Religion as a social institution performs the following functions in society.

worldview function. All over the world, religion provides answers to burning questions about the meaning of existence, the cause of human suffering and the essence of death. These answers give people a sense of purpose. Instead of feeling like helpless creatures dragging out a meaningless existence under the blows of fate, believers are convinced that their lives are part of a single divine plan.

compensatory function. The answers that religion gives to questions about the meaning of existence give believers consolation, convincing them that their suffering on earth is not in vain. Religious rituals associated with such critical events as illness and death allow people to maintain peace of mind in the bitter hours of life and reconcile them to the inevitable. The individual knows that others sympathize with him and finds solace in familiar and well-established rituals.

The function of social self-identification. Religious teachings and practices unite believers in a community of people who share the same values ​​and pursue the same goals (“we Jews”, “we Christians”, “we Muslims”). Religious rituals that accompany a marriage ceremony, for example, link the bride and groom to a larger community of people who wish well for the young. The same applies to other religious rites, such as the baptism of an infant or the funeral of the dead.

Socio-regulatory function. Religious teachings are not quite an abstraction. They are also applicable to people's daily lives. For example, four of the Ten Commandments preached by Moses to the Israelites are related to God, while six others contain instructions for people's daily lives, including relationships with parents, employers, and neighbors.

The function of social control. Religion not only sets the norms for everyday life, but also controls the behavior of people. Most of the rules of a religious group apply only to its members, but some rules set limits for other citizens who do not belong to a religious community. An example of this provision is the religious instructions that have become part of the penal legislation. So, in Russia blasphemy and adultery were once criminal offenses for which people were tried and punished to the fullest extent of the law. Laws prohibiting the sale of liquor until 12 noon on Sundays—or even the sale on Sundays of “non-essential goods”—is another illustration of this point.

adaptive function. Religion can help people adapt to a new environment. For example, it is not easy for immigrants to adapt to the strange customs of a new country that seem to them. By preserving their native language, familiar rituals and beliefs, religion provides an inextricable link for immigrants to their cultural past.

For example, a handful of immigrants from Germany, who moved at the very beginning of the 19th century. to Perry County, Missouri, she even brought her Lutheran minister with her. Their sermons and hymns continued to be sung in German, and the immigrant children attended the community school, where the priest also taught in German.

Out of this small group, the Lutheran Church, the Missouri Synod, subsequently grew, which, despite its name, is an international organization of nearly 3 million members. Little by little, the descendants of the original Lutheran immigrants and the newly converted members have entered the mainstream of America's national culture. At present, apart from Luther's basic creed and some church rituals, almost nothing reminds of the past, since religion not only helped immigrants to adapt to a new, unusual environment for them, but also itself has undergone changes.

protective function. Most religions support the government and resist any changes in the social situation, directing their sacred authority against the forces that demand to violate the status quo, revolutionaries, and condemn attempts at coup d'état. The Church protects and supports the existing government, and the government, in turn, provides support to the denominations that protect it.

In some cases, the government supports one religion, bans all other creeds, provides financial assistance for the construction of churches and seminaries, and may even pay clergymen wages. Such religions under the special protection of the state are known as state religions. In the XVI and XVII centuries. in Sweden, Lutheranism enjoyed the patronage of the state, in Switzerland - Calvinism, in Italy - the Roman Catholic Church.

In other cases, the state does not patronize any particular religion, but religious teachings are so deeply rooted in the life of the country that its history and social institutions are considered sanctified due to their connection with God. For example, in many countries, officials may not be adherents of any particular religious creed, but when they take office, they must swear in the name of God to worthily fulfill their duty to society. Similarly, meetings of the U.S. Congress always begin with a prayer led by the Congress' own chaplain, schoolchildren take the pledge of allegiance every day (which includes the phrase "your nation is under the auspices of God"), and coins bear the inscription "In God we trust." Sociologist Robert Bella has defined this phenomenon as a civil religion.

