A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger religious group. Although in past it was mostly used to refer to religious groups, it has since expanded and in modern culture can refer to any organization that breaks away from a larger one to follow a different set of rules and principles. Sects are smaller, less highly organised grouping of committed believers who usually set themselves up in protest at what a church has become. Sects usually have members who are usually numbered around the couple of hundred mark, showing the main difference between them and the church.
According to Troeltsch (1931), sects are essentially the polar opposite of churches. They are much smaller
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Stark and Bainbridge (1985) are critical of typologies, arguing that there are always overlaps between categories. Instead, they ran organisations on their tension contributed into society, as they don’t see all organised groups to be a threat. They say that Sects are small religious groups, which are an offshoot of an existing religion and are in a high degree of tension with the outside world. However, a problem with Stark and Bainbridge’s definitions is that they argue that typologies do not adequately categorise religions because the boundaries are not clear-cut, but then produce their own typology, which could be criticised for the same thing. For example, it is unclear how much involvement members have to have for an organisation to be regarded as a sect.
Weber (1922), like Troeltsch, argues that sects tended to be amongst marginal groups in society, that is, people outside the mainstream of social life who felt they weren’t gaining economic rewards from society they deserved. These sects developed a theodicy of disprivilege, which is a religious explanation and justification for their disadvantages, which often promised them salvation in the afterlife. Wilson (1970) also agrees with this explanation as he says that those in situations like defeat in war, natural disasters and economic collapses would lead to these people becoming marginalised and turning to new religions. However this isn’t always the case as most members from sects
Martin uses a functionalistic approach to understand the role religion plays in society, exploring each object with hermeneutical suspicion, believing, for the sake of this study, that any supernatural claims are false. By exploring such concepts as classification, structured society, and habitus, Martin explains how “we, as humans, are a product of society”. He focuses on answering questions such as “what’s going on” and “whose interests are served” by skeptically looking at the way in which people use legitimation, authority, and authenticity to push their own agendas.
In the Introduction section of the book, The Hidden Lives of Congregations, Israel Galindo states that a congregation is a “corporate relationship organization” (3) and is not an organization. He points out that the hidden life of a congregation would depict the “nature” of a congregation. This further identifies the relationships and faith of the congregation. According to him, the universal principles are followed by the congregations so that “systemic relationships” can work. The leaders learn the roles that they have within the people who are the congregation. The journal will focus on Dr. Fowler’s question “what is the purpose of this gathering we call the church?”
Church after church split into evangelical and traditional factions and denominations appeared. New denominations occurred and grew in numbers as a result of the importance on individual faith and salvation. With
This work investigates the implications of theories of global change for the study of religion generally and, through a series of case studies, applications of those theories to specific religious movements. In particular, Beyer is interested in the seeming contradiction of the persistence of conflict between social units within a globalizing world that is more and more becoming a "single place." The first half of his book, the introduction and four chapters, is taken up with theoretical definitions of religion as a social system and the position of that social system with regard to other systems. The second half of the book, five chapters, explores applications of Beyer’s theorizing to a wide range of world religious particularities.
Between 1947 and 1971, even if you did not practice your religion it was still expected that you would identify yourself as being a part of your/ your family’s religion. In 1947 the ‘no religion’ category made up only 0.3% of
Churches are an important part of the community. They join together for the purpose of spreading the word of the gospel and to help serve the community in times of need. In my area, there is an association of churches joined together for that purpose. The Bayou Macon-Madison Baptist Association is an organization of 36 Southern Baptist Churches that work together to do mission work, serve the church members and pastors, and other work to minister to the people.
The competition between denominations has taken away from the glorification of Jesus Christ. This also has lead people to think that denominations cause a division among Christians. When a denomination does not align with the Word of God and removes or inserts other implications to the written Word, it dilutes the authentic meaning of the Holy Bible. In having confidence that God composed every single word in the Holy Bible, I believe it is important to adhere to and believe in the Holy Bible in its entirety. The Southern Baptist denomination believes in the entire Bible, in the manner in which it was written, and promotes its members to live so
The social construction of religion should not be considered, in all, a bad idea. It does offer core values and represents in its simplest form – moral good, yet any man made thing can be corrupt. What led me to my position was where I
Sociologists argue that in Britain, there has been an overall steady decline in the importance of religion since the 19th century, which has led some sociologists to suggest there was a ‘golden age’ of religiosity. Many sociologists have proposed explanations for the secularisation thesis, for example Weber, Berger and Bruce. However Postmodernists criticise the secularisation theory as they believe that religion hasn’t declined it has just become modernised. Other theories, such as religious market theory and existential security theory, also go against the view that Britain is becoming a secular society as they believe religion takes form in
Religious identity can come in two forms, one from a nation of people all believing in the same values and another from the personal view of each individual or family within that nation. In a family or local community sense, it ties the smaller community together against its neighbouring ethnicities. It provides a feeling of togetherness and strength for the society. It is the basis for 'ethnic honour: the excellence of one's own customs and the inferiority of alien ones' (Weber, cited in Bruce 1996, p. 96). Religious identity brings great pride and hope to the citizens of any particular society and lends itself towards social cohesion (Browne 2005).
We all have some experience with religion. Whether our parents are religious, our own religious views, or others who try and convert you to a religion, we have all come in contact with a religion. But what do sociology and religion have to do with each other? The answer to this question is that religion meets sociology in the affects that it has on an individual or society (Schaefer, Richard T, 2009, pg 323).
Religion, as defined by the High Court of Australia, is ‘a complex of beliefs and practices which point to a set of values and an understanding of the meaning of existence’ (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2005) and can be studied either substantively or functionally (Berger 1974:126). Substantive studies of religion fall predominantly in the realm of theology and are more concerned with defining religious beliefs; their historical accuracy; and the existence of supernatural entities (Holmes, Hughes & Julian 2007:425). Sociology however, concerns itself primarily with the relationship between religion and society, examining religion as a social construction (Van Krieken et al. 2010:350-1) and concerned only with the substance of
In this course, I found the connection between religion and politics the most important concept we’ve studied. With engagement and understanding of politics becoming increasingly important, it’s valuable to study the ways people both interact with politics and form their political opinions—and as we’ve seen, religion can play a huge role in both of these aspects. However, the way religious groups engage with politics can perhaps be generalizing when discussing major religions, seeing as these groups are often widely diverse and brimming with unique experiences. Therefore, I believe it is just as important to discuss the political dimension of religion with the social influences of ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and the interrelations between them.
To understand the religion as a social control tool, it is necessary to understand the term socialization. Many sociologists have placed more focus on defining the term socialization. Ward (2011) defined the term socialization as the process through which an individual acquires the ways of a social group or a society so as he or she can fit in it. In his invitation to sociology, Koenig (2013) defined the term ‘socialization’ as the process through which acquires knowledge of how to become a member of the society. It is only through socializing that an individual is able to learn normative values, skills, beliefs, languages as well as other essential arrangements of action as well as thoughts significant for any given social life.
However, there is another side to religion, one that is quite contrary to idea of unification and acceptance. When looking through the scope of history, we can also see religion as an exclusionary tool, often used to differentiate groups of people on an innate level. As many of these idealogies attempt to assert