Sociological Explanatins of Relifion

Assess sociological explanations for the increasing number of spiritual and religious organisations and movements in society today.

The main types of organisations and movements are churches, denominations, sects and cults. Troelstch identifies churches as being universalistic with bureaucratic hierarchies and claiming monopoly of truth. Churches have not shown an increase in followers, unlike denominations , sects and cults. Bruce believes this is because they are no longer seen to have the monopoly of truth due to the vast diversity of other movements. Therefore, in today’s society, they are seen as another denomination. Cults can be identified as being individualistic, mostly with low commitment levels and show many features of ‘therapy’- many of these are New Age and spiritual movements. Sects are formed through breaking away from an established church of denomination, they are therefore know to have conflict with wider society as they aim to maintain traditional beliefs and values. Wallis forms his own categories to new religious movements, dividing them into ‘world rejecting’, ‘world accomodating’ and ‘world affirming’. However, even Wallis admits that there is often overlap between these categories. There has been a significant number of new movements that have emerged within these categories and descriptions.

One explanation given for the shift towards new religious movements is marginalisation. Weber argues that when people feel marginalised by society, religion can provide them with comfort and compensators. He calls this the ‘theodicy of disprivilege’. Marginalised people will look towards world rejecting religious movements to help them understand their misfortune. Many world rejecting sects have gained poor marginalised followers, however, they also appeal to the middle classes as well. Wallis argues that many middle class members are drop outs and hippies who feel unaccepted by society, therefore, also feel marginalised. An example of this...