Analyse and Evaluate the relationships between religion and social change.

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Analyse and Evaluate the relationships between religion and social change.

This essay looks at the connection between religion and social change in society and how one encourages or inhibits the other.

There are different views in society whether social change should change forwards or backwards, these views are based on Marxist, Feminist, functionalist and Fundamentalist.

Marxist looks at capitalism within the society, meaning how society is made up of economic groups that can dominant each other with positive and negative effects. Marxist would want society to change forwards as it would lead to a fairer society as religion often legitimates the position of the ruling class for example monarchs in medieval Europe ruled by divine right. According to Marxist religion justifies the dominance of the ruling class and provides consultation for the subject class.

Feminist see religion as a conservative force, feminist have seen it as maintaining patriarchy ( the male domination of women) for example; Popes have always been known as men and not women. Feminist might want gender equality rather then male dominance.

Religious Fundamentalist want to return to an older society, they see its followers as a return to the basics or fundamentals of religion. Fundamentalist rejects many of the changes in modern society.

Functionalist sees religion as a conservative force as it reinforces value consensus, it strengthens social solidarity and it deals with the life crises which threaten to disrupt society. Religion is seen as a conservative force which maintains the status quo (keep things the way they are).

I will now go on to look at each view in more depth, outlining whether they encourage or inhibit social change.

Max Weber looks into the possible relationship between the rise in Calvinism, a religious grouping within a faith of Protestantism, and the growth of capitalism. He says that the rules laid down by Calvinism says that a man must have a calling in life, such as well-defined career which he follows a single-minded, determined manner.

Followers of Calvinism were not allowed to spend their earning on luxury items as it was against their beliefs of religion, they believed that they should work in the favour of god this meant they would invest in their money which means profit would be made which would make them richer than poorer, this would lead to a more equal economic balance within society.

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Weber argued that religious beliefs have the possibility to generate large scale social changes, in his study ‘the rise of capitalism‘, Weber concluded that the new protestant religion was a vital element in the development of capitalist economies.

Evidence supporting this would be that Christian churches were involved in the other throw of Marxism in Eastern Europe, similar evidence in different situations such as liberation theology supporting radical political movements for change in Latin America, Islamic fundamentalism being the basis of opposition to the Soviet involvement in Afghanistan in the 1980s also support Weber’s argument.

Neo-Marxist also ...

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