RELIGION CHAPTER 14. Religion

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1 Religion CHAPTER 14 RELIGION I. Why Focus on Afghanistan? A. On September 20, 2001, nine days after the September 11 th terrorist attacks on the U.S., President George W. Bush described those that hijacked the commercial aircraft as belonging to a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist organizations known as al-qaida and led by Osama bin Laden. B. Religious affiliation explains little about the causes behind terrorist acts or the wars against terrorism. 1. Social, economic, and political circumstances cause people to draw upon religion to justify responses that are defined as terrorism. 2. The sociological perspective is useful because it allows us to step back and view in a detached way an often emotionally charged subject. a. Detachment and objectivity are necessary in order to avoid making sweeping generalizations about the nature of religions with which we are unfamiliar. II. What Is Religion? A. Core Concept 1: When sociologists study religion, they are guided by the scientific method and by the assumption that no religions are false. 1. When sociologists study religion, they do not investigate whether God or some other supernatural force exists, whether certain religious beliefs are valid, or whether one religion is better than another. 2. Sociologists adhere to the scientific method. It requires them to study only observable and verifiable phenomena. 3. Sociologists investigate the social aspects of religion. 4. Definition of religion a. In The Sociology of Religion, Max Weber (1922) offered a broad definition. i. Religion encompasses those human responses that give meaning to the ultimate and inescapable problems of existence birth, death, illness, aging, injustice, tragedy, and suffering. ii. The hundreds of thousands of religions, past and present, represent(ed) a rich and seemingly endless variety of responses to these problems. iii. As a result of this variety, Weber believed that no single definition could hope to capture the essence of religion. b. In The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, Émile Durkheim ([1915] 1964) believed that religion was difficult to define. i. He cautioned that when studying religions, sociologists must 151

2 Chapter 14 III. assume that there are no religions [that] are false. ii. Those individuals that study religion must first rid themselves of all preconceived notions of what religion should be. Essential Features of Religion A. Core Concept 2: Durkheim defined religion as a system of shared rituals and beliefs about the sacred that bind together a community of worshipers. 1. Durkheim identified three essential features that he believed were common to all religions, past and present: beliefs about the sacred and the profane, rituals, and a community of worshipers. B. Beliefs about the Sacred 1. The sacred - everything that is regarded as extraordinary and that inspires in believers deep and absorbing sentiments of awe, respect, mystery, and reverence 2. Definitions of what is sacred vary according to time and place. 3. Durkheim ([1915] 1964) maintains that sacredness springs not from the item, ritual, or event itself but, rather, from its symbolic power and from the emotions that people experience when they think about the sacred thing or when they are in its presence. C. Sacramental, Prophetic, and Mystical Religions 1. In sacramental religions, followers seek the sacred in places, objects, and actions believed to house a god or a spirit. 2. In prophetic religions, the sacred revolves around items that symbolize historic events or revolves around the lives, teachings, and writings of great people. 3. In mystical religions, followers seek the sacred in states of being that can exclude all awareness of their existence, sensations, thoughts, and surroundings. 4. Distinctions between sacramental, prophetic, and mystical religions are not clear-cut. D. Beliefs about the Profane 1. According to Durkheim ([1915] 1964), the sacred encompasses more than the forces of good. There are gods of theft and trickery, of lust and war, of sickness and death (p. 420). 2. Religious beliefs, doctrines, legends, and myths detail the origins, virtues, and powers of sacred things and describe the consequences of mixing the sacred with the profane. 3. The profane encompasses everything that is not considered sacred. 4. People take action to safeguard sacred things by separating them from the profane. E. Rituals 1. Rituals - rules that govern how people behave in the presence of the sacred 2. According to Durkheim, the nature of the ritual is relatively insignificant. The important element is that the ritual is shared by a community of worshipers and evokes certain ideas and sentiments that help individuals feel that they are part of something larger than themselves. 152

