Understanding Religion: The Sociological Perspectives

1. Chapter 11 Religion and Education

2. Chapter Outline • Classical Approaches in the Sociology of Religion • The Rise, Decline, and Partial Revival of Religion • The Structure of Religion in the world • Religiosity • Education • Macrosociological Processes • Microsociological Processes

3. Durkheim’s Functionalist Approach to Religion • According to Durkheim, when people live together, they share common sentiments and values. • These form a collective conscience that is larger than any individual. • When we experience the collective conscience directly, we can distinguish the profane from the sacred.

4. Durkheim’s Theoryof Religion • We designate certain objects as symbolizing the sacred, these are totems. • We invent public practices to connect us with the sacred, these are called rituals. • The function of rituals and of religion as a whole is to reinforce social solidarity.

5. Durkheim’s Theory and the Super Bowl • Durkheim would consider the Super Bowl trophy and the team logo to be totems. • The game itself is a public ritual. • The game is a sacred event in Durkheim’s terms because it increases social solidarity and cements society.

6. Conflict and Feminist Critiques of Durkheim • Overemphasizes religion’s role in maintaining social cohesion, when religion often incites social conflict. • Ignores the fact that when religion increases social cohesion, it often reinforces social inequality.

7. The World’s Predominant Religions

8. Weber: Routinization of Charisma • Weber’s term for the transformation of the unique gift of divine enlightenment into a permanent feature of everyday life. • It involves turning religious inspiration into a stable social institution with defined roles (interpreters of the divine message, teachers, dues-paying laypeople, etc.).

9. Civil Religion • A set of beliefs and practices that bind a population together and justify its way of life.

10. Weber: A Symbolic Interactionist Interpretation • For Weber, a combination of factors prompted capitalist development in non-Catholic Europe and North America: • favorable economic conditions • the spread of certain moral values by the Protestant reformers of the 16th century and their followers.

11. Weber and the Protestant Ethic • Weber wrote that followers of Protestant theologian Calvin stressed the need to display industry, punctuality, and frugality. • People could assure a state of grace by working diligently and living simply. • In contrast, Buddhism and Confucianism hindered worldly success in competition and capital accumulation.

12. Secularization Thesis of Religion • Religious institutions, actions, and consciousness are on the decline. • Critics: • There has been a religious revival in the U.S. over the past 30 years. • Survey evidence shows religion in the U.S. is resilient.

13. Fundamentalists • Interpret scriptures literally. • Seek to establish a direct, personal relationship with the higher being(s) they worship. • Are relatively intolerant of nonfundamentalists. • Often support conservative social issues.

14. Revised Secularization Thesis • Holds that worldly institutions break off from the institution of religion over time. • As a result, religion governs an ever smaller part of most people’s lives and becomes largely a matter of personal choice.

15. Perceived Adequacy of the Church • INSERT FIGURE 11.2 HERE (PG. 264)

16. Market Model of Religion • Religious organizations are suppliers of services (e.g., counseling, pastoral care, youth activities) and people who desire religions activities demand such services • Religious denominations are similar to product brands offering different “flavors” of religious experiences

17. Percent Who Think Religion Is Very Important, 44 Countries

18. Revised Secularization and Market Theories of Religion • INSERT CONCEPT SUMMARY 11.1 HERE (PG. 265)

19. Polling Question • Do you believe that the Bible is the actual word of God, to be taken literally word for word? • Yes • No

20. Types of Religious Organization • Church: bureaucratic religious organization that has accommodated itself to mainstream society and culture • Ecclesia: state-supported churches • Denominations: various streams of belief and practice that can coexist under overarching authority

21. Types of Religious Organizations, cont. • Sects: form by breaking away from churches as a result of disagreement about church doctrine • Cults: small groups of people deeply committed to a religious vision that rejects mainstream culture and society

22. Religion Affiliation, U.S. 2007 • INSERT FIGURE 11.4 HERE (PG. 266)

23. Polling Question • What is your current religious affiliation? • Protestant • Catholic • Jewish • None • Other

24. Religious Affiliation by Annual Income • INSERT FIGURE 11.5 HERE (PG. 267)

25. Religiosity • Refers to how important religion is to people • People over age 69 attend much more frequently • More time and more need for religion • African Americans attend much more frequently • Political and cultural role church played in helping African Americans cope and combat slavery

