Topic 2: Religion and social change

Religion as a conservative force

Religion can be seen as a conservative force in two senses: 1. It is often seen as conservative in the sense of being 'traditional', defending traditional customs, institutions, moral views, roles etc. In other words it upholds traditional beliefs

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Religion as a conservative force (2)

about how society should be organised. 2. It is conservative because it functions to conserve or preserve things as they are. It stabilies society and maintains the status quo.

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Religion's beliefs

Most religions have traditional conservative beliefs about moral issues and many of them oppose changes that would allow individuals more freedom in personal and sexual matters. For example the Catholic church forbids divorce, abortion

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Religion's beliefs (2)

and artificial contraception. It opposes gay marriage and condemns homosexual behaviour. Similarly most religions uphold family values and often favour a traditional patriarchal domestic division of labour. For example the belief that the man should

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Religion's beliefs (3)

should be the head of the family was embedded in the traditional marriage ceremony of the Church of England dating from 1602. The bride vows to 'love, honour, obey', but the groom is only required to 'love and honour'.

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Religion's beliefs (4)

Traditional conservative values also predominate in non-christian values. For example Hinduism endorses male domestic authority and the practice of arranged marriage.

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Religion's functions

Religion is also a conservative force in that it functions to conserve or preserve things are and maintain the status quo. The view of religion is held by functionalists, Marxists and feminists.

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Religion's functions (2)

Religion and consensus. Functionalists see religion as a conservative force because it functions to maintain social stability and prevent society from disintegrating. For example it promotes social solidarity by creating value consensus.

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Religion's functions (3)

By contrast Marxists and feminists see religion as an ideology that supports the existing social structure and acts as a means of social control, creating stability in the interests of the powerful.

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Religion's functions (4)

Religion and capitalism. Marx sees religion as a conservative ideology that prevents social change. By legitimating or disguising exploitation and inequality, it creates false consciousness in the working class and prevents revolution.

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Religion's functions (5)

Religion and patriarchy. Feminists see religion as a conservative force because it acts as an ideology that legitimates patriarchal power and maintains women's subordination in the family and wider society.

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Weber: religion as a force for change

Weber argues that the religious beliefs of Calvinism helped to bring about major social change-specifically the emergence of modern capitalism in Northern Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. Weber notes that many past societies had capitalism in

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Weber: religion as a force for change (2)

the greed for wealth, which they often spent on luxury compensation. However modern capitalism is unique, he argues because it is based on the systematic, efficient, rational pursuit of profit for its own sake, rather than for consumption.

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Weber: religion as a force for change (3)

Weber calls this the spirit of capitalism. According to Weber this spirit had what he calls an elective affinity or unconscious similarity to the Calvinist's beliefs and attitudes. Calvinism had several distinctive beliefs.

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Calvinist beliefs

Predestination. God had predetermined which souls would be saved- 'the elect'- and which would not, even before birth. Individuals could do nothing whatsoever to change this whether through their deeds, as the Catholics believed or through faith.

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Calvinist beliefs (2)

Divine transcendence. God was so far above and beyond this world and so incomparably greater than any mortal. that no human being could possibly claim to know his will. This included the church and its priests-leaving the Calvinists to feel an

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Calvinist beliefs (3)

unprecedented, this created what Weber calls a salvation panic in the Calvinists. They could not know whether they had been chosen to be saved, and they could not do anything to earn their salvation.

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Calvinist beliefs (4)

Asceticism. This refers to abstinence, self-discipline and self-denial. For example monks lead an ascetic existence, refraining from luxury, wearing simple clothes and avoiding excess in order to devote themselves to God and a life of prayer.

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Calvinist beliefs (5)

The idea of a vocation or calling. Before Calvinism the idea of a religious vocation meant renouncing everyday life to join a convent or monastery. Weber calls this other-worldly asceticism. By contrast Calvinism introduces for the first time the

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Calvinist beliefs (6)

idea of this worldly asceticism.The only thing Calvinists knew of God's plan for humanity came from the bible which revealed to them that we were put on earth to glorify God's name by our work. Thus for the Calvinists the idea of a calling or

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Calvinist beliefs (7)

vocation meant constant, methodical work in an occupation, not in a monastery. However work could not earn salvation-it as simply a religious duty. For this reason the Calvinists led an ascetic lifestyle shunning all luxury, worked long hours and

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Calvinist beliefs (8)

practiced rigorous self-discipline. Idleness is a sin: as the Calvinist Benjamin Franklin put it: 'lose no time be always employed in something useful.'The Calvinists' hard work and asceticism had two consequences.

