CHAPTER X

RELIGION
 DEFINITION OF RELIGION
It is a system of beliefs and practices by which a group
of people interprets and responds to what they feel is
supernatural and sacred. “Sacred” is infinitely beyond
and above everyday reality. It generates reverence, awe
and a sense of mystery. In short, the sacred is felt to be
holy.
 BASIC ELEMENTS OF RELIGION
• Religion implies a group of believers
Although people can practice religion privately, sociologists are
concerned with its social aspects. When they study a particular
religion, they look at the believers’ shared goals and norms, the
group’s authority structure and division of labor, and its members
efforts being directed towards a common goal.

• Religion is concerned with matters that are thought to be sacred and

supernatural
Religions distinguish the everyday things of the world around us –
what Emilie Durkheim called the profane and the sacred; that is,
certain holy events and entities, things that are out of the ordinary.
These things become sacred because they are related to the laws
of nature. To most Americans, a cow could fall into the “profane”
everyday category, along with goats and chickens. But to a Hindu,
whether India or United States, the cow is sacred because of the
god Vishnu
• Religion involves a specific sets of beliefs – a creed
These beliefs define human nature, nature itself, society, and the
supernatural

• Religion also involves a specific set of practices or rituals

Durkheim defined rituals as the values which prescribe how people
should behave in the presence of sacred objects. Rituals are patterns of
behavior toward the sacred and supernatural. They do not have
religious meanings in themselves. Instead, they take on religious
meanings when people use them in certain ways to express relationship
with the holy. Most of the time, bread is food, part of sandwiches. But
during Catholic mass, unleavened bread becomes sacred, symbolizing
the flesh of Christ in the ritual of the Holy Communion.

• Every religion involves some notion of the “good life”

Most religions provide their members with a set of precepts or norms to
guide their behavior. These norms define how they are expected to
behave and how they should relate to certain events. In large and
complex religions like Christianity, Judaism, or Islam, there are explicit,
clearly defined moral codes.
 TYPES OF RELIGION
Sociologists have devised numerous systems for classifying
religions. We have already discussed one such system, that of
Weber, who classified religions based on its approach to salvation
and focus of beliefs. Thus Confucianism calls for a mystical
approach to life in the world; Catholicism, by contrast, takes an
ascetic approach and focuses on the other world.

Late nineteenth-century anthropologists who studied religion tended

to rank them on an evolutionary scale, from primitive to modern. The
said systems soon fell into disfavor; but recently, interest in it has
been revived. One product of this revival is the theory proposed by
Robert Bellah.
After studying materials as well as historical records from cultures
around the world, Bellah classified religions, both past and present,
into five types each type representing a stage in the history of
religion. From each stage, a more complex form of religion evolved.
Religion become more separate from nature and the groups to
which they belong. Bellah is careful to point out that these stages do
not describe every religion, since some may have traits that belong
to two or more types. Moreover, simpler types do not always evolve
into more complex ones. They may revert to simpler types or even
skip stages. Nor does Bellah mean to imply that religious evolution
means progress – that complex religions are better than simpler
ones. He merely seeks to describe the transition from simple forms
of religion to more complex forms.

Animals and human groups that have not developed religion cannot
separate themselves from the sky, the stars, the forests, and the
non-human form of life that make up their environment. They must
passively endure the unexplained forces of nature. But by naming
and explaining the elements of their environment in terms of
symbolic beings, they can separate themselves from this
environment by understanding it.
The Australian totemic religious described by Durkheim represent primitive
religion, the simplest stage in Bellah’s scheme. At the primitive level, the
symbol system represents “the dreaming,” a time outside of time inhibited
by ancestral figures, both human and animal. These figures are stronger
than mortals and often heroic, but they do not control worldly events. The
realm of dreaming is closely tied to the actual world and is not really
separate from it. Every social group and human act, as well as almost
every rock and tree, bears some relation to a mythical figure. Tribal people
respond to these spirits with ritual. In the ritual, they take the part of the
figure in “the dreaming” and act out the story of the special world. No
priests stand between the spirit and the humans. There are no religious
organizations such as churches. Bu engaging in ritual, people renew their
ties to the group. Thus reinforcing social solidarity.

Archaic religions, which include the religions of Africa and Polynesia as

the earliest religions of the Middle East, India, and China, differ from
primitive forms in key respects. In these religions, the mythic figures have
become gods. They have a much more specific shape and are seen as
actively controlling events in the real world. In Greek mythology, for
instance, the gods often turn human into trees, animals, or nonliving
objects to punish them for their misdeeds.
As in primitive religion, there is still one world. This world, however, is
more clearly separate: people must now communicate with the gods
through rituals or worship and sacrifice rather than through identification.
There still are no separate religious structures. There are priests, but they
do not lead organized groups of followers. They perform the rituals, which
again generally serve to enhance social solidarity.

