this
•salvation
anxiety – not
knowing if
heaven or hell
awaited.
•God is so
immortal and
great that no
human can claim
to know his will
(including priests).
•This gives rise to
loneliness.
•This combined
with
predestination
created what
Weber refers to as
salvation panic
•Abstinence,
self
discipline
and self
denial.
•Live a
simple life as
Jesus did
•Other world asceticism a calling
to serve God (Monks) used to be
the only calling
• Weber believed that Calvinism
introduced this world asceticism .
•That we work to glorify Gods
name and we do this through
mythological work in society (as a
religious duty)
•Idleness is a sin, no luxury, long
working hours
•Performed 2 functions:
1. Allowed Calvinists to cope
with their salvation panic
2. Reinforced the gains of more
wealth. The spirit of modern
capitalism.
For Weber, capitalist countries were based on
two forms of rationality – formal and
substantive.
1. Formal rationality involved calculating the best means to
achieve a given end.
2. Substantive involved action designed to reach a goal such
as justice or equality. Capitalist behavior put primary
emphasis on the formal and substantive fades into the
background.
Weber argues that rationality is at odds with
faith. He felt that secularization was a result of
capitalism – Protestantism developed
capitalism but has also been undermined by
its creation –
“Calvinistic Protestantism was its own
gravedigger” (Hamilton 1995)
Evaluation of Weber
• Before we begin, write down 3 key points that
you feel summarise Weber’s theory.
• Religion is a force for social change
• The Protestant work ethic
• Theodicy - predestination
Evaluation of Weber
• Some commentators have suggested that
slavery, colonialism and piracy were more • Bruce & Hamilton –
important than Calvinist beliefs in
Weber’s theory lacks
accumulating the capital required for
validity based on
industrialisation.
assumption, not evidence
• PARKIN – is critical of Weber as capitalism
• Kautsky– Weber
was late to develop in Scotland, despite
Calvinism being present there.
overestimates ideas and
• Marxists such as Kautsky are critical –
they argue that capitalism predates
Calvinism.
• RH Tawney – technological change gave
rise to capitalism. Then we adopted ideas
to maintain it
underestimates the
economic factors
A02a: Jones surprising
relevance for contemporary
society – can see evidence
in modern day society…
Hinduism and Confucianism
• Other societies had a higher rate of economic growth then
Northern Europe in the C16th and C17th, but still failed to
adopt modern capitalism.
• China and India were more materially advanced but didn’t
adopt capitalism due to their lack of religious belief like
Calvinism.
• They promote rewards in the other life, good deeds and
other goals that lacked the material drive that Calvinism
created.
Confucianism
• The Tiger Economies
Millenarian
Millennialism
Definitions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ag6yPCM9oE
Millenarian movements
• According to Collins, many if not most
millenarian groups claim that the current
society and its rulers are corrupt, unjust, or
otherwise wrong. They therefore believe they
will be destroyed soon by a powerful force.
The harmful nature of the status quo is
considered intractable without the
anticipated dramatic change
Millenarian movements
• Millenarian movements are an example of the desire to
change things on earth at present and bring about the
kingdom of God.
• Millenarian movements expect the imminent
transformation of this world by supernatural means. The
group will be saved on earth and will live in utopia on
earth – Peter Worsley
• Worked well amongst poor, exploited groups, especially
in the colonies.
Millenarian movements
• Millenarian movements used traditional beliefs, ideas and
images with Christianity .
• They united tribal movements and became mass
movements.
• The were the precursor to the political movements to
overthrow colonial rule.
• For Marxists they were the first awakening of the
proletarian self consciousness
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmlYe2KS0-Y
Is Religion A Force For Good In The World?
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/is-religion-a-force-for-good-in-theworld/
33 Mark
•Assess the contribution of
religion to social change
Religion and Social
Change:
Fundamentalism – a
case study
The Iranian Revolution 1979
https://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=ZOaGmK8aTHQ
The New Christian Right
• Protestant fundamentalists
• Opposition to the liberalising society
• Want to take America ‘back to God’
• Want abortion, homosexuality and divorce illegal and
ban SRE in schools
• Want traditional family and gender roles and teaching
of creationism only in schools.
The New Christian Right
• Campaigns increase profile since 1970s
• Use of media – Televangelists – to make
converts and recruit new members
• Links with the Republican party
• New moral majority formed as a pressure
group
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXOEAz46vMk
The New Christian Right
• The NCR has been largely unsuccessful
• New moral majority – not a majority – but 15% of population
• Found it difficult to cooperate with other religious groups
• Oppositional groups – pro-choice
• Bruce NCR = Failed movement for social change
• Didn't connect with the mainstream beliefs about democracy,
equality and religious freedom (as CRM did)
9 mark Question
•Identify and explain 3
reasons why the NCR
might have failed to
achieve its aims