1. Religion
Chapter 13

2. After studying this chapter, you should be able to do the following:
Define the basic elements of religion.
Differentiate among the major types of religion.
Describe the functions of religion according to the functionalist perspective.
Explain the conflict theory perspective on religion.
Describe the basic types of religious organization.
Describe important aspects of contemporary American religion.
Describe the major religions in the United States.

3. The Nature of Religion Religion
A system of beliefs, practices, and philosophical values shared by a group of people; it defines the sacred, helps explain life, and offers salvation from the problems of human existence.

4. Émile Durkheim observed that all religions divide the universe into two mutually exclusive categories:
Profane
Sacred.

5. Profane
All empirically observable things—that is, things that are knowable through common, everyday experiences.
Sacred
Things that are awe inspiring and knowable only through extraordinary experiences.

6. Religion Rituals Includes specific rituals.
Patterns of behavior or practices that are related to the sacred.

7. What are the elements of religion?
Ritual and Prayer
Emotion
Belief
Organization

8. Magic
Magic
An active attempt to coerce spirits or to control supernatural
Magic is used to manipulate and control matters that seem to be beyond human control and that may involve danger and uncertainty.
It is usually a means to an end, whereas religion is usually an end in itself, although prayer may be seen as utilitarian when a believer asks for a personal benefit.

9. Major Types of Religions
Supernaturalism
Animism
Monotheism
Theism
Abstract Ideals

10. Supernaturalism
Supernaturalism postulates the existence of nonpersonalized supernatural forces that can, and often do, influence human events.

11. Example of the belief in an impersonal supernatural power.
Mana

12. Mana
A diffuse, non personalized force that acts through anything that lives or moves,

13. Religious taboo
A sacred prohibition against touching, mentioning, or looking at certain objects, acts, or people.
Violating a taboo results in some form of pollution.

14. Animism
Animism is the belief in inanimate, personalized spirits or ghosts of ancestors that take an interest in, and actively work to influence, human affairs.

15. Theism
Theism is the belief in divine beings—gods and goddesses—who shape human affairs.
Gods are seen as powerful beings worthy of being worshipped.
Polytheism
The belief in a number of gods

16. Monotheism
Monotheism is the belief in the existence of a single god.

17. Only three religions are known to be monotheistic:
Judaism
Islamix
Christianity

18. Abstract Ideals
Abstract ideals focus on the achievement of personal awareness and a higher state of consciousness through correct ways of thinking and behaving, rather than by manipulating spirits or worshipping gods.

19. A Sociological Approach to Religion
Functionalist
Examined the functions that religion plays in social life
Conflict theorists
Viewed religion as a means for justifying the political status quo.

20. Do you feel religion is a normal functional part of society?
In your opinion,
what role does religion play ?

21. The Functionalist Perspective
Satisfying Individual Need
Sigmund Freud
Social Cohesion
Émile Durkheim
Establishing Worldviews
Max Weber

22. Durkheim saw religious ritual as an important part of this social cement
Religion responds to the basic human need to understand the purpose of life.
Adaptations to Society Durkheim called anomie or “normlessness”.
Revitalization movements
Powerful religious movements that stress a return to the traditional religious values of the past.

23. The Conflict Theory Perspective
Marx-
“Man makes religion, religion does not make man.
Marx further believed that religion is one of the most alienating influences in human society, affecting all other social institutions and contributing to a totally alienated world.
Marx saw religion as the tool that the upper classes used to maintain control of society and to dominate the lower classes

24. Organization of Religious Life
The Universal Church
A universal church includes all the members of a society within one united moral community
The Ecclesia
A church that shares the same ethical system as the secular society and has come to represent and promote the interest of the society at large.
The Denomination
Tends to limit its membership to a particular class, ethnic group, or religious group, or at least to have its leadership positions dominated by members of such a group.

25. Millenarian Movements
The Sect
A small group that adheres strictly to religious doctrine and often claims that they are the authentic version of the faith from which they split.
Millenarian Movements
Typically prophesy the end of the world, the destruction of all evil people and their works, and the saving of the just.

26. Aspects of American Religion
Religious Diversity
The United States has always been a land of many religions.

27. Why do you think
there are so many
different religions?

28. Do you feel that religion is taken forgranted in America?
Widespread Belief
Do you feel that religion is taken forgranted in America?
Why?

29. American Religiosity People in the United States
Too Religious Not religious enough
United States 21 58
France 61 26
Netherlands 57 25
Great Britain 39 28
Germany 31
Canada 35 38
India 32
Spain 40
Russia 27
Poland 6 56
Jordan * 95

30. Secularism
Modern society is becoming increasingly secularized, that is, less influenced by religion.
Religious institutions are being confined to ever-narrowing spheres of social influence, while people turn to secular sources for moral guidance in their everyday lives

31. Ecumenism
The trend among many religious communities to draw together and project a sense of unity and common direction.
It is partially a response to secularism and is a tendency evident among many religions in the United States.

32. Major Religions in the United States
What are four major
religions
in the United States?

33. Protestant
Catholicism
Judaism
Islam

34. Protestantism
A branch within Christianity containing many denominations of different practices and doctrines, that originated in the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation.

35. Catholicism
A broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole.

36. Judaism
A set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts.

37. Islam
The word Islam is a homograph, having multiple meanings, and a triliteral of the word salam, which directly translates as peace.

38. Muslim Population World 1,308,941,000 Asia 910,375,000 Africa
357,846,000
Europe
33,303,000
United States
4,745,200
Latin America
1,745,000

39. Five Pillars of Islam Shahadah, or faith Prayer Almsgiving Fasting
Pilgrimage.

40. Social Aspects of Religious Affiliation
Religious affiliation seems to be correlated strongly with many other important aspects of people’s live.