religion and social change

Question 1

religion can be seena s a cosnervative force

Answer 1

maintaing status quo
in the sense of traditional

Question 2

Functionalist seeing religion as a conservative force

Answer 2

force amintaing social stability and preventing disintegration for instance promoting soical solidarity by creating value consensus and helping idviduals deal with disruptive stresses

Question 3

marxist see religion as a conservative ideology

Answer 3

prevents social change
by elgitimating or disguising inequality it creartes false conciousness in the working class and prevents revolution

Question 4

feminsit see religion as a cosnervative ideology

Answer 4

legitimates patriarchal power and maintains womens subordination in the family and society

Question 5

Weber religion as a force for social change

Answer 5

weber argues religious beleifs of calvinism helped bring a major socila change which leads to modern capitalism
Modern capitalism seen as unique due to it being base on pursuit of profit for its own sake. “spirit of capitalism”

this spirit had uncouscious simlarity to calvinist beliefs and attitudes

Calvinism led an ascetic lfiestyle such as working long hours
due to driven by work ethic

Question 6

calvinist beliefs

Answer 6

predestination-God predetermines who will be saved and individuals can do nothing to change this

Divine transcendence-God is so far above and beyond this world that no human being could possibly claim to know his will leaving calvinist to feel a inner loneliness
this creates a salvation panic

Asceticism-self-discipline

eval:kautsky argues capitalism actually came before rather than after calvinism

Question 7

Evaluation towards calvinism due to wider socierty

Answer 7

Hinduism and Confucianism lacked the drive of calvinism to systematically accumulate wealth

Question 8

Bruce and religion and social protest

Answer 8

see civil right movements as an example of religion becoming involved in secular struggle and helping to bring about change

Question 9

American Civil rights movement

Answer 9

Black civilr ights movement tried to end racials egration due to blacks denied political rights in southern states
movement began in 1955
Black clergy led by DR MLK were back bone of movement giving support. Shamed white people into changes laws to appeal for shared christian valus of equality

Question 10

Bruce sees religion as an ideoligcal resource

Answer 10

this is beliefs tha tprotestetors could draw on for motivation and legitimation
Religious organisations are well equipped to support protests and contribute to change
-moral high cround-pointing out the hypocrisy of white clergy
-Chanelling dissent
acting as honest broker(respect by both sies in confict)
mobilising public opinion

Question 11

New Christian Right

Answer 11

religious movement aiming for conservative social change–changing society back to a previous form.
-New christian right aimed to make abortion and divorce illegal and take US back to God
-believes in tradiitional family and gender roles, campagins for the teaching of creationism and want to ban sex education
-uses televangelism, where church owned tv station raise funds

Bruce argues the NCR has been unsucessful because it never had support of 15% of population

Question 12

Gramsci

Answer 12

see religion as having dual character-both conservative social force and a force for social change

Question 13

Gramsci: Religion and Harmony

Answer 13

Ruling class maintain their control over society through ideas rather than simply through coercion (force)

Hegemony-ideological domination or leadership of society-is the way the ruling class are able to use religion to maintain control.
in some circumstances religion can challenge ruling class for instance it may help the working class tos ee through ruling class hegemony and some clergy

Question 14

Millenarian Movements

Answer 14

are an example of the desire to change things here and now to bring about the kingdom of God on earth.
Worsley argues they expect the total and imminent transformation of this world by supernatural means,creating heaven on earth.

appeal mainly to the poor because they promise immediate improvement and often arise in colonial situations. Europian colonialism shatterened the traditional tribal social structure of colonised peoples.

Worsley studied cargo cults-millenarian movements in melanesia where islanders felt deprived when cargo material goods arrived in the island for the colonists.
Cargo cults assserted that the cargo had been meant for islanders but had been diverted by colonsit for themselves and this was overtuned

Question 15

Marxism religious and change

Answer 15

Marxists often thought of as seeing religion as an entirely conservative ideology-a set of ruling class ideas that legitimate class inequalities
Marxists reconnise that ides can have relative autonomy they can be partly independent of the captialist economic bease of society
thus religion have a dual character sometimes beig a force for change as well as stability