Religion on social change Essay

This testify is to assess the contribution of devotion as a cause of complaisant change and what it has cause end-to-end the years, close to say that religion acts as a conservative tycoon, other say it is a major(ip) contributor of kind change and some comparable to take the middle shew on this topic. faith to sociologist puke be satisfyn in two types of slipway which is either a conservative campaign (keeping liaison the way they atomic number 18) or a thread for change. Those who see it as a conservative ar the ones who weigh its a force of stability and several(prenominal)ize whereas the force for change sociologist would say religion encourages societies to change. trust being a conservative force shape is to preserve status quo by maintaining traditional mental pictures and maintaining patriarchy. righteousness has many functions functionalist believe that religion maintains friendly solidity, neighborly stability and a value consensus and is therefor e have gots religion being a concretive force. Marxist on the other hand see it as an ideology that prevents social change by legitimating and reproducing inequality and also disguises exploitation. libber also believe religion being a conservative force is a negative force because it legitimates patriarchal power and maintains womens subordination.Religion commode be seen as a conservative force as well as being force for change, the most famous of these being Max weber study of the protestant ethic and spirit of capitalist economy. weber argues that the unearthly tactile sensations of the Calvinistic helped father about a major social change, specifically the emergence of novel capitalism in n Federal atomic number 63 in the 16th and 14th centuries. The Calvinist had several distinctive beliefs which were foreordination which was that God has already predestination which souls will be saved and whos not and that no individual can change that. some other belief of their s is the divine transcendence which is that God is deity and no human can claim to write out his will (including priests) and which this combined creates that weber refers to as buy nates panic. One other belief the Calvinist believe in is asceticism which is being abstinence, having ego discipline and self denial to just live on a simple life as savior did. The last but no least belief is the idea of a vocation or work which are defined by two functions, 1 is it helped the Calvinist to cope with their salvation panic as they took this as a sign of Gods favour ad theirsalvation- for why else would they have prospered and 2 is their accumulated wealth by the most efficient and rational means possible and not using up it on luxuries but instead reinvesting it (which in webers view is the spirit of modern capitalism).It is real important to note that Webers was not arguing that the Calvinist beliefs were the cause of modern capitalism but simply that they were one of its cause s. Other societies had a higher rate of economic growth than northern Europe in the 16th and 17th blow but failed to involve modern capitalism. China and India were much materially advanced but didnt adopt capitalism due to their lack of religious belief like the Calvinist. They promote rewards in the other life, goodness deeds and other goals that lacked the material drive that Calvinism created. Weber has theory has many criticisms some of these are that for exercising Kautsky argues that Weber overestimates the role of ideas and underestimates economic occurrenceors in bring capitalism in to being, he argues that in fact capitalism preceded rather than followed Calvinism . Similarly R.H Tawney argues that technological change, not religious ideas, caused the birth of capitalism. Weber has also been criticised because capitalism did not develop in every estate where there were Calvinist, for instance in Scotland. Steve Bruce is interested in the relationship between religio n and social change, he therefore used two case studies to give way this, The the Statesn well-bred rights bowel movements and The New Christian Right.The naked Christian movement is a religiously do movement to end racial segregation in America in the 1950s to 60s. The black clergy vie a major role (Dr Martin Luther King) giving lesson legitimacy to activists, they provided sanctuary and unity, appealed to common Christian determine of equality. Bruce sees religion is an ideological resource he identify several ways in which religious organisations are well equipped to persist protest and contributes to social change 1) Taking the moral high ground which is the black clergy pointed out the hypocrisy of white clergy who preached lie with thy neighbour but supported racial segregation, 2) channelling discord is religion provides channels to express political dissent, For example the funeral of Martin Luther king was a rallying point for the civil right cause. 3) Acting as honest negotiate because churches can provide a context for negotiating changes because they are often respected by both sides in a conflict and seen as standing supra mere politics and lastly 4) Mobilising public judgement iswhen black churches in the south successfully campaigned for support across the whole of America.It had the shared values of those in power and those in wider society and could use these to coerce for change. The New Christian Rights is a politically and chastely conservative, protestant fundamentalist movement it has gained prominence since mid-sixties because of its opposition to the liberalising of American society. They want to take America back to God. As well as want abortion, homosexuality and divorce illegal and ostracise SRE in schools. They also want to bring back the traditional family and gender roles (patriarchy) and teach only the creationism, postcode about evolution or adult chicane theory. The naked as a jaybird Christian right has bee n largely scoreless in achieving their aim, reasons are because the moral majority was never a majority, but 15% of the population at most, also its campaigners find it difficult to cooperate with mickle from other religious groups and they lack widespread support and has met with strong opposition from groups who stand for freedom of choice.The new Christian rights is described as a failed movement for change , despite enormous publicity and a high profile in the media it has not achieved its aims of winning America back to god. In consequence religion has played such a big role in past and current society, some might say for the best others may disagree. As in item A religion can play an important part in manner of speaking about social change for example religious ideas can be a powerful motivating for change, as Weber showed in his study of Calvinist. , as well as also campaigning for social reform.