The sociological study of religion

THE SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY OF RELIGION Lesson 1 We have to answer two questions: Is it worth studying Religion? Is Sociology helpful in our study of Religion? RELIGION: a series of beliefs and practices regarding the Holy which are shared by a community. HOLY: mysterious power that goes beyond human dimension but it’s related to it. SOCIOLOGY: the study of Society through empirical investigation and critical analisys. SOCIOLOGY of RELIGION: the study or Religion in Society, which means how Religion influences and conditions life and social behaviour of individuals and groups. EMPIRICISM: theory of knowledge based on experience and evidence. Empiricism is a branch of Epistemology. EPISTEMOLOGY: also called “theory of knowledge”, is a branch of philosophy that is concerned with the nature and limitations of knowledge. SECULARIZATION: process in which religious practice and religious institutions lose social meaning, social drift. The theme of Secularization is probably the most debated subject in Sociology of Religion today even though there are strong disagreements on the definition of Secularization. The supporters of the theory of Secularization claim that: Religion is losing social meaning, society does not consider it an important part of life anymore; that the process is irreversible; it’s a universal and global phenomenon of all advanced societies. Undeveloped societies will have to accept that modernization needs an unconditioned secularization; the loss of social meaning is synonym of loss of meaning inside itself, which means that it can still be significant to a few individuals but not to society. Let’s carry on a few objections to this Secularization theory: The theory seems to take for granted that there was a “golden age” of Religion, often related to the middle-ages and the 19th century (concerning Christianism). The transition from middle-ages to modern ages is often related to a transition from a religious culture to a religious faith. Although we must not forget that in the middle-ages Religion was not just something to think about but it included everything, it was like the conception of time and space. There was no border between Religion and Atheism or Scepticism. (Watch “The name of the Rose”, with Sean Connery, you will get a full idea of this). In the middle-ages there was no possibility to choose; science and philosophy were hindered by religious institutions (Galileo Galilei is an example); the Church had “universal knowledge”. With modern ages the loss of power by religious institutions and development of sciences brought a change: Religion aqcuired the freedom of transforming the hearts and minds of people giving them the possibility to think, to choose, to investigate, instead of imposing a cold mechanicism carried on by religious institutions. The fact that religious institutions lost power has nothing to do with religious belief among people: how many times in Christian countries we hear people saying “I believe in God but not in the Church”. This is a very important statement! We must not confuse Religion with Religious institution: Prof. Gabriele Mandel wrote that “religion is the burocratization of faith." If we analyse this sociologically we can see how this statement is true since in Sociology we can divide the institutionalization of Religion in three phases: “Spiritual Message”: a Prophet or a Messenger comes and reveals his divine message to the believers. Many people gather around him and follow him. “Form”: rituals and laws are established in order to regulate the social, economical and religious life of believers. “Organization”: when the number of worshippers increases and the message spreads geographically, the “form” is institutionalized in order to avoid fragmentation and alteration of the message. Authorities are enstablished in order to manage the religious system. Some of them will concentrate on the interpretation of the scriptures, others will lead ceremonies, others will take care of spreading the message ect. What are the dangers of this process? First of all if point number 3, “Organization”, becomes the aim of the process, instead of the mean to spread the message in the correct way, then the whole concept of religion, with its objective, is subverted. The life of the religious institution becomes the main objective of itself, no matter if the religious message is distorted. Secondly we must not forget that institutions are made by humans and it’s very easy to corrupt a human being. If an institution become powerful it will be a temptation because of its privileges. 2- It’s true that religious institution lost some of their activities that they once managed (such as education, law), but this is not necessarily Secularization but Differentiation. Family went through the same process with formal education if we think about it. Talcott Parsons talks about how society, just like biological organisms, evolve from simple to complex through differentiation. “Believeing without belonging” is a way to remain in the “Holy” without linking to a particular religious institution. There is a loss of objectiveness in the critics towards Religion. The Secularization scholars often don’t do an objective analisys of a phenomenon but they try to use it at their own advantage, so inter-religious cooperation becomes weakness, modern religious movements are a symptom of weakness of Religion; religious leaders who try to adapt the beliefs to modern age are unconciously admitting the weakness of Religion. The re-birth of Islam is only a temporary phenomenon that will disappear with modernity. This is not a scientific and objective theory that can be empirically verified, it’s an anti-religious ideology that uses dogmas (similars to the ones used by Church in the middle-ages). SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACHES Reductionalism, Sociography, Phenomenology, No-Value Sociology REDUCTIONALISM: Marx: Religion is a false ideology that legitimates class oppression. It is used by upper classes to maintain power and oppress the people. It will be defeated with bolshevik revolution. Durkheim: Religion is a collective cognitive system that is used to maintain order in society, this means that Religion has a very important role in society. Even though religious belief is not true it’s still an expression of human sociability. The reality of Religion is not God but society itself. With modernization science will replace religion. Freud: Religion is obsessive neurosis, a projection of paternal figure and it makes societies regress to a childish level. Freeing oneself from God is essential to become mature. SOCIOGRAPHY: It’s often considered as a preliminary stage of sociological analisys, it gathers data and informations but it does not put them through theoretical analysis. Le Bras: “Religious sociology”, the most important study on sociographic approach. FENOMENOLOGY: The objective is to describe and analyse human activities in their complexity through a suspension of judgements. Humans are fully concious of themselves and they create their world in full awareness. Berger and Luckman: Religion is a strong effort to give a meaning to the world. Holy: mysterious power and fearful that goes beyond human dimension but it’s related to it. Profane: functional material and routine necessary for survival These definitions were already given by Durkheim bur Berger adds the concept of caos: group or mix of meaningless events. Holy opposes itself not only to profane but also to caos. NO-VALUE SOCIOLOGY: Sociology is considered as a social science that does not give any judgements concerned with values. Its objective is a pure analysis. So in this case it will not take the side of the believer nor the side of the sceptical. It will just try to be as objective as possible in its analysis. Sociology’s objective is to study ALL religions without considering hierarchy and prestige among different confessions. All religions and branches are worth the same attention.