sociology in religion

In American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation, Jon Meacham explores the dynamic relationship between religion and government in America in the hope that contemporary America can learn from the past. The period covered by the book spans from 1620 until Reagan’s presidency in the late 1980s. However, Meacham focuses on the Founding Fathers stances and their continued impact on American politics. More specifically, the book details the conflict over the separation of private religious expression and the more neutral ‘public religion’.

Women started to become more important, vital, significant, and valuable to society. As women began to gain respect in society, they were offered more opportunities. Women were able to overcome male dominance in society. In the workplace for example, women started as teachers and secretaries.

Today there are more than 1,500 religious bodies in the United States, ranging from the more than 66 million members of the Roman Catholic Church to sects with fewer than 1,000 adherents. In virtually every region of the country, religion is being expressed in greater variety, whether it be the Latinization of Catholicism and some Christian faiths or the de-Europeanizing of some established Protestant faiths as with Asian Americans or the de-Christianizing of the overall religious landscape with Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, and others (Roof, 2007).

Contrary to what many observers predicted in the 1960s and early 1970s, religion has remained as vibrant and vital a part of American society as in generations past. New issues and interests have emerged, but religion's role in many Americans' lives remains ____________________________________ Place holder picture ___________________________________ undiminished. Perhaps the one characteristic that distinguishes late-twentieth-century religious life from the rest of America's history, however, is diversity. To trace this development, we must look back to the 1960s. As with many aspects of American society, the 1960s proved a turning point for religious life as well.

"Given the division of opinion on religion's contribution to American society, this present study seeks to shed light on the topic by making an estimate of religion's socio-economic value to society," the Grims said in the study.

This work examines Durkheim’s sociological approach to religion. Several central aspects of Durkheim’s approach are defined, including the concepts of religion, clan, and totem. The Totemic Principle and how it can be applied to religion is also discussed. Supporting evidence for Durkheim is offered through Eliade, while dissension is offered by Malinowski. This work concludes with an example of Durkheim’s ideas applied to the story of Lame Deer.

In conclusion, religious participation has influenced key aspects in Americans and has suffered from the numbers of Americans losing influence of participating. Putnam’s book gives a major insight on how Americans hold the power to raise and lower rates of religious participation. The ability to give readers an insight on Americans power is a key reason as to why I would recommend Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community to others.

In Chapter 2, “Religion Matters”, Prothero briefly discusses how religion has impacted America even if it seems subsided, and why we tend to neglect it. When it comes to some of the major events of American history, Prothero argues that “none of the classic events in American history…can be understood without some knowledge of the religious motivations” of its major players. (Prothero) Perhaps part of the reason we generally ignore this statement is because of confusion and controversies it presents in government rulings and school teachings.

Religion plays a major role in American society today. The stance that people take on their religion can affect the social and political choices that they make. Having a loving God view and relationship with him also takes place in these decisions being made. Researchers Unnever, Bartkowski and Cullen explore in their article, “God Imagery and Opposition to Abortion and Capital Punishment: A Partial Test of Religious Support for the Consistent Life Ethic”, as to whether having a close relationship with God will allow people to oppose both capital punishment and abortion, the consistent life ethic.

In chapter 5 and 6 Roberts and Yamane discuss how a person becomes religious and the process of converting from one religion to another. One observation they make is in chapter 5 is that religion is taught to us. They described this as, religious socialization, which is a process of individuals being taught religious beliefs, values and norms.

Overall, the service felt like they were lecturing people and guiding them to live better lives. Actually, this could be related to Sigmund Freud’s theory on religion. It felt like all the people were treated as children, and according to Freud, through religion we are infants to God(s). Joachim Wach’s descriptive definition of religion can be found throughout the service I attended. In service, they read from the bible and that is the theoretical part of religion that communicates the belief system. Service required a gathering of people, so religion was sociological. During service, I witness recitation, sermon, sacramental rite, personal prayers, and song. Indeed, these met the criteria that religion requires doing something to get in touch

This week we are focusing on the types of people who come to our selected field site. The individuals who frequent Free Church all have one thing in common, they attend the church because they want to learn more about the Christian religion, worship God, and possibly meet other people who have the same desire. In some cases the members may have grown up in a Christian family where they have been going to church since they were young, or they could have found Christianity later in their lives. Moreover in my research, I saw that men were going to men’s ministry to learn what it means to be a “man” within the context of Christian teachings, and women were going to women’s ministry to lean the same thing. Josie and I discussed that in terms of the racial make-up of, The Free Church’s membership is predominantly European-American, although almost all ethnic groups are represented in the Church’s population. With regards to socio-economic status, most of the people at the

In society, people strived for social interaction among one another by grouping themselves with individuals who are like minded. This type of classification normally consist of various type of cultural similarities to include but not limited to ethnic background, food, music, fashion and arts. Another form of classification that has been instilled in the world for many years is religion. Religion is the organization of spiritual, sacred and biblical beliefs that express the existence of a higher supernatural power or god. Even though every religion has their own specific practices, it has been apparent that such beliefs have a profound effect on society. How much social purpose and control can religion have on an individual is yet to be seen.

Along with Durkheim and Marx, Weber was one of the most influential thinkers in the foundation of the field of sociology, Weber namely in establishing the subject of the sociology of religion. Weber’s mother was a devout Calvinist, while his father was involved in politics and intellectual pursuits. In addition to his vast education in many fields, Weber was also a jurist, and a teacher at the Universities of Berlin and Heidelberg. Max Weber favoured a hermeneutical approach to studying religion (McCutcheon 2007, p.188) in a method known as Verstehen. This refers to wishing to understand the deeper significance of something, in this case religion, by studying it from the perspective and experience of another, and the meaning they then attach to it. Since religious beliefs affect people’s behaviour, Weber believed that religions could have profound effects on societies and their development (Connolly 1999, p.199).

Throughout history, anthropologists have explored religion in great depth and have explained in various ways how they believe religion should be thought of ethologically. In lecture, when asked what comes to mind when I think of religion, I thought of my church, and the traditions that my family and I have been doing for my entire life. The way of thinking about religion described in the passage Religion: Ritual and Belief by authors Robert L. Welsch and Luis A. Vivanco is shaped by an accumulation of many different anthropologist’s theories produced throughout history. In 1871, British anthropologist Sir Edward Tylor explained how religion was formed by the “fundamental error” of primitive peoples thinking, and how they confused their dreams with reality, formulating their belief in spirts with their “religion” (Welsch 204). Anthropologist Anthony F.C. Wallace argued that people should think of religion as not only the act of believing but the rituals dealing with the “supernatural” (Welsch 204). Anthropologist Clifford Geertz built off of Wallace’s definition and argued that religion must be thought of as a “system of symbols” that helped give a sense of “moral purpose” and “meaning” to people’s lives and a sense of “world view” (Welsch 205). In lecture, Professor Perez stressed the characteristics of religion with the importance of sacred stories, rituals and traditions that helped to form the social structure of a particular region and culture. In Religion: Ritual and