Key concepts: Religious beliefs = believing that the world is controlled by supernatural forces e.g. a god Religious commitment = Carrying out religious actions Religious membership = being part of a religious institution e.g. church Religiosity = level of an individuals connection with all aspects of religion Church = religious organisation Sects = small and radical religious movements Denominations = subsets of churches Cults = movements without a fixed set of beliefs World-rejecting movements = critical of wider society and in conflict with the state World-affirming movements - tolerant of others beliefs World-accommodating movements -come from traditional religions New age movements = ideas spread through culture Religiosity = related to age, gender, ethnicity and social class Secularisation = when religion loses its influence over society Religious pluralism = diversity in types of religious organisations and beliefs in society Desacrilisation = supernatural beliefs become less of a force in society
Key theories and research: Ernst Troeltsch (1912) - distinguished between different types of religious organisations including: churches, Sect and Subsets Roy Wallis (1984) - identified 3 types of new religious movements: World-rejecting movements, World-affirming movements, World-accommodating movements Heelas (1996) - New age beliefs are dedicated to self spirituality Karl Marx - religion inhibits social change and helps to oppress workers (religion passes on beliefs that oppress the working class) Halevy (1927) - Methodism prevented revolution in the 19th century Hook (1990) - the catholic church has a conservative view on contraception, homosexuality and abortion Functionalists - religion maintains harmony and social cohesion Weber - religion can indirectly cause social change Postmodernism - no such thing as truth, religion only exists as a discourse - it just explains the world through language, it may not actually be true Bruce (1995) - men are more interested in New Religious Movements than women Bruce (1995) - cults are primarily middle class
Pedagogy: -mind map - ask the pupils everything they know about the mind map and add to it (let the pupils make note of this) -give the pupils a religion to research into and present back to the class in whichever way they feel appropriate -give pupils a theory/theorist to research into and ask them to teach to the rest of the class what that person or theory says -make flash cards for the different theories and theorists (homework task)