Radical Feminist Perspectives on Religion
Radical Feminists emphasise the patriarchal nature of some mainstream religions such as Catholicism and Islam. They argue that such religions […]
Social Theories
Carol Christ’s Feminist Spirituality
Carol P Christ is a feminist theologian and foremother of the Goddess movement. One of her best known works is
Feminism
Feminist Perspectives on Religion: Karen Armstrong
Feminist Karen Armstrong argued that women were central to many spiritual traditions in early history. She pointed out that in
The Functionalist Perspective on Religion: Summary Revision Notes
According to Functionalism, religion acts as a conservative force by reinforcing social norms and promoting social solidarity. This post is A summary of the key ideas of the main Functionalist theorists of religion: Durkheim, Parsons and Malinowski.
Bauman’s Consuming Life A Summary – Chapter 2 – The Society of Consumers
Summary of chapter One A fairly lengthy, paraphrased summary with a few comments in italics In consumer culture people behave
What is the significance of the ‘increase’ in student suicides?
How doe we explain the recent increase in higher education student suicides? Are there any underlying causes, or is this just a ‘moral panic’?
Talcott Parsons’ Perspective on Religion
A summary of Talcott Parson’s functionalist perspective on religion
Book summaries, Social Theories
Summary of Zygmunt Bauman’s The Indivdualised Society (preface)
It may sound odd doing a summary of a preface, but there is a lot of heavy stuff in here….
Malinowski’s Perspective on Religion
A summary of Bonislow Mainowski’s perspective on religion.
Emile Durkheim’s Perspective on Religion
In his work “The Elementary Forms of Religious Life”, sociologist Durkheim proposed a theory of religion based on the sacred, which transcends ordinary life, and the profane, referring to mundane routines. He saw religion as a mechanism to distinguish between these and argued that religious rituals reinforce social bonds and collective conscience. Moreover, Durkheim identified totemic religion, found among Aboriginal societies, as the simplest religious practice. Noting that worship of the totem signifies respect for society, he argued that societies, in essence, worship themselves through religion. Criticisms of his theory include lack of generalizability and less relevance to complex societies.