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Calvinist beliefs (9)

Firstly their wealth and success performed a psychological function for the Calvinists that allowed them to cope with their salvation panic. As they grew wealthier they took this as a sign of God's favour and their salvation.

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Calvinist beliefs (10)

Secondly driven by their work ethic they systematically and methodically accumulated wealth by the most efficient and rational means possible. But not permitting themselves to squander it on luxuries they reinvested it in their businesses which grew

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Calvinist beliefs (11)

and prospered, producing further profit to reinvest. In Weber's view this is the very spirit of modern capitalism-where the object is simply the acquisition of more and more money as an end in itself.

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Hinduism and Confucianism

It is very important to note that Weber was not arguing that Calvinist beliefs were the cause of modern capitalism but simply that they were one of its causes. The Protestant ethic of the Calvinists was not sufficient on its own to bring modern

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Hinduism and Confucianism (2)

capitalism into being. On the contrary, a number of material or economic factors were necessary such as natural resources, trade, a money economy, towns and cities and a system of law.

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Hinduism and Confucianism (3)

On the other hand Weber notes that there have been other societies that have had a higher level of economic development from Northern Europe had in the 16th and 17th centuries, but that still failed to develop modern capitalism.

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Hinduism and Confucianism (4)

In particular he argues that ancient China and India were materially more advanced than Europe but capitalism did not take of there. He argues that the failure of capitalism to take off there was due to the lack of a religious belief system like that

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Hinduism and Confucianism (5)

of Calvinism that would have spurred its development. Thus in ancient India Hinduism was an ascetic religion, like Calvinism favouring renunciation of the material world. However its orientation was other-worldly-it directed its followers' concerns

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Hinduism and Confucianism (6)

away from the material world and towards the spiritual world. In ancient China, Confucianism also discouraged the growth of rational capitalism, but for different reasons. Like Calvinism Confucianism was a this-worldly religion that directed its

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Hinduism and Confucianism (7)

followers towards the material world but unlike Calvinism it was not ascetic. Both Hinduism and Confucianism thus lacked the drive to systematically accumulate wealth that is necessary for modern capitalism.

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Evaluation

Weber's work is often described as a 'debate with Marx's ghost'. Marx saw economic or material factors as the driving force of change, whereas Weber argues that material factors alone are not enough to bring about capitalism.

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Evaluation (2)

Karl Kautsky (1927) argues that Weber overestimates the role of ideas and underestimates economic factors in bringing capitalism into being. He argues that in fact capitalism preceded rather than following Calvinism. Similarly R. H Tawney (1926) arg

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Evaluation (3)

R. H Tawney (1926) argues that technological change, not religious ideas caused the birth of capitalism. It was only after capitalism was established that the bourgeoisie adopted Calvinist beliefs to legitimate their pursuit of economic gain.

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Evaluation (4)

Weber has also been criticised because capitalism did not develop in every country where there Calvinists. For example Scotland had a large Calvinist population but was slow to develop capitalism. However Weberians such as Gordan Marshall (1982)

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Evaluation (5)

argue that this was because of a lack of investment capital and skilled labour-supporting Weber's point that both material and cultural factors need to be present for capitalism to emerge. Others argue that although Calvinists were among the first

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Evaluation (6)

capitalists this was not because of their belief but simply because they had been excluded by law from political office and many of the professions like the Jews in Eastern Europe. They turned to business as one of the few alternatives open to them.

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Religion and social protest

Like Weber Steve Bruce (2003) is interested in the relationship between religion and social change. Using case studies he compares two examples of the role of religiously inspired protest movements in America that have tried to change society

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The American civil rights movement

Bruce describes the struggle of the black civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s to end raicial segregation as an example of religiously motivated social change. Although slavery had been abolished in 1865, blacks were denied legal and

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The American civil rights movement (2)

political rights in many Southern states where segregation was enforced, preventing them from using the same amenities as whites. Schools were segregated and inter-racial marriages forbidden.

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The American civil rights movement (3)

The civil rights movement began in 1995 when Rosa Parks a black civil rights activist in Montgomery, Alabama refused to sit at the back of the bus, as blacks were expected to do. Campaigning involved direct action by black people themselves.

