Religion theories

1. Religion , Types and Functions

2. Anthony F. C. Wallace’s
Typology of Religions

3. Levels of Religion
• Individualistic – individual has
direct contact with
supernatural
• Shamanistic – Shaman(s) deals
with supernatural
• Communal system – a lot of
part-time specialists
– Ancestor worship
– Totem worship

4. Polytheism
• Belief in several gods and/or
goddesses (as contrasted with
monotheism–belief in one god
or goddess).
• Pantheon
– The several gods and goddesses
of a people.
• Animism
– A belief in spirit beings thought
to animate nature.

5. Monotheism
• Belief in one God

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7. Judeo-Christian-Muslim Theology
• The patriarchal nature of Euramerican society is expressed in its
Judeo-Christian theology, in which a supreme male deity gives
life to the first man, as depicted here on the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel in Rome. Only later is the first woman created from the
first man.

8. Anthropological Approach
to Religion
• Religion is an organized system of
ideas about the spiritual sphere,
along with ceremonial practices by
which people try to interpret and/or
influence aspects of the universe
otherwise beyond their control.
• Spirituality is also concerned with
the sacred, as distinguished from
material matters, but it is often
individual rather than collective and
does not require a distinctive format
or traditional organization.

9. Tylor’s Theory on Origin
Idea of soul –began with
interpreting dreams
• Animism (Anima –souls)
• Ancestor Worship
• Fetishism
• Polytheism
• Monotheism

10. James George Frazer
• Magic
• Religion
• Science

11. Durkheim
• Totemism –from the worshipping of
totem
• A religion is a unified system of beliefs
and practices relative to sacred things, i.e.,
things set apart and forbidden--beliefs and
practices which unite in one single moral
community called a Church, all those who
adhere to them. (The Elementary Forms of
the Religious Life)
•

12. Durkheim
• God did not create humans,
rather humans created their
own. It is society that instituted
it and made of man the god
whose servant it is.

13. Sigmund Freud
• Religion is about projecting our
childhood experiences with our
parents onto a God or gods
• Religion and neurosis are similar
products of the human mind:
neurosis, with its compulsive
behavior, is "an individual
religiosity", and religion, with its
repetitive rituals, is a "universal
obsessional neurosis
• Oedipus complex

14. Carl Jung
• Individuation or
personal
fulfillment
• Symbols
particularly
important

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Functional theories: What Religions Do
• Malinowski emphasized on purpose
arise from universally experienced emotional
stress
Magic has straight aims
Religion more on morality

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Functional theories: What Religions Do
• Durkheim emphasized believers’ attitudes
toward sacred objects, not the objects themselves
– What people believe is less important than that they
have those beliefs in common
Durkheim viewed religion as an integrative force in
human society
– Gives meaning and purpose to people’s lives
– Offers ultimate values and ends to hold in common
– Serves to bind people together in times of crisis and
confusion

17. Symbolic theories : Geertz’s
Definition
• A religion is a system of symbols
which acts to establish powerful,
pervasive, and long-lasting moods
in men by formulating conceptions
of a general order of existence and
clothing those conceptions with
such an aura of factuality that the
moods and motivations seem
uniquely realistic.

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Social Change
• Max Weber sought to understand how
religion might also contribute to social
change
– The Weberian Thesis
• Protestant work ethic: disciplined commitment to
worldly labor driven by a desire to bring glory to
God, shared by followers of Martin Luther and
John Calvin
• Argued this provided capitalism with approach
toward labor essential to its development

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Social Control
• Marx on Religion
– Argued religion inhibited social change
– People focus on otherworldly concerns
– Religion drugged masses into submission by
offering a consolation for their harsh lives on earth
– Religion’s promotion of social stability helps to
perpetuate patterns of social inequality
– Hide the actual oppressor

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Social Control
• Gender and Religion
– Women have played
fundamental role in religious
socialization, but generally take
subordinate role in religious
leadership
– Most religions are patriarchal,
and reinforce men’s dominance
in secular and spiritual matters
– Women compose 12.8 percent of
U.S. clergy, but account for 51
percent of theology students

21. Religion and Cultural
Ecology
– Ahimsa is Hindu doctrine of nonviolence that
forbids the killing of animals
– Western economic development experts often use
this principle as example of how religion can
stand in the way of development
– Hindus also raise scraggly and thin cows, unlike
the bigger cattle of Europe and the U.S.
• Sacred Cattle in India

22. Religion and Cultural
Ecology
• Cattle play important adaptive role in Indian ecosystem
that evolved over thousands of years
• Hindus use cattle for transportation, traction, and
manure
• Bigger cattle eat more, making them more expensive to
keep
• Sacred Cattle in India
– Views of experts are ethnocentric and wrong

23. Social Control
• Religion can be used to mobilize large
segments of society through systems of real
and perceived rewards and punishments
• The power of religion affects action

24. Social Control
– Function as leveling mechanisms to reduce
differences in wealth and status between society
members
– Many religions have formal code of ethics that
prohibit/promote certain behaviors
• Religions also maintain social control by
stressing the fleeting nature of life
• Witch hunts play important role in
limiting social deviancy

25. Social Control
– Historically migrant tribe
– Although Ghana’s biomedical system bears
fundamental likeness to Britain’s, it incorporates
traditional etiological beliefs
• Due to linguistic disparity, healthcare system is
inefficient
• Native treatment ranges from preventative to curative
and revolves around belief in patients’ physical or
spiritual unrest
• Ewe Traditional and Biomedical Healing
Practices in Ghana’s Volta Region

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The Great Transformation
• In communal societies, religion permeated all
aspects of society.
• In contemporary industrial society, the
institution of religion has become separated
from many social and economic activities
• Max Weber
– The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

27. Issues for Assignment
Belief /Philosophy
Ritual (Rites of passages and rites of
intensification)
Other practices (healing, witchcraft etc.)
Religious practitioners and their role in
society
Functions of religion
Community
Divisions (sects, cults)