26. Religiosity, cont. • More likely to attend when mothers and fathers attended religious services • Religiosity is a learned behavior

27. Factors Influencing How Often Americans Attend Religious Services • INSERT TABLE 11.1 HERE (PG. 268)

28. Education • Instead of religion, education is the dominant institution of socialization outside of the family • A central determinant of opportunities for upward mobility

29. Advocates of Affirmative Action: • Compensates for historical injustices such as slavery and expulsion. • Helps create a level playing field for all races and ethnic groups. • Encourages diversity on college campuses. • Creates a middle-class leadership group in minority communities.

30. Opponents of Affirmative Action: • We should not have to pay for wrongs committed 300 years ago. • Note that colleges apply affirmative action criteria to rich and poor members of selected minority groups.

31. Meritocracy • A stratification system in which equality of opportunity allows people to rise or fall to a position that matches their talent and effort.

32. Functional Theory of Education • Manifest (intended) functions of schools: • Sorting students based on talent and effort • Train and socialize students. • Create social cohesion. • Transmit culture from generation to generation. • Sort students, presumably by merit.

33. Functional Theory of Education, cont. • Latent (unintended) functions of schools: • Create a youth culture and a marriage market. • Create a custodial and surveillance system for children. • Maintain wage levels by keeping students out of the job market. • Occasionally becoming a “school of dissent” that opposes authorities.

34. Polling Question • How far do you intend to go in school? • Two years of college • Four years of college • Master's degree • Professional degree (law, medicine, dentistry) • Ph.D.

35. Conflict Theories of Education • Effects of Economic Inequality on Education: • Schools of widely differing quality. • Families with varying access to resources for the support of children. • Children enter school with differing levels of preparation and eagerness to learn.

36. Standardized Tests • Standardized tests help reproduce the existing system of social stratification. • Schools use tracking to sort students into high-ability, middle-ability, and low-ability classes based on the results of intelligence-quotient (IQ) and other tests.

37. How Social Backgroundand IQ Influence Inequality

38. Gender and Education: Feminist Contribution • In some ways, women are doing better than men in the American education system • Yet, still see disadvantages for women when we examine: field of study (high-paying vs. low-paying fields) and level of degree (Ph.D.s for men)

39. Symbolic Interactionist Theory of Education • Stereotype Threat: Refers to the harmful impact of negative stereotypes on the school performance of disadvantaged groups.

40. Polling Question • What is the highest level of education completed by your father? • Below high school • High school graduate • Some college or postsecondary training • College degree • Graduate or professional degree • Don't know

41. Major Reforms Proposed for American Schools • Mentoring • Redistributing and increasing school budgets. • Substantially improving the social environment of young, disadvantaged children before and outside school.

42. Quick Quiz

43. 1. The sacred refers to: • sentiments and values people share • the secular, everyday world • the religious, transcendent world • public practices designed to connect people to the transcendent world

44. Answer: c • The sacred refers to the religious, transcendent world.

45. 2. Which of the following is a criticism frequently lodged against Durkheim's theory of religion? • Religion often heightens the sense of belonging to certain groups. • Religion often incites social conflict. • Religion often reinforces social inequality. • Religion often incites social conflict, and religion often reinforces social inequality

46. Answer: d • The ideas that religion often incites social conflict, and religion often reinforces social inequality are criticisms frequently lodged against Durkheim's theory of religion.

47. 3. A civil religion is: • a religion that encourages its members to participate actively in the political arena • a religion that does not discriminate on the basis of race, class, gender, or sexual orientation • a religion that contributes to social change • a set of quasi-religious beliefs and practices that binds the population and justifies its way of life

48. Answer: d • A civil religion is a set of quasi-religious beliefs and practices that binds the population and justifies its way of life.

49. 4. Weber recognized: • importance of the economic factor in explaining of capitalism • one-sidedness of any exclusively economic interpretation of the rise of capitalism • role of certain Protestant moral values in stimulating the rise of capitalism in Western Europe and North America • b. and c.

50. Answer: d • Weber recognized the one-sidedness of any exclusively economic interpretation of the rise of capitalism and the role of certain Protestant moral values in stimulating the rise of capitalism in Western Europe and North America.