Chapter 17, Religion

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Chapter 17, Religion

• Key Terms

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• sacredThat which is set apart from ordinary
  activity.
• profaneThat which is of the everyday world and
  is specifically not religious.

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• totemAn object or living thing that a religious
  group regards with special awe and reverence. 
• secularOrdinary beliefs of everyday life.

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• religiosityThe intensity and consistency of
  practice of a persons (or groups) faith. 
• monotheistsThe worship of a single god.

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• polytheistsWorship of more than one deity.
• patriarchal religionsBeliefs and practices are
  based on male power and authority.

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• matriarchal religionsBased on the centrality of
  female goddesses, who may be seen as the source
  of food, nurturance, and love or who may serve as
  emblems of the power of women.
• exclusive religious groups Those with an easily
  identifiable religion and culture, including
  distinctive beliefs and strong moral teachings.

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•  inclusive religious groupsThose with a more
  moderate, liberal, and ecumenical religious
  orientation.
• ritualsSymbolic activities that express a
  group's spiritual convictions.

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• collective consciousness.Body of beliefs that
  are common to a community or society and that
  give people a sense of belonging.
• Protestant ethicBelief that hard work and
  self-denial lead to salvation.

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• ideologyBelief systems that legitimates the
  social order and supports the ideas of the ruling
  class. 
• ethnoreligious groupsGroups for whom religion
  and ethnicity are especially intertwined. Two
  examples are Hasidic Jews and the Amish. 

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• churchesFormal organizations that tend to see
  themselves, and are seen by society, as the
  primary and legitimate religious institutions.  
• sectsGroups that have broken off from an
  established church, when a faction questions the
  legitimacy or purity of the church from which
  they are separating.

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• cultsReligious groups devoted to a specific
  cause or a leader with charisma, and are like
  sects in their emotional intensity.
• charismaA quality attributed to individuals
  believed by their followers to have special
  powers.

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• religious socializationThe process by which one
  learns a particular religious faith.  
• brainwashing thesisClaim that innocent people
  are tricked into religious conversion.

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• social drift theoryEmphasizing that conversion
  is linked to shifting patterns of association and
  that people are active participants in the
  conversion process.
• antisemitism The belief or behavior that defines
  Jewish people as inferior and then targets them
  for stereotyping, mistreatment and acts of
  hatred.

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• secularizationThe process by which religious
  institutions, behavior and consciousness lose
  their religious significance. 
• rationalization of societySociety is
  increasingly organized around rational,
  empirical, and scientific forms of thought.