Socio-critical function. Although religion is often so closely tied to the prevailing social order that it resists change, there are times when it comes out as a critique of the current situation in society. In the 1960s in the United States, the civil rights movement to desegregate public places and reduce racial discrimination in southern US constituencies was led by religious leaders, especially African-American church leaders such as Martin Luther King, a Baptist minister. King's 1963 speech in Washington, DC, left a lasting impression on listeners with the speaker's oft-repeated words, "I have a dream." King meant by his dream the end of racial discrimination, when "all God's children" will live in harmony and peace. Despite the fact that he was killed on April 4, 1968, his dream lives on in many hearts. The churches also acted as centers for the preparation of demonstrators and the organization of rallies.

Functional equivalents of religion. The functions of the church described above can also be performed by other components of society. If some other social component is capable of providing answers to questions about the meaning of existence, providing emotional comfort and orienting the individual in his daily life, sociologists define such a component as the functional equivalent of religion. For example, for some people, Alcoholics Anonymous replaces religion. For other people, the function of religion is performed by psychotherapy, the ideas of humanism, transcendental meditation, or even a political party. Some functional equivalents can hardly be distinguished from religion proper. For example, communism has its prophets (Marx and Lenin), its sacred writings (all the works of Marx, Engels and Lenin, but above all the “Communist Manifesto”), its supreme clergy (heads of the Communist Party), sacred buildings (the Kremlin) , shrines (the body of Lenin, exhibited in the Mausoleum on Red Square), rituals (the annual May parade on Red Square) and even their martyrs (for example, Lazo). During the years of militant atheism, there were attempts to replace the rites of baptism and circumcision with new social rituals of dedication of the baby to the state. The Communist Party also developed its own marriage and funeral rituals.

As the sociologist Ian Robertson has pointed out, there is a fundamental difference between religion and its functional equivalent. Although the surrogate of religion is capable of performing similar functions, it lacks aspiration to God or the supernatural.

Dysfunctions of religion

It is possible to single out aspects of religion that are destructive to society. These include religious intolerance and fanaticism, leading to wars and mass persecution of non-believers and atheists, as well as savage forms of worship associated with human sacrifice and self-torture.

War. History is replete with wars that broke out for religious reasons, mixed with political reasons. For example, in the period of the XI-XIV centuries. Christian monarchs undertook 9 bloody crusades in an attempt to win back control of the Holy Land (Palestine) from Muslim countries. Unfortunately, such wars cannot be called a relic of the past. Even in our time, we are witnessing how Protestants and Catholics kill each other in Northern Ireland and how the same thing happens between Jews and Muslims in Israel, between Christians and Muslims in Bosnia.

Religion as a justification for persecution. From the 17th to the 18th century, during what became infamous as the period of the Great Inquisition, “witches” sentenced to death were burned at the stake. In 1692 the leaders of the Protestant creed in Salem, Massachusetts, did the same. The German philosopher-mystic Quirinus Kuhlman, a follower of Jacob Boehme, was burnt in Moscow in 1689 at the complaint of the pastor (the last public execution on charges of witchcraft took place in Scotland in 1722). . The Aztecs sacrificed virgins to appease the angry gods. In short, religion has often been used to justify oppression and cruelty on any scale.

Conflictology and functionalism about religion

Functionalists present religion as an important institution that promotes social integration and solidarity. Conflictologists paint a completely different picture. Some of them see the church as a tool in the hands of the ruling elites, who use it to contain social tensions generated by social inequality and injustice. Others see religion as a source of social conflict and point to the religious wars of the Middle Ages, the current religious strife in the Middle East, India, Pakistan and Ireland as an example. Another view is that religion promotes social change.

Marx: religion is the opium of the people. The impetus for much of the research conducted by conflictologists is the work of Marx. Marx viewed religion as a social drug:

“Religious squalor is both an expression of real squalor and a protest against this real squalor. Religion is the sigh of an oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a soulless order. Religion is the opium of the people.”

Marx believed that religion is a system that diverts attention to the other world from actions aimed at social change. People begin to project their needs and desires into the realm of the unreal; religion hides from them the real source of social misery and class conflict. In short, it gives rise to false ideas in the working class, preventing it from gaining true class consciousness.