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The American civil rights movement (4)

Bruce describes the black clergy as the backbone of the movement. Led by Dr Martin Luther King they played a decisive role, giving support and moral legitimacy to civil rights activist. Their churches provided meeting places and sanctuary from the

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The American civil rights movement (5)

threat of white violence, and rituals such as prayer meetings and hymn singing were a source of unity in the face of oppression. Bruce argues that the black clergy were able to shame whites into changing the law by appealing to their shared Christian

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The American civil rights movement (6)

values of equality. Although the impact on white clergy in the South Wales limited, their message reached a wide audience outside the Southern states and gained national support. Bruce sees religion in this context as an ideological resource.

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The American civil rights movement (7)

It provided beliefs and practices that protesters could draw on for motivation and support. Using the civil rights movement as an example, he identifies several ways in which religious organisations are well equipped to support protests.

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The American civil rights movement (8)

Taking the moral high ground:Black clergy pointed out the hypocrisy of white clergy who preached 'love thy neighbour' but supported racial segregation. Channelling dissent: religion provides channels to express political dissent.

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The American civil rights movement (9)

Acting as an honest broker: churches can provide a context for negotiating change because they are often respected by both sides in a conflict. Mobilising public opinion: black churches in the South successfully campaigned for support in America.

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The American civil rights movement (10)

Bruce sees the civil rights movement as an example of religion becoming involved in secular struggle and helping to bring about change. In his view the movement achieved its aims because it shared the same values as wider society and those in power.

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The New Christian Right

The New Christian Right is a politically and morally conservative, Protestant fundamentalist movement. It has gained prominence since the 1960s because of its opposition to the liberalising of American society.

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The New Christian Right (2)

The aim of The New Christian Right seek to take America 'back to god' and make abortion, homosexuality, gay marriage and divorce illegal, turning the clock back to a time before the liberalisation of American culture and society.

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The New Christian Right (3)

The New Christian Right believes strongly in the traditional family and traditional gender roles. It campaigns for the teaching of 'creationism' and to ban sex education in schools. The New Christian Right has made effective use of the media and

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The New Christian Right (4)

networking, notably televangelism, where church-owned television stations raise funds and broadcast programmes aimed at making converts and recruiting new members.

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The New Christian Right (5)

However The New Christian Right has been largely unsuccessful in achieving its aims. Bruce suggests these reasons: its campaigners find it very difficult to cooperate with people from other religious groups, even when campaigning on the same issue.

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The New Christian Right (6)

It lacks widespread support and has met with strong opposition from groups who stand for freedom of choice. Bruce describes as a failed movement for change. Despite enormous publicity and a high profile in the media, it has not achieved its aims of

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The New Christian Right (7)

taking America 'back to god. In his view its attempt to impose protestant fundamentalist morality on others has failed because of the basically liberal and democratic values of most American society. These values include a belief in the separation of

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The New Christian Right (8)

church and state-very few Americans support the idea of a theocracy. Numerous surveys show that most Americans are comfortable with legalising activities that they personally believe are immoral such as abortion, homosexuality and ***********

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The New Christian Right (9)

and unwilling to accept other people's definition of how they should live their lives. This poses an enormous problem for The New Christian Right, which believes in the literal truth of the bible and insists everyone should be made to conform to its

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The New Christian Right (10)

teachings. As Bruce points out this is an impossible demand to make in a nature democracy. Comparisons with the civil rights movement are interesting. They suggest that to achieve success, the beliefs and demands of religiously motivated protest

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The New Christian Right (11)

movements and pressure groups need to be consistent with those of wider society. Thus in the American case they need to connect with mainstream beliefs about democracy, equality and religious freedom which the civil rights movement did.

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Marxism, religion and change

Marxists are often thought of as seeing religion as an entirely conservative ideology- a set of ruling class ideas that are shaped by and legitimate the class inequalities in society's economic base. However this may not be the case-

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Marxism, religion and change (2)

Marxists recognise that ideas, including religious ideas can have relative autonomy. That is they can be partly independent of the economic base of society. As a result religion can have a dual character and can sometimes be a force for change.

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Marxism, religion and change (3)

For example Marx himself does not see religion in entirely negative terms describing it as 'the soul of soulless conditions' and the 'heart of a heartless world'. He sees religion as capable of humanising a world made inhuman by exploitation.

