Religion as Social Institution
Religion is a social institution, as it involves patterns of
beliefs and behavior that help a society meet its basic needs.
Sociology of Religion is the study of the beliefs, practices and
organizational forms of religion using the tools and methods
of the discipline of sociology. Sociology of religion is
distinguished from the philosophy of religion in that it does
not set out to assess the validity of religious beliefs.
Religion is the set of beliefs and practices regarding sacred
things that help a society understand the meaning and
purpose of life.
There is no society that does not have religion. According to
sociologist Emil Durkhiem, religion is an expression of our
collective consciousness, which fuses all of our individual
consciousnesses, which then creates a reality of its own.
Religion is a social institution that explains why things
happen and demystifies the ideas of birth and death.
Religions based on the belief in a single deity are
**monotheistic. (monotheism is belief in a single god. Three of the most well-known
monotheistic religions are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Although all three praise the same
omnipotent God, their beliefs and doctrines differ.)
** Those that encompass many deities are **polytheistic.**
(relating to or characterized by belief in or worship of more than one god.
Major World Religions: **Christianity** which is based on the
belief that Jesus Christ is the son of God and the redeemer of
the world. **Islam,** the followers of which are called
Muslims. Muslims believe that the true word of God was
revealed to the prophet Muhammad around 570 C.E.
**Judaism** is a monotheistic religion built on the belief that
they are the “chosen people of God. **Hinduism** is a
polytheistic religion with many dieties traced to a variety of
ancient cultural beliefs. They believe in the principle of
*karma*, that guides one’s eternal soul. *Karma* or action,
plays a role in reincarnation, a cycle of continuous rebirths,
which facilitate spiritual perfection or *moksha*.
**Buddhism** follows the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama,
a spiritual teacher of the sixth century B.C.E. Buddhism, as
has no God concept, teaches that through right *karma* one
can transcend the “illusion” of the cycle of life and achieve
enlightenment. Other organised religions are: *Sikhism,
Bahaism, Jainism.
**Animism and Totemism** are names given by
anthropologists to the belief systems found in several
traditional indigenous cultures. **Harvey Graham **
(*Animism: Respecting the Living World,* 2005) shunned
terms like animism as "colonialist slur." According to him
these ancient cultures believed that the world is full of
persons, only some of whom are human, and that life is
always lived in relationship to others. Person, according to
Harvey means those beings that interact socially with
varying degrees of reciprocity. Harvey incorporates the
anthropological terms.
**Animism** (from Latin, *anima*, spirit, from which the
anthropologist Sir Edward Tylor developed in 1871)
encompasses the belief that there exists no hard and fast
distinction between the spiritual and physical (or material)
world, and that soul or spirit exists not only in humans, but
also in animals, plants, rocks, mountains, rivers, thunder,
wind, weather, buildings shadows, words and even in
artefacts. According to Irving Hallowell, animism is a
relational way of being, engaging with "other-than-human
persons."
**Totemism** is a belief system that the *totem*, a symbol
that represent a spirit being such as an animal, bird, fish or
plant, or any sacred object, having kinship or mystical
relationshp to the particular clan or tribe are therefore not to
be hunted or destroyed by the related clan or tribe as their
totem bestows them with blessings and protection. The term
totem is derived from the **Ojibwa,a North American
Indian** word *ototeman*, meaning “one’s brother-sister
kin.” According to Peter Jones, himself an Obijwa, the Great
Spirit had given **toodaims (“totems”)** to the Ojibwa clans,
and because of this act, the members of the group are
related to one another and therefore may not marry among
themselves. Totemism is most often found among populations
whose traditional economies relied on hunting and
gathering, mixed farming with hunting and gathering, or
emphasized the raising of cattle.
Émile Durkheim (1915-1947) made a distinction between
sacred beliefs and profane beliefs. Religious beliefs and
practices involve the sacred: they involve things our senses
cannot readily observe, and they involve things that inspire
in us awe, reverence, and even fear. Religion, he
acknowledged, is a matter of faith, and faith is not provable
or disprovable through scientific inquiry.
As social institutions, religions help to standardize the
religious emotions, beliefs and practices, and to spread and
perpetuate them. It act as a powerful instrument of social
control and social integration. It is a strong bond of social
unity through promoting a community of thought.
11. Religions exercise a profound influence on one’s
behaviour with its notions of divine sanctions as well as with
present and future rewards and punishments.
In traditional societies the religious and non-religious
spheres of life were not sharply differentiated. In modern
societies, religion and society are not the same as varied life
experiences lead to the emergence of different meanings
about life, producing a differentiation between religion and
society.
