Evaluate Sociological Explanations of the Relationship between Religion & Social Change

Review of essay

Rating: 4 star(s)

Response to the question

The writer definitely answers the specific question asked, as they explain how religion can be viewed as both a conservative force and as a radical force for social change. By referring to both arguments, lots of evaluative points can be awarded, which is actually what the majority of marks in sociology are given for. Most candidates tend to forget that they need to continually evaluate; instead lots of people only write about sociological theories in a list fashion, which examiners hate. This essay is well structured, with an apt introduction and conclusion, which will get them a decent grade.

Level of analysis

This candidate clearly has a good all round academic knowledge, but occasionally they make a few mistakes that although seem minor, are actually vital to get right in order to gain more marks. An example that jumps out at me is: “Calvinists were a seventieth century protestant sect”, as it was a seventeenth century sect. I would also argue that the candidate needs to specifically explain liberation theology further – as it massively contributed to social change – because the point is vague, “Liberation theology was a fuse of Christianity and Marxism and was used to radically change society”. How was it used to radically change society? They should mention that priests educated peasants in order to help them get out of rural poverty in Latin America in the 1960s.
The candidate makes good use of contemporary issues/examples in relation to how religion has been a radical force for change, such as “Another example of fundamentalism promoting social change would be that of mainly Islamic groups. The September 11th attacks can be explained in terms of social and economic change”. This is in addition to historical social change, for instance Weber’s theory that Calvinism was a major influence in the creation of a new society, capitalism.
Sociological key terms, “Liberation theology” and “religious pluralism” are mentioned, which is very good, because, in my experience, most candidates have a tendency to not bother with the terms that sound complicated. But the writer will be credited for weaving these so well into their essay.

Quality of writing

There are a fair few grammatical issues in this essay. There are random capital letters in the middle of sentences, “Industrialisation” and the wrong word is sometimes used, “off course” instead of “of course”. It also mentions “terrorist’s attacks” when it should simply be “terrorist attacks”. On the whole though spelling is good, although I did notice the writer abbreviated “September” to “Sept” which I think gives a bit of an informal (and perhaps lazy) impression. If this issues were corrected I think a slightly higher mark would be reflected.