3 Religion F. Community of Worshipers 1. Durkheim uses the word church to designate a group whose members hold the same beliefs regarding the sacred and the profane, behave in the same way in the presence of the sacred, and gather in body or spirit at agreed upon times to reaffirm their commitment to those beliefs and practices. 2. Religious beliefs and practices cannot be unique to an individual. They must be shared by a group of people. 3. Sociologists have identified at least five broad types of religious organizations or communities of worshipers: G. Ecclesiae 1. Ecclesia - a professionally trained religious organization that is governed by a hierarchy of leaders and that claims everyone in a society as a member. a. Membership is not voluntary. b. Membership is the law. 2. In its most extreme form, the ecclesia directly controls all facets of life. H. Denominations 1. Denomination - a hierarchical religious organization in a society in which church and state usually remain separate. It is led by a professionally trained clergy. 2. Membership is considered to be voluntary. Most people who belong to denominations did not choose to join them; they were born to parents who were already members. 3. Major denominations in the world include Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Shinto, and Taoism. I. Sects and Established Sects 1. Sect - a small community of believers led by a lay ministry. It has no formal hierarchy or official governing body to oversee its various religious gatherings and activities. 2. Sects are typically composed of people that broke away from a denomination because they came to view it as corrupt. These people then created the offshoot in an effort to reform the religion from which they separated. 3. The divisions within Islam have existed for so long that Sunni and Shia have become recognized as established sects groups that have left denominations or ecclesiae and have existed long enough to acquire a large following and widespread respect. 4. Theoretically, people are not born into sects; they convert. They choose membership later in life when they are considered capable of making such a choice. J. Cults 1. Cults - very small, loosely organized religious groups, usually founded by a charismatic leader who attracts people by virtue of his or her personal qualities 153

4 Chapter 14 IV. a. The charismatic leader plays a central role in attracting members. b. Cults often dissolve after the leader dies. Civil Religion A. Core Concept 3: Civil religion is an institutionalized set of beliefs about a nation s past, present, and future and a corresponding set of rituals that take on a sacred quality and elicit feelings of patriotism. 1. Civil religion - an institutionalized set of beliefs about a nation s past, present, and future and a corresponding set of rituals a. Civil religion forges ties between religion and a nation s needs and political interests. b. A nation s values and rituals often assume a sacred quality. c. Even in the face of internal divisions based on race, ethnicity, region, or gender, i. national beliefs and rituals can inspire awe, respect, and reverence for the country. ii. These sentiments are most evident during times of crisis and war and on national holidays that celebrate important events or people. B. Civil Religion and the Cold War 1. The Cold War ( ) included an arms race. The Soviet Union and the U.S. competed to match and then surpass any advances made by each other in the number and technological quality of nuclear weapons. a. Soviet and American leaders justified their direct or indirect intervention on the grounds that it was necessary to contain the spread of the other side s economic and political system, to protect national and global security, and to prevent the other side from shifting the balance of power in favor of its system. C. The United States and Muslims as Cold War Partners 1. The Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union made Afghanistan a focus of these two countries conflict. 2. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) worked with the Inter- Services Intelligence Agency, its Pakistani equivalent, on a plan to recruit radical Muslims from all over the world to fight with their Afghan brothers against the Soviet Union. a. Military training camps, staffed with U.S. advisors, served to train the guerrillas. b. These Pakistani- and U.S.-supported recruiting and military centers would eventually evolve into al-qaida ( the base ). 3. The legacy of U.S.-supported training camps is that key leaders of every major terrorist attack, from New York to France to Saudi Arabia, inevitably turned out to be veterans of the Afghan War (Mamdani 2004). D. Civil Religion and the Gulf War I 1. In 1990, at the request of the Saudi government, the U.S. government sent 540,000 troops to the Persian Gulf region after Iraqi troops 154

