Sociology of Religion

Some Thoughts on the Sociology of Religion

“There are few major subjects about which people know so little, yet feel so certain (Yinger 1970:2).”

Test Your Religious Knowledge!

As implied by quote above, accepting willful ignorance rather than carefully considering the obvious and not so obvious functions of religion is not the path of a sociologist. Studying the social context in which rituals, symbols, and beliefs arise is dangerous to those tenuous in their faith. Furthermore, most of us go blithely through our lives from a “world-taken-for-granted” point of view (see Max Weber or Alfred Schütz) The hidden assumptions of day-to-day reality are what many sociologists like to expose and analyze.

Often we view religion and science as having a zero-sum relationship. But for many sociologists, religion and science are both narratives that explain social reality-the former based on traditional authority and faith and the later on scientific methodology. As Albert Einstein (1993) noted, “All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man’s life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.”

A single way of explaining reality is a recipe for failure. Most people’s attitudes and beliefs about social issues fall along a continuum and are not easily compartmentalized. Moreover, some people are very sensitive about issues concerning religion. Tied closely to family and community, individuals who inherit their faith are reluctant to pursue scientific dialog about religion. The sociologist, however, acknowledges that religion is a one of the most important factors in American life and such should not be ridiculed, minimized, or demonized. The role of the researcher is to understand religion in an empirical sense.

The rise of modernity and the death of God-or a post Christian stage where such folks as the Priestly Order of Sociologists march about solving problems has yet to come. Clearly, some people are quite hostile towards religion such as Sigmund Freud (1989) who said, “…religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis.” In spite of proclamations of the death of God, religions persevere. Consider the following quotes about religion. The first quote is from Voltaire (2006), “If God did not exist it would be necessary for us to invent Him.” The second quote is from Pearl S. Buck (N.D.), “When men destroy their old gods they will find new ones to take their place”

So, as a sociologist of religion, what do I specifically focus on in my research? I may, like Emile Durkheim and Marcel Mauss in Primitive Classification (1984) look at how various faiths arise and are organized. Or I might look at how various faiths are organized, their manifest and latent functions, and areas of convergence/divergence in symbols, rituals, and beliefs. I would attempt to describe, explain, and predict patterns or religious life by employing the scientific method. Furthermore, I am keenly interested in how cohesion or conflict arises through religion.

What are some commonalities of various faiths? First religions provide a form of community or more popularly, “fellowship.” Next, religions possess a system of beliefs that provides a worldview and normative framework for its members. Such a worldview provides an explanation about the human condition. The belief systems of particular religions lend rhetoric of legitimacy to the way a society is structured. Finally, various religions delineate between sacred and profane.

The Religious Community

Religious experience contributes another layer to the identity of a community. Religious experience offers communally sanctioned moments of catharsis. Within the context of religious events, people are encouraged to yell, dance, speak in tongues, partake in hallucinogenic drinks and foods, and other behaviors that they would not do in their normal daily lives.

System of Beliefs

“Religious beliefs are usually expressed in the form of myths.” Free of any negative connotations, myths are “Stories or belief systems that help people understand the nature of the cosmos, the purpose and meaning of life, or the role and origin of evil and suffering (Roberts, 1984:77).” Myths provide the rationalizations about how and why particular societies are organized. Many scholars contend that “ritual emerges first and myth develop later to justify the existence of the ritual (Roberts, 1984:87).”

F. Forrester Church, the senior minister of the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City, wrote that religion is a “human response to being alive and having to die.” For many, religion provides the most satisfying narrative that addresses questions such as “Why we are here?” or “How can we get by in a world where there is so much suffering?” Scientific explanations exist in an empirical reality and ill equipped to respond a reality based in an emotional and spiritual realm.

The religious normative order may irritate nonbelievers or slackers through what C.S. Lewis (2002:292) called “omnipotent moral busybodies.” Mainline religious denominations tend legitimate the stratification and power structure in society. Religion for the marginalized and poor as Marx wrote “is the opium of the people.” this usually meant poor people. Weber termed this the “Theodicy of Suffering.” Neitzsche called it Christian slave morality. In its extreme, religious morality may legitimize and support such things as “segregation is proclaimed as a God-given natural order (Berger, 1963).” Consider American Socialist Joe Hill’s song “The Preacher and the Slave (Zinn, 2003).”

Long-haird preachers come out every night,

Try to tell you what’s wrong and what’s right;

But when asked how ‘bout something to eat

They will answer with voices so sweet:

You will eat, bye and bye,

In that glorious land above the sky;

Work and pray, live on hay,

You’ll get pie in the sky when you die.