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Marxism, religion and change (4)

The idea that religion has a dual character is taken up by Fredrich Engels (1895). Engels argues that although religion inhibits change by disguising inequality it can also challenge the status duo and encourage social change.

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Ernst Bloch: the principle of hope

Ernst Bloch (1959) also sees religion as having a dual character. He argues for a view of religion that recognises both its positive and negative influence on social change. As a Marxist he accepts that religion often inhibits change.

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Ernst Bloch: the principle of hope (2)

For Bloch religion is an expression of the 'principle of hope'- our dreams of a better life that contain images of utopia. Images of utopia can sometimes deceive people with promises of rewards in heaven, as Marx himself describes.

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Ernst Bloch: the principle of hope (3)

However they may also help people see what needs to be changed in this world. Religious beliefs may therefore create a vision of a better world which if combined with effective political organisation and leadership can bring about social change.

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Liberation theology

Liberation theology is a movement that emerged within the Catholic Church in Latin America at the end of the 1960s with a strong commitment to the poor and opposition to military dictatorships. Liberation theology was a major change of direction.

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Liberation theology (2)

For centuries it had been an extremely conservative institution, encouraging a fatalistic acceptance of poverty and supporting wealthy elites and military dictatorships. The factors that led to liberation theology were deepening rural poverty and

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Liberation theology (3)

the growth of urban slums throughout Latin America, human rights abuses following military takeovers such as torture and death squads murdering political opponents, the growing commitment among catholic priests to an ideology that supported the poor.

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Liberation theology (4)

Unlike traditional Catholicism which supported that status quo liberation theology set out to change society. For example priests helped out the poor to establish support groups called 'base communities' and helped workers and peasants to fight

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Liberation theology (5)

oppression under the protection of the church. Priests took the lead in developing literacy programmes, educating the poor about their situation, raising awareness and mobilising support. During the 1970s priests were often the only authority figures

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Liberation theology (6)

who took the side of the oppressed when dictatorships used murder squads and torture to hold on to power. However during the 1980s the church's official attitude changed. Pope John Paul II condemned liberation theology on the grounds that it

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Liberation theology (7)

resembled Marxism and instructed priests to concentrate on pastoral activities not political struggle. Since then the movement has lost influence. However as Casanova (1994) emphasises it played an important part in resisting state terror and

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Liberation theology (8)

bringing about democracy. Although Catholicism in Latin America has since become more conservative it continues to defend the democracy and human rights that were achieved in part by liberation theology. The success of liberation theology has led

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Liberation theology (9)

some neo-Marxists to question the view that religion is always a conservative force. For example Otto Maduro (1982) believes that religion can be a revolutionary force that brings about change. In the case of liberation theology religious ideas

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Liberation theology (10)

radicalised the Catholic clergy in defence of peasants and workers making them see that serving the poor was part of their christian duty. Similarly, Lowy (2005) questions Marx's view that religion always legitimates social inequality.

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Liberation theology (11)

Both Maduro and Lowy see liberation theology as an example of religiously inspired social change but other Marxists disagree. Much depends on how social change is defined.

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The Pentecostal challenge

In recent decades liberation theology has faced competition from pentecostal churches which have made big inroads in Latin America among the poor. David Lehmann (1996) contrasts the two. Liberation theology offers an option for the poor of community

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The Pentecostal challenge (2)

consciousness-raising and campaigning for social change led by revolutionary priests and nuns in their jeans and sandals. Pentecostalism offers an option of the poor for individuals to pull themselves out of poverty through their own efforts,

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The Pentecostal challenge (3)

supported by the congregation and led by the church pastors, uniformly respectable in their suits, white shirts and black ties. Thus liberation theology offers a radical solution to poverty: collective improvement through political action in the

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The Pentecostal challenge (4)

public sphere while pentecostalism's solution is conservative: individual self-improvement through the private sphere of family and church.

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Millenarian movements

Because religion raises the hope of a better world in the afterlife, it may also create a desire to change things here and now for example to bring about the kingdom of God on earth. Millenarian movements are an important example of this desire.