5 Religion invaded Kuwait. E. Civil Religion and the War on Terror 1. Leaders use language to justify war and to articulate a national identity in time of war. a. The nation assumes a sacred quality. b. Leaders project a moral certitude. c. Some critics liken this moral certitude to a kind of fundamentalism or a dangerous messianic brand of religion, one where self-doubt is minimal (Hedges 2002). 2. The traits Durkheim cites as characteristic of religion apply to other events, relationships, and forces within society that many people might not define as religious. F. The Functionalist Perspective 1. Core Concept 4: The functionalist perspective maintains that religion serves vital social functions for the individual and for the group. 2. Functionalists maintain that religion must serve some vital social functions for the individual and for the group. 3. The ideas that religion functions to meet individual and societal needs and that people create sacred objects and rituals led Durkheim to reach a controversial but thought-provoking conclusion. The something out there that people worship is actually society. G. Society as the Object of Worship 1. Core Concept 5: The variety of religious responses is endless because people play a fundamental role in determining what is sacred and how they should act in its presence. 2. If we operate under the assumptions that all religions are true in their own fashion and that the variety of religious responses is virtually endless, we find support for Durkheim s conclusion that people create everything encompassed by religion gods, rites, sacred objects. 3. Durkheim observed that whenever any group of people has strong conviction, that conviction almost always takes on a religious character. H. A Critique of the Functionalist Perspective of Religion 1. To claim that religion functions as a strictly integrative force is to ignore the long history of wars between different religious groups and the many internal struggles between factions within the same religious group. 2. The functionalist perspective tends to overemphasize the constructive consequences associated with religions unifying, bonding, and comforting functions. I. The Conflict Perspective 1. Core Concept 6: Conflict theorists focus on ways in which people use religion to repress, constrain, and exploit others. 2. Scholars that view religion from the conflict perspective focus on how religion turns people s attention away from social and economic inequality. This perspective stems from the work of Karl Marx. 3. Marx focused on its repressive, constraining, and exploitative 155

6 Chapter 14 qualities. He conceptualized religion as an ideology that justifies the status quo. 4. This kind of ideology led Marx to conclude that religion justifies social and economic inequities and that religious teaching inhibits protest and revolutionary change. 5. Marx went so far as to claim that religion would be unnecessary in a truly classless society. 6. Marx believed that religious doctrines shift people s attention away from unjust political and economic arrangements. J. A Critique of the Conflict Perspective of Religion 1. The major criticism leveled at Marx and the conflict perspective of religion is that, contrary to that perspective, religion is not always a sign of or tool against oppression. 2. Liberation theology represents one such approach to religion. a. Liberation theologians maintain that Christians have a responsibility to demand social justice for the marginalized peoples of the world. b. Ironically, this interpretation of Christian faith and practice is partly inspired by Marxist thought. 3. Sociologist J. Milton Yinger (1971) identifies at least two interrelated conditions under which religion can become a vehicle of protest or change: a. A government or other organization fails to advance its ideals. b. A society becomes polarized along class, ethnic, or sectarian lines. Disenfranchised or disadvantaged groups may form sects or cults and use seemingly eccentric features of the new religion to symbolize their sense of separation and to rally their followers to fight against the establishment or the dominant group (p. 111). K. The Interplay between Economics and Religion 1. Core Concept 7: Modern capitalism emerged and flourished in Europe and the United States because Calvinism supplied an ideologically supportive spirit or ethic. 2. Modern capitalism - an economic system that involves careful calculation of costs of production relative to profits, borrowing and lending money, accumulating all forms of capital, and drawing workers from an unrestricted global labor pool a. Weber concluded that Calvinism, a branch of Protestant tradition, supplied a spirit or an ethic that supported the motivations and orientations required by capitalism. 3. Weber was not writing about the form of capitalism that exists today as it places a heavy emphasis on consumption and self-indulgence. a. He maintained that once established, capitalism would generate its own norms and become a self-sustaining force. b. Religion becomes an increasingly insignificant factor in maintaining the capitalist system. 4. Some sociologists argue that industrialization and scientific advances cause society to undergo unrelenting secularization. 156

