556678
Description
Mind Map by holliekingdon95, updated more than 1 year ago
|
Created by holliekingdon95
almost 11 years ago
|
|
Topic 1: What is Religion -
Definitions
- Substantive Definitions
- Focusing on the contents
or substance of religious
belief, e.g. God and the
Supernatural.
- Mark Weber (1905) defines religion
as a belief in the superior or
supernatural power that is above
nature and cannot be explained
scientifically.
- Substantive definition are
exclusive and draw a clear
line between religious and
non-religious beliefs
- They conform to a widespread view of religion as belief in
God. However, defining religion in this way leaves no room
for beliefs and practises that perform similar functions to
religion but do not involve belief in God but do not involve a
belief in God.
- Accused of a Western Bias
because they exclude
religions which do not have
a Western Idea of God
- Focusing on the contents
or substance of religious
belief, e.g. God and the
Supernatural.
- Functional Definitions
- The Functional Definition of Religion defines it in
terms of the social or psychological functions in
performs for individuals or society.
- Emile Durkheim (1915) defines religion in terms of the
contribution it makes to social integration, rather than specific
belief in God or the supernatural
- Functional definitions of religion are inclusive - allowing us to include a wide
range of beliefs and practises that perform functions such as integration. And
because they do not specify in the belief of God and the Supernatural.
- However, because
an institution helps
integrate
individuals into
groups this does
not make it a
religion.
- The Functional Definition of Religion defines it in
terms of the social or psychological functions in
performs for individuals or society.
- Social Constructionist Definitions
- They take an interpretivist approach that focuses on how members of society themselves define
religion and argue that it is not possible to produce a single universal definition or religion to cover
all cases because different individuals and groups mean very different things by 'religion'.
- They are interested in
how definitions of
religion are constructed,
challenged and fought
over.
- Alan Aldridge (2007) shows how Scientology is a religion, whereas several governments
have denied its legal status as a religion and have sought to ban it. This shows definitions
of religion can be contested and are influenced by who has power to define the situation
- They do not assume that religion always involves a belief in God or the supernatural, or
that it performs similar functions for all those in society. Their approach allows them to
get close to the meanings people themselves give to religion
- However, this makes it impossible to
generalise about the nature of religion because
people have widely differing views about what
counts as a religion
- They take an interpretivist approach that focuses on how members of society themselves define
religion and argue that it is not possible to produce a single universal definition or religion to cover
all cases because different individuals and groups mean very different things by 'religion'.
Want to create your own Mind Maps for free with GoConqr? Learn more.