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Millenarian movements (2)

Millenarian movements take their name from the word 'millennium' meaning a thousand years. In christian theology this refers to the idea that Christ would come into the world for a second time and rule for a thousand years before the day of judgement

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Millenarian movements (3)

According to Peter Worsley (1968) such movements expect the total and imminent transformation of this word by supernatural means. This will create a heaven on earth, a life free from pain, death, sin, corruption and imperfection.

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Millenarian movements (4)

The transformation will be collective- the group will be saved, not just individuals. The appeal of millenarian movements is largely to the poor because they promise immediate improvement and they often arise in colonial situations.

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Millenarian movements (5)

European colonialism led to economic exploitation and cultural religious domination, for example through the Christian missionaries and their schools. At the same time it shattered the traditional tribal social structures and cultures of the

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Millenarian movements (7)

colonised peoples. Local leaders and local gods lose power and credibility when their people are forced to work for colonists who live in luxury. Worsley studied the millenarian movements in Melanesia known as cargo cults.

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Millenarian movements (8)

The islanders felt wrongly deprived when cargo arrived in the islands for the colonists. A series of cargo cults sprang up during the 19th and 20 centuries asserting that the cargo had been meant for the natives but had been diverted by the whites

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Millenarian movements (9)

for themselves and that this unjust social order was about to be overturned. These movements often led to widespread unrest that threatened colonial rule. Worsley notes that the movements combined elements of traditional beliefs with elements of

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Millenarian movements (10)

Christianity- such as ideas about a heaven where the suffering of the righteous will be rewarded, Christ's imminent second coming to earth, the Day of judgement and punishment of the wicked. He describes the movements as pre-political- they used

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Millenarian movements (11)

religious ideas and images but they united native populations in mass movements that spanned tribal divisions. Many of the secular nationalist leaders and parties that were to overthrow colonial rule in the 1950s and 1960s developed out

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Millenarian movements (12)

millenarian movements. Similarly from a Marxist perspective Engels argues that they represent the first awakening of proletarian self-consciousness.

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Gramsci: religion and hegemony

Antonio Gramsci (1971) is interested in how the ruling class maintain their control over society through the use of ideas. He used the term hegemony to refer to the way that the ruling class use ideas such as religion to maintain control.

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Gramsci: religion and hegemony (2)

By hegemony Gramsci means ideological domination or leadership of society. When hegemony is established the ruling class can rely on popular consent to their rule so there is less need for coercion. For example writing in Italy in the 1920s and 1930s

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Gramsci: religion and hegemony (3)

Gramsci notes the immense conservative ideological power of the Catholic church in helping to win support for Mussolini's fascist regime. However hegemony is never guaranteed. It is always possible for the working class to develop an alternative

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Gramsci: religion and hegemony (4)

vision of how society should be organised- that is a counter-hegemony. Like Engels Gramsci sees religion as having a dual character and he notes that in some circumstances it can challenge as well as support the ruling class. He argues that popular

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Gramsci: religion and hegemony (5)

forms of religion can help workers see through the ruling class hegemony by offering a vision of a better, fairer world. Similarly some clergy may act as organic intellectuals- that is as educators, organisers and leaders.

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Religion and class conflict

Dwight Billings (1990) applies Gramsci's ideas in a case study comparing class struggle in two communities- one of coalminers the other of textile workers- in Kentucky during the 1920s and 1930s. Both were working class and evangelical Protestant

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Religion and class conflict (2)

but the miners were much more militant, struggling for recognition of their union and better conditions while the textile workers accepted the status quo. Following Gramsci, Billing argues that the differences in levels of militancy can be understood

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Religion and class conflict (3)

in terms of hegemony and the role of religion. Billings identifies three ways in which religion can either supported or challenged the employers' hegemony. Leadership: the miners benefited from the leadership of organic intellectuals- many of them

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Religion and class conflict (4)

lay preachers who were themselves miners and trade union activists. These clergy helped to convert miners to the union cause. Textile workers lacked such leadership. Organisation: the miners were able to use independent churches to hold meetings and

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Religion and class conflict (5)

organise, whereas the textile workers lacked such spaces. Support: the churches kept miners' morale high with supportive sermons, prayer meetings and group singing. By contrast textile workers who engaged in union activity met with opposition.

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Religion and class conflict (6)

Billings concludes that religion can play 'a prominent oppositional role'. His study shows that the same religion can be called upon either to defend the status quo or justify the struggle to change it.

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Topic 2: Religion and social change

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