Many sociologists agree with Marx that religion is inherently conservative. The sense of the sacred connects today's human experience with concepts derived from the group's traditional past. Religious beliefs and religious practices provide undeniable truths that become powerful forces against new ways of thinking and behaving. Customs passed down from previous generations, including institutional inequality, are defined as pleasing to God and not subject to change.

For example, slavery in America was justified as part of the "natural order" established by the Lord. In 1863 the Presbyterian ministers met in the General Synod and passed a resolution declaring slavery a divine institution. A little later, segregation was justified on the same grounds. In 1954, while advocating segregation, Louisiana Senator W.M. Reinach said, “Segregation is a natural order created by the Lord in His wisdom, He made black people black and white people white” (Southern School News, 1954). Similarly, Hinduism threatens believers who violate caste norms with reincarnation into a lower caste or into an animal.

Religion can also sanctify changes that benefit powerful and wealthy groups. Imperialism was often supported by religious or semi-religious motivations or beliefs. In the 1890s US President William McKinley explained his decision to wage an expansionist war against Spain and invade Cuba and the Philippines as follows:

“I am not ashamed to tell you, gentlemen, that for more than one night I bowed my knees and prayed to Almighty God to guide me on the right path. And late one night I realized the following ... We had no choice but to take and enlighten all the Filipinos, exalt them, civilize and convert them to the Christian faith, and by the grace of God to do the best for them, as for the people for whom, as for us, Jesus Christ took the torment.

Religion can thus be a powerful force in the service of the established order. Religious organizations themselves are often motivated to legitimize the status quo because they are interested in protecting power, landed property and wealth.

Religion and social change. A number of conflictologists approached the problem of the relationship of religion to social change in a new way. They see religion not as a passive reaction to social relations in production, but as an active force shaping the contours of social life. Thus, it can play an important role in the creation and consolidation of new social structures and institutions. While acknowledging that in some cases religion impedes change, they note that in other situations it opposes the existing social order and promotes change. In certain circumstances, religion can become a serious revolutionary force, showing people how the world can or should work. Therefore, religion is not necessarily a functional or conservative factor in society, but often one of the main (if not the only) channels for bringing about a social revolution.

Sociologist Peter Berger suggests that in disputes between traditional and modern social structures, religious beliefs and religious organizations can be used in three different ways. First, religion can be mobilized as an opposition to modernization and to assert traditional authority. This is the path chosen by Ayatollah Khomeini and his Shia supporters in Iran. Second, religion can adapt to the secular world and use religious aspirations for secular purposes. This is the path chosen by John Calvin and his Protestant followers. Thirdly, religion is able to maintain its position, being applied to modern conditions. This is the path chosen by the religious revivalists. Let's look at each of these areas in turn.

Confirmation of Tradition: Islamic Revolution in Iran

In February 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran from exile in Paris and led a revolution that overthrew Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. The Iranian monarchy was replaced by a theocratic regime based on Islamic traditions and fierce rejection of the West. Nine months later, a militant mob took over the American embassy in Tehran and began a 444-day standoff that heavily influenced the 1980 US presidential election. bombings and assassinations by internal enemies, severe economic hardship and a war with neighboring Iraq.

The Iranian revolution was the result of the actions of many forces. The shah's desire to modernize the nation and make it secular greatly undermined the power and wealth of the Islamic clergy, or mullahs. The Shah's policy rallied the mullahs and turned them into a revolutionary force. Even when weakened, the clergy retained control over religious institutions and used the mosques as their main base from which to attack the Shah's regime and subjugate the state apparatus to the clerics. The villagers who flooded the Iranian cities - "excommunicated", as the opponents of the Shah called them, zealously supported the Islamic clergy. From among them, the mullahs recruited people into their Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary organization of soldiers of the revolution. The clergy urged the Iranians to fight the decadence and degradation that they saw in the life of Iran, with the Western way of life, with rampant materialism and modernization. Religion thus became the expression of political and nationalist aspirations.

