Transcript 205-3.2 Institutions

Rels. 205 Lecture 3.2
Institutionalized Rituals
Lecture Outline for Part One of Rels 205.01
Week 1
Lecture 1 What is “Religion”?
Lecture 2 Studying “Religion”
Week 2
Lecture 1 Ritual and the Study of Religion
Lecture 2 Religious and Secular Traditions
Week 3
Lecture 1 Religious Traditions
Lecture 2 Institutionalized Rituals
Week 4
Lecture 1 The Meaning of Myth
Lecture 2 Sacred Sentiments
Week 5
Lecture 1 Changing Worldviews
Lecture 2 Review
Week 6 Reading Week
Week 7
Lecture 1 First in class test
CREED - PIETY
Community
Culture
Plays - Language
Identity
Calgary Hungarian RC Church
Preserving Cultural History
Cardinal Mindinsky
Spreading the Word
Christian Art
Jewish Art
The Shiviti
The Jewish Rider (1985),
oil on canvas by R.B. Kitaj
Buddhist Art
Hindu Art
Islamic Art
Religious Institutions
•
•
•
•
•
Church
Sect
Denomination
Cult
Revitalization Movement
Ideal Types
An ideal type is an approximation that
allows for comparisons across cultures
and over time. No “ideal type” exists in
it’s pure form. The key is to identify common
features and that are shared by different
institutions and choose a cluster of attributes
that make up an ideal type.
The Church
Max Weber
(1846-1920)
Theologically “Church” is used to designate
the community of believers.
Theological Definitions
Church: the word used to translate the Greek
word "Ekklesia“ employed in the New Testament
to designate the community created by the
preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Theologically, "Church members" are those
people who participate in baptism, receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit, gather together for
common worship, and the celebration of Holy
Communion.
The Church as Ideal Type
St. John’s Atherton
Sociologically “Church” is used by to refer to a religious
organization that is universal in its scope and includes
everyone living in a specific geographic area.
Heresy
Heresy: in its loose sense it refers to the
conscious, willful, rejection of any doctrine
held to be normative by a group or
institution. Generally heresy is regarded by
Christians as the willful rejection of any
truth taught by the Church that is seen as
essential for the maintenance of Orthodox
Christianity such as belief in the Deity of
Christ or the Holy Trinity.
Sect
Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923)
A sect is an exclusive group that breaks away from a
major religious tradition by limiting membership to “true
believers.” Sects live in tension with the parent tradition
and society .
Cult
Cults are small religious groups
in high tension with established
religious traditions and society
generally.
Rodney Stark (1940-)
Dangerous Cults
New Religious Movements
In the popular culture cults are associated
with brainwashing and suicide.
Therefore, many sociologists, like prefer to
use the more neutral term New Religious
Movements.
Denomination
From the Latin – “to name.” The term is for religious
groups that share the characteristics of both churches
and sects. H. Richard Niebuhr (1894-1962) The Social
Sources of Denominationalism (1929)
H. Richard Niebuhr (1894-1962)
Revitalization Movements
Revitalization movements are religious
movements that set out to revive a religious
tradition.