Humans are a distinct species

One of the distinguishing features of the human species is religion

What are the most basic dimensions of the human beings and what is their relationship?

Biological (physical/physiological elements such as chemical, electrical,
hereditary/genetic)

Psychological (personality elements such as needs/drives, capabilities/aptitudes, defense mechanisms, cognitive-emotional balance)

Social/Cultural (collective elements such as cultural meanings and group organization)

The three dimensions are interdependent and interactive

The elements on each dimension are continua and the relationship between the elements of each dimension and between the dimensions varies.

What biological, psychological and social/cultural characteristics of humans are important to understanding religion?

Biological – brain structure capacities, speech capacity, capacity for behavioral flexibility (not pre-patterned)

Psychological – alternative states of consciousness, capacity to conceive holistically, capacity to believe and suspend disbelief, capacity for projection, capacity to envision

Social/Cultural – capacity to create shared symbolic understandings through language (knowledge, beauty, morality, space, time; capacity to create social organization with different types, levels, involvement, logic

Foundational Assumptions of a Sociological Perspective on Human Behavior

What are the basic, orienting premises of the sociological perspective?

Biological and psychological needs and capacities are mediated by social and cultural organization

What it means to be human being is to belong to a group and share a culture

Social and cultural organization are socially constructed and constitute the reality that humans inhabit

Social and cultural organization constitute the primary means by which humans collectively establish order and control

Social and cultural organization are the primary adaptive mechanisms in human survival

Social and cultural organization are oriented around major issues in ordering human relationships

Social and cultural organization are constructed in specific temporal and social locations (social class, gender, race/ethnicity, history).

Social and cultural organization create power systems that reflect varying degrees of consensus and contestation

The tenuous nature of social order makes ongoing attempts to establish and resist order predictable

The Social Construction of Religion

Religion is product of the social construction of ultimate transcendence.

Transcendence refers to structural principles or relations of a level lying above or outside the level of structure taken as the point of reference

Transcendence is constructed on multiple levels, and humans are accustomed to inhabiting realities on several different levels simultaneously. Important dimensions of social and cultural organization on multiple levels include time, space, and logic.

In the limiting case transcendence may be constructed in the form of a separate realm, domain, order, level, plane, sphere. In these cases, the transcendent realm is qualitatively different from the everyday, secular world.

The social construction of a transcendent realm increases order and reduces disorder

Culturally order is increased and disorder decreased cognitively, emotionally, morally

Socially order is increased and disorder decreased by establishing a part-whole relationship of the largest scale. The everyday, secular realm becomes part of and is ordered by the transcendent.

The social and cultural construction of transcendent order is the construction of power relationships at the highest level. That power can be used in a variety of ways to reflect different interests within groups.

The Social Construction of Religious Organization

The elements involved in the social construction of religious organization transcendent realm are not unique to religion. They are the same elements involved in the construction of social life generally but are configured differently. The central elements are narrative, ritual, and leadership/organization

Mythic Narratives

Recount the operation of transcendent forces in primordial times that created original order and shaped the everyday world as it presently exists.

Recount the sources of current disorder being experienced in the secular world.

Describe the transcendent realm’s qualitatively different attributes and logic

Myths are diverse by time, culture, location within the social order.

Provide the ultimate truths and foundational assumptions about the nature of the world and of humankind (as understood in specific times and places) that guide and authorize actions.

Provide ultimate conceptions of time (eternity), space (creation/universe), and logic (laws/will of the gods).

Orient human expectations by describing the relationship between human and transcendent time (past, present, future), space (separation, connection, interpenetration), logic (human rules, divine laws).

Describe the degree of continuity/discontinuity between transcendent and secular realms.

Establish transcendentally authorized power relationships

Ritual

Religious rituals are closely scripted, dramatically organized, and transcendentally authorized processes through which the transcendent realm and transcendent power can be accessed.

Create means through which group membership and boundaries are established.

Create means through which disorder being experienced can be replaced with order.

Create means through which the boundaries of the religious community can be established and through which individuals can align themselves with the community.

Create means through which independent, transcendent power can be experienced (prayer, pilgrimage, out of body experiences, apparitions, glossolalia, channeling, near death experiences, apparitions, healing, conversion)

Create transcendent power as a unique form of power (irresistible, inexorable, irreversible).

Reorient individual understanding, commitment, priorities

Organization and Leadership

Religious organizations are those that control access to the transcendent realm and transcendent power. Religious leaders are those who mediate relationships with the transcendent.

Create communities of individuals and groups in similar social locations

Create occasions at which myth and ritual are connected

Orient group activities to the type and degree of religious authorization consistent with the group’s and group members’ social location

Orient the religious group to the major societal institutions

Create a form of leadership that is consistent with the type of religious authorization and the group’s relationship with major institutions.