Faced with intense pressure from abroad and a destabilizing situation at home, the masses have taken refuge in religion. The negative attitude towards the constant influence of the West and the Western way of life added fuel to the fire of revolutionary enthusiasm. The youth turned to the traditions of their ancestors, trying to find in them a religious source of social and cultural self-identification. The new power, backed by oil reserves, and the West's insatiable need for oil made confrontation inevitable. In addition, the oil boom enriched the privileged class, provoked accusations that money was not being spent for the benefit of the people, and disrupted traditional economic and social norms. To make matters worse, the brutality of the Shah's secret police turned pro-Western intellectuals, students, civil servants, technicians and merchants against the regime.

After the revolution, the mullahs gained political dominance, taking almost all the seats in parliament with the help of the Islamic Republican Party. Local mosques acted as building blocks of power, combining the functions of a political club, a government office, a police station, and an educational institution. The system of Islamic law and law took precedence over secular laws and state courts. There have been systematic campaigns in Iran against Western lifestyles, alcoholic beverages, gambling, prostitution and pornography. Women must wear a veil, and those who do not comply with these requirements can be placed in a "re-education center". The Islamic State uses methods of surveillance and intimidation to enforce strict regulations regarding dress, social behavior and religious observance. Iranian authorities acknowledge executions of 2,000-3,000 dissidents, although opposition leaders say the figure is close to 30,000. Homosexuals, drug dealers and unfaithful wives have also been shot. In the international arena, the regime considers it its religious duty to export revolution until the empire of Islam spans from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean and beyond.

Changes in the Secular World: The Protestant Ethic

The orientation of people to the supernatural can hinder change in the secular world and modernization. However, religious belief and practice can also contribute to social and economic change. Max Weber conducted a comparative analysis of several religions of the world in order to find out how religious ethics - the views and values ​​generated by a religious way of thinking, can affect people's behavior. He came to the conclusion that at critical moments in the life of society, religion, being a source of individual motivation and determining the relationship between individuals and society, can cause major historical transformations. Although religious ethics does not mechanically determine social action, it can serve as an impetus for the formation of people's perception and definition of their material and spiritual interests.

In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber makes the development of capitalism the subject of research. He traces the connection between the emergence of Protestantism and the formation of the social structures of capitalism in Western society. According to Weber, the development of capitalism depended on whether or not a community of individuals with a worldview and values ​​that were optimal for entrepreneurship would be created. Having entered into force, capitalism is constantly updated and self-reproducing. The main problem, Weber believed, is to establish the origins of the incentive motives inherent in capitalism in a pre-capitalist society. He believed that Protestantism, especially Calvinism, was decisive, but not the only condition for the emergence of these motives. The basis of Calvinism is the teaching of the Swiss theologian and reformer John Calvin (1509-1564), which was reflected in various religious movements, including Puritanism, Pietism and Anabaptism.

Weber noted that, firstly, Protestantism and modern capitalism appeared on the historical stage at about the same time. Capitalism reached its peak in the Protestant countries, especially the USA and England, while the Catholic countries, such as Spain and Italy, lagged behind in this respect. Secondly, in countries where there were regions inhabited by both Catholics and Protestants, as was the case in Germany, Protestants were the first to follow the capitalist path. It was the Protestants, not the Catholics, who became the first capitalist entrepreneurs. Based on these observations, Weber concluded that the Protestant ethic, especially as interpreted by Calvinists, inculcates "the desire for a rational and systematic pursuit of profit."

The Calvinist ethos contained other elements that motivated capitalist enterprise, in particular the doctrine of destiny or predestination. Calvin rejected the dominant idea of ​​medieval Catholicism, according to which a person's status in the afterlife is determined by his behavior on earth. Calvin taught that even at birth, each soul is predestined to heaven or hell. This idea was troubling because no one knew if he was one of the saved or the damned. According to Weber, the followers of Calvin, seeking consolation, considered asceticism the proof of salvation and true faith; the characteristics of asceticism included hard work, sobriety, frugality, abstinence, and renunciation of carnal pleasures. Concerned about their fate, Calvinists began to skillfully cultivate these same types of behavior. But self-discipline and a willingness to put off gratification are qualities that contribute to the accumulation of capital and the achievement of economic prosperity. Capitalist entrepreneurs could go to any lengths for profit and feel they were doing a Christian duty. Thus, the Calvinist ethos transformed the spirit of entrepreneurship into ethical commitment.

