Religion

Religion has been reflected upon and studied for a very long time, but the sociological study of religion is distinct in important ways from a religious or theological study of it. Sociology's approach to religion rests on three features. First, it is empirical: sociologists investigate how religions actually function in society and how they relate to other institutions, without adopting a judgemental stance on whether any particular set of beliefs is true or false. Second, it is comparative: by studying many different religious traditions side by side, on a level footing with one another, sociology avoids treating any one tradition as the unquestioned norm against which others are measured, which helps guard against bias and prejudice. Third, it is relational: religious beliefs, practices and institutions are examined in relation to other aspects of society and culture -- domestic life, economic life, political life -- rather than treated as a self-contained subject.

Despite the enormous variety of religious belief and practice across cultures, sociologists identify a few characteristics common to religion wherever it is found: a set of symbols that evoke reverence or awe; rituals or ceremonies; and a community of believers who share in them. Rituals themselves take very diverse forms -- praying, chanting, singing, eating or deliberately avoiding certain foods, fasting on particular days -- but what unites them is that they are oriented towards religious symbols in a way that marks them off from the routines of ordinary life: lighting a candle or a diya to honour the divine is a wholly different act, in its meaning, from lighting a candle simply to see in the dark, even though the physical action is identical. While many religious acts are performed by individuals in the course of their personal daily life, religions also involve ceremonies practised collectively, usually in special, set-apart places such as temples, mosques, churches or shrines.

Central to how sociologists such as Emile Durkheim have approached religion is the distinction between the sacred and the profane -- the ordinary. In most religious traditions, the sacred carries some element of the supernatural: a tree or a temple becomes sacred, in the believer's eyes, because some supernatural power is thought to inhere in or act through it. But this is not a universal rule -- early Buddhism and Confucianism, for instance, involved little or no conception of the supernatural, yet still commanded deep reverence for particular persons, texts and practices that were treated as sacred.

Because religion has a public as well as a private character, sociologists are especially interested in its relationship with power and politics: history contains many religiously framed movements for social change, such as anti-caste movements or movements against gender discrimination, that drew on religious language and legitimacy even while challenging existing social arrangements. Classical sociologists generally expected that as societies modernised, religion's hold over social life would steadily weaken -- a process termed secularisation -- yet contemporary events across the world show religion continuing to play a significant, sometimes intensifying, role. …