The Sacred and the Profane

Common to all faiths is the use of symbols, rituals, and beliefs. To the sociologist, nothing is intrinsically sacred or profane. However, one primary function of religion is to identify through symbolic representations sacred objects and determine how members should react to such objects.

Emile Durkheim, a 19th Century French sociologist, argued that religions separate sacred and profane symbols and words. To Durkheim, god is a symbol of society personified. In more picturesque terms, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s wrote that, “The god of the cannibals will be a cannibal, of the crusaders a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant.” Moreover, we internalize in our thoughts and language this sacred symbology (Emerson, 2001:5; Roberts, 1984).

But sacredness is a fleeting state of being. The church, traditionally symbolized as a house of God, a sacred sanctuary from a secular world has become worldlier with the advent of modernity and commercialism. For instance, consider “megachurches.” These churches have portrayed by some sociologists as a corollary to McDonalds and going to the mall (Ritzer, 1999; 2000). Gustav Neibuhr (1995:1, 14) describes megachurches this way:

Megachurches are huge steel and glass structure with acres of parking…at their fanciest [they] feature aerobics classes, bowling alleys, counseling centers, and multimedia bible classes where the presentation rivals that of MTV. On Sunday morning, big screens project Scripture verses and the lyrics to pop-style religious songs so that everyone in the congregation can see and follow along (see also Perlstein, 1998).

Often such a move to a more secular faith dissatisfies the more ardent and emotional worshippers. Many researchers have noted that this may be the reason behind the great diversity in faith in the United States. In other words, as mainline denominations become more worldly, dissatisfied members leave to form sects, which they perceive as being more sacred. Paralleling this is the phenomena of new religious movements, or cults, which find a fostering medium in the void when mainline religions become mundane.

The writer T.S. Eliot (1927) wrote, “…any religion…is for ever in danger of petrifaction into mere ritual and habit, though ritual and habit be essential to religion.” According to Durkheim, rituals are procedures by which people must conduct themselves in the presence of things they believe to be sacred (Durkheim, 1995). He also argued that in some societies required members to engage in rituals to purify themselves of the secular influences of daily life before entering sacred places (Durkheim, 1995).

Rituals typically involve support of the myths and offer an emotional connection to the belief system. Furthermore, these religious ceremonies often involve the reenactments of legends and myths in an emotional setting (Roberts, 1984:87).

Concluding Thoughts

Earlier, I provided a quote; now regard it in its full context, “We now glimpse the profound reason why the gods can no more do without their faithful than the faithful can do without their gods. It is that society, of which the gods are only a symbolic expression, can no more do without individuals than individuals can do without society (Durkheim, 1995:?).” According to Yinger (1970:7), “The evidence is decisive: human nature abhors a vacuum in systems of faith.”

REFERENCES

Berger, Peter. 1963. Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective. Garden City, New York:Anchor Books.

Buck, Pearl. No Date. Unattributed but very popular quote.

Church, F. Forrester. 2002. “Across the town: Services Held at All Souls Church Unitarian, New York, NY – Sept. 12, 2001.” Obtained at http://www.uua.org/news/91101/church.html on April 28, 2005.

Collins, Randall. 1982. Sociological Insight: An Introduction to Nonobvious Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press.

Eliot, T.S.1932. Selected Essays 1917-1932. London: Faber and Faber

Durkheim, Emile. 1995. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. Trans. By Karen Fields. New York: The Free Press.

—–and Marcel Mauss. 1984 [1963]. Primitive Classification. Trans. By Rodney Needham. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Einstein, Albert.1993 [1937].  Out of My Later Years Through His Own Words. New York: Gramercy Books.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. 2001. Essays and English Traits. Vol. V. The Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909–14; Bartleby.com, 2001. Obtained at www.bartleby.com/5/. December 15, 2006.Pg. 5.

Freud, Sigmund. 1989 [1927].The Future of an Illusion. W.W. Norton & Company.

Lewis, C. S. 2002. God in the Dock. Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans. p. 292.

Niebuhr, Gustav.1995. “Where Shopping-Mall Culture Gets a Big Dose of Religion.” New York Times. April 16. pp. 1, 14.

Perlstein, Linda. 1998. “The Rock of Ages Tries the Rock of Youth.” Washington Post. July 18. p. A3.

George Ritzer.1999. Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the Means of Consumption. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.

—–. 2000. The McDonaldization of Society. New Century of Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.

Roberts, Keith. 1984. Religion in Sociological Perspective. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Voltaire. 2006 [1770]. Letter to the author of The Three Impostors. Obtained at http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/unknown/three_impostors.html on December 15, 2006.

Yinger, J. Milton.1970. The Scientific Study of Religion. New York: MacMillan.

Zinn, Howard. 2003. A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present. New York: Perennial Classics.