In todays lecture on Religion and Society, and the follow-up tutorial and independent task, I have learned about four main areas:

• How religion can be classified
• Common features of religion
• Approaches towards religion (Insider and Outsider approach)
• Sociological/Anthropological theories relating to religion from a functionalist standpoint.

Classifying Religion

Religion can be classified in three ways: established religion, sect and cult.

Established religion refers to commonly encountered religions, for example Christianity, Islam and Judaism. These are longstanding religions with deep roots in local and global culture.

A sect refers to a religion which generally stems from an established religion, but is trying to change elements of the established religion. An example of this would be Community of the Lady of All Nations, a Roman Catholic sect which holds beliefs that do not exactly line up with those of the Roman Catholic Church.

A cult holds vastly different beliefs from the dominant religion in their society. An example of this given in class was the cult led by Jim Jones in the 1970s.

Common features of religion

Ninian Smart proposed that there are common features to be found across religions. These features are found to occur in all religions, and they are: Ritual or practical elements; doctrinal or philosophical elements; mystic or narrative; ethical or legal; organisational or social; experiential or emotional; material or artistic. This suggests that religion can have a profound influence on the society which practices it, and not only affects the people within the society, but the society itself.

Approaches towards religion

The insider approach refers to the approach a believer would take, which is more personal and involved with the religion. It informs their ethics, their beliefs and their faith in the immutable nature of their belief.

The outsider approach refers to a scholarly, more impersonal approach. It aims to look at religion as an aspect of society, and is not informed by belief in the faith in question.

Functionalist theories regarding religion

The main theories we studied in class were those of Bronislaw Malinowski, Emile Durkheim, A.R. Radcliffe-Brown and M.F.C Bourdillon. These theories cover the influence and function that religion serves within societies, with regards to their function on a personal level (i.e. dealing with crises, psychological state) and on a community-wide level (i.e. common sentiments and structure within society).

 

I feel that I do have some understanding of most of the main concepts covered in today’s input, but that I could benefit from further reading into functionalist theories. At the moment, I believe that I could evidence my current level of knowledge by explaining or writing about the concepts discussed, with brief reference to the relevant theorists and aspects of religion. At the moment however, I do not believe that I have a really firm grasp of the concepts discussed today, despite some limited understanding after the inputs. I intend to undertake further reading to rectify this, and deepen my understanding of functionalist theories and their related aspects of religion.

 

I feel that today’s inputs have given me a thorough starting point to begin developing my understanding of the relationship between religion and society, since my last real educational input regarding religion was several years ago, in high school, and was fairly limited even then. I plan to build on the concepts discussed today and undertake further research to ‘fill in the gaps’, as it were. As previously stated, I believe that I need to look more into functionalist theories and develop my understanding of these into a more thorough knowledge base, which will not only aid my performance in the module assessment, but into my general understanding of religion as a concept and aspect of knowledge.

 

Looking back over my notes from today’s input, I believe I have gained more of an understanding of the interconnected nature of religion and society, and how one can have influence over the other. An example of this would be the link between religion in certain societies providing structure and a sense of community within them.

 

As far as career aspirations are concerned with regards to this input, I want to be able to develop my understanding of religion and its role in society in order to be better able to educate students about it through religious and moral education, and also to be able to use this knowledge to develop my ability to relate with and better engage with parents. I think it’s important to understand why religion has played an important role in society on a global scale, and what it offers to those who are part of a faith group. I believe it will help to develop my understanding of the choices people make with regards to their religion and families, and equip me to really engage with and understand the people that I will likely be working in partnership with in the future.