7 Religion a. Secularization - a process in which religious influences become increasingly irrelevant to not only economic life but also most aspects of social life. 5. Others argue that as religion becomes less relevant to economic and social life in general, a significant number of people take on a fundamentalist view. V. Secularization and Fundamentalism A. Core Concept 8: Secularization and fundamentalism fuel each other s growth in that secularization invites a fundamentalist response. 1. Secularization, a process by which religious influences on thought and behavior are reduced a. Invites a fundamentalist response a belief that such writings apply to all areas of one s life. B. The Complexity of Fundamentalism 1. Fundamentalism is a more complex phenomenon than popular conceptions would lead us to believe. a. It is impossible to define a fundamentalist in terms of age, ethnicity, social class, political ideology, or sexual orientation. Fundamentalist beliefs appeal to a wide range of people. b. Fundamentalist groups do not always position themselves against those in power. They are equally likely to be neutral or to fervently support existing regimes. c. Perhaps the most important characteristic of fundamentalists is their belief that a relationship with God, Allah, or some other supernatural force provides answers to personal and social problems. 2. Caplan (1987) identifies a number of other traits that seem to characterize fundamentalists. Fundamentalists emphasize the authority, infallibility, and timeless truth of sacred writings as a definitive blueprint for life (p. 19). C. Islamic Fundamentalism 1. In The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality? (1992), professor of religious studies John L. Esposito maintains that most Americans understanding of fundamentalism does not apply very well to contemporary Islam. 2. Esposito believes that more appropriate terms are Islamic revitalism or Islamic activism. 3. For many people, Islam offers an alternative vision for society. a. According to Esposito (1986), five beliefs guide Islamic activists (who follow many political persuasions, ranging from conservative to militant). i. Islam is a comprehensive way of life relevant to politics, law, and society. ii. Muslim societies fail when they depart from Islamic ways and follow the secular and materialistic ways of the West. iii. An Islamic social and political revolution is necessary for renewal. 157

8 Chapter 14 VI. iv. Islamic law must replace laws inspired or imposed by the West. v. Science and technology must be used in ways that reflect Islamic values in order to guard against the infiltration of Western values. b. Muslim groups differ dramatically in their beliefs about how quickly and by what methods these principles should be implemented. Most Muslims are willing to work within existing political arrangements. They condemn violence as a method of bringing about political and social change. D. Jihad and Militant Islam 1. It is important to distinguish between religious and political jihad. a. Many Islamic scholars have pointed out that in the religious sense of the word, true jihad is the constant struggle of Muslims to conquer their inner base instincts, to follow the path to God, and to do good in society (Milten 2002). b. But as Daniel Pipes (2003) points out in Militant Islam Reaches America, jihad (as used by those who lead political organizations) means armed struggle against non-muslims and against Muslims who fail to live up to the requirements of their faith (p. 264). i. Militant Islam is an aggressive totalitarian ideology that ultimately discriminates barely, if at all, among those who stand in its path (p. 249). ii. Non-Muslims as well as Muslims who do not share the militants outlook or who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time can be targets of attack. Summary of Core Concepts A. Core Concept 1: When sociologists study religion, they are guided by the scientific method and by the assumption that no religions are false. B. Core Concept 2: Durkheim defined religion as a system of shared rituals and beliefs about the sacred that bind together a community of worshipers. C. Core Concept 3: Civil religion is an institutionalized set of beliefs about a nation s past, present, and future and a corresponding set of rituals that take on a sacred quality and elicit feelings of patriotism. D. Core Concept 4: The functionalist perspective maintains that religion serves vital social functions for the individual and for the group. E. Core Concept 5: The variety of religious responses is endless because people play a fundamental role in determining what is sacred and how they should act in its presence. F. Core Concept 6: Conflict theorists focus on ways in which people use religion to repress, constrain, and exploit others. G. Core Concept 7: Modern capitalism emerged and flourished in Europe and the United States because Calvinism supplied an ideologically supportive spirit or ethic. H. Core Concept 8: Secularization and fundamentalism fuel each other s growth in that secularization invites a fundamentalist response. 158

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