In primitive and archaic systems, gods and humans inhabit the same
world. These two groups occupy different realms in the historical religion,
so called because they first appeared in societies with written languages.
The realm of the gods is infinitely better than this world, and it becomes
the focus of religious concern. Attainment of a better life after death, as in
Christianity, becomes the goal. The object of worship is no longer a set of
gods, but rather, a single god, the sole creator and ruler of the universe.
Personal error can no longer be resolved through a ritual , identification or
sacrifice. Human beings possess basic flows that can only be cancelled by
complete obedience to an almighty deity – Buddha, God, or Allah, for
instance. Implied in the idea of salvation, however, is a clearly structured
sense of self. A true self exists beneath the changing realities of daily life.
It can act independently to choose virtue or evil.
To mediate people’s relations to the supernatural, there emerged for the first
time a religious organization separate from other institutions. Rivalry
between the religious and the political leaders become a potential source of
social conflict and changed.

Bellah’s description of early modern religion is based on only one case –

from among the set of closely related cases – the Protestant Reformation of
the sixteenth century. The Protestants place salvation, which was formerly
supervised by church officials, in the hands of the individual. Every person
answers directly to God; that all of life is a chance to religious action was no
longer a question of doing virtuous acts. Faith is required as well. The
emphasis on faith – a personal quality – reinforces the concept of a self that
is capable of independent thought and action.

Both historic and modern religions assume the existence of two worlds, the
empirical and the divine. Today, however, this two-part view has faded
among people who are religious but are not committed to a particular
religion or church. In modern religions, no single set of religious symbols
describe the meaning of existence.
Many church-goers feel no loyalty to church doctrine. They interpret them
in the light of their own experiences. Not that organized religions have a
monopoly over efforts to answer ultimate questions. Psychiatry, for
instance, can be said to serve many of the same functions as religion on
the modern world.

Given the liberty to construct their own religious system, modern human
have not only great freedom but a great burden as well. They must make
thir own rules of conduct and judge their own success in reaching
personal goals. Many religious organizations have relaxed moral codes,
assuming that members can be responsible for themselves. Meanings
and standards that have once seemed to unite whole societies or major
segments of society are now beginning to become the province of the
individual although this trend may threaten to undermine the meaning of
religion and can be seen as a failure of moral standards. Bellah argues
that it also offers a chance for creative innovation.
RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS
Religious systems differ in many ways. An important difference the
church and the sect was first noted by the German theologian Ernst
Troeltsch. The basic difference between a church and the sect lies
in their relations with the world around them. A church is an
organization that has strong ties with the larger society and seeks to
work within it. A sect, on the other hand, tends to reject the larger
and may require members to make a definite commitment or
conversion to its beliefs and practices. Thus, the Church of England
not only has close ties with English societies but is actually the
official religion of the said country. By contrast, a sect like the
Jehovah’s Witness formally rejects the political and religious
authority of all states.
Sociologists have taken the church and the sect as two ends of the
religious spectrum, with most organized religions lying somewhere
between these two extremes. The denomination is an intermediate form.
Whereas a church claims the allegiance of most of the members of a
society, a denomination is one of several religious organizations that
compete for members. Unlike churches, denominations are not part of
the state, although they are generally on good terms with it. The
Presbyterian, Baptist, and the Methodist Churches are all Protestant
denominations.

The cult is an extreme form of sect. sects generally break off from the
parent church and call for a return to the purity that they feel the church
has lost through its worldly connections. Cults, on the other hand, do not
seek to return to the original, pure religion. Instead, they call for radical
change. Therefore, they tend to be even farther from the mainstream of
society than that of sects.
IMPORTANCE OF RELIGIOUS
ORGANIZATIONS
• Religion tries to explain the unknown as well as certain
mysteries in life thereby helping individuals fight fear,
tension, and anxiety. It gives emotional security
• Religion promotes unity and closeness among
individuals. It strengthens group togetherness and social
cohesiveness
• Religion helps control people’s behavior. The teaching of
the church, the values and the beliefs instilled in the
people’s mind make them act in accordance with what is
considered morally right.
• Accordance to Horton and Hunt, religion provides setting
for sociability as well as worship
RELIGION AMONG FILIPINOS
In the Philippines, there are different kinds of religious
organizations. Among these are the Catholic, Aglipay, Protestant,
Iglesia ni Kristo, Born Again Christian, Islam, Jehovah’s Witness,
and Seventh Day Adventist. The Catholic Church has the greatest
number of members and has branched into groups like the El
Shaddai, Oasis of Love, and Bukas Loob sa Diyos. These groups
do not only provide religious rituals but also social functions. In the
Philippines, the Catholics engage in practices like novenas, fiestas
to celebrate feast of patron saints, senakulo, pabasa, salubong, and
penitensya. The salubong is a reenactment of the meeting of the
Blessed Virgin Mary and her son, Jesus Christ after his resurrection.

In the Philippines, there is a peaceful coexistence among the

different religious organizations. Churches of different groups exist
everywhere.