Many researchers after Weber have considered the problems associated with his hypothesis (Townay, 1926; Robertson, 1933; Samuelson, 1961; Cohen, 1980). In explaining the origins of capitalism, they drew attention to other factors, including the boom in trade in the 15th and 16th centuries, technological innovation, the influx of capital from the colonies of the New World, unlimited markets, and the availability of free labor. The sociologist Randall Stokes has shown that the beliefs that underlie the Protestant ethic do not necessarily stimulate entrepreneurial activity. Calvinism, being introduced into South Africa by the Dutch and French Huguenots (Afrikaners), did not give rise to capitalism there. Although Afrikaner Calvinism was theologically identical to European Calvinism, it was conservative and brought no economic novelty. Yet Weber's work, though not always accurate in detail, remains an important milestone in sociological research. He shows the impact religion can have on human affairs, often with unexpected and unpredictable results.

Revival of religion in Russia

Religion can be a conservative force, hindering progress and asserting traditional power, as in modern Iran. But it can also be a powerful agent of social change, creating an image of the world that gives impetus to innovation and rational economic activity, like Calvinism. And finally, religion can use the spiritual aspirations of people and adapt them to modern life. The current revival of religion in Russia is an attempt to understand the roots of religious feeling and adapt it to the modern world.

Revival of religion in Russia (Religions of the peoples of modern Russia: Dictionary. M., 1999. S. 64-66.) - the political, legal and socio-cultural process of the 1990s, associated with the restoration of religious culture, freedom of conscience, legalization and growth social activity of religious organizations and believers. The starting point of this process is considered to be the meeting of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU M.S. Gorbachev with members of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) on April 30, 1988, when the head of state not only recognized the full rights of believers, but also invited the church to cooperate with the state in the moral sphere. After that, the transfer and opening of temples previously taken away from the church by the state began, the clergy became a positive object of attention of the media. In 1989, the Patriarch and two metropolitans of the Russian Orthodox Church from the regions of Russia were elected people's deputies to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In 1990, five clergy (four Orthodox: Archbishop Platon (Udovenko), priests V. Polosin, G. Yakunin, A. Zlobin, and a Buddhist lama E. Tsybikzhapov) and a number of believers were democratically elected people's deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR. All of them entered the leadership of the Committee of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR on freedom of conscience (Chairman V. Polosin). On October 25, 1990, the Law of the RSFSR “On Freedom of Religion” developed by them was adopted, which abolished all restrictions on religious activity, made the registration of religious associations optional and declarative, which opened up scope for the formation of numerous new religious associations. On December 27, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR declared the Orthodox holiday of the Nativity of Christ (January 7) a non-working day. With the introduction in the spring of 1991 of a new procedure for the registration of religious organizations by the justice authorities of the RSFSR, their number began to grow rapidly: Orthodox from 3450 in 1990 to 7195 in 1996, Muslim - from 870 to 2494, respectively, Buddhist - from 12 to 124, Catholic - from 23 to 183, Hare Krishnas - from 9 to 112, Jews - from 31 to 80. The total number of registered Protestant religious associations of different denominations reached almost 2000. Parishes of the Russian Orthodox Free Church reappeared (98 in 1996). Various "pagan" religious associations were revived (Old Russian - 7, shamanic - 2). Previously unknown religious associations of Hinduism appeared in Russia - 3, Tantrism - 3, Taoism - 9, Baha'ism - 20. As of January 1, 1996, a total of 13,073 religious associations of about 54 religious directions were registered (including unregistered ones, this figure exceeds 15 thousand). ). Qualitatively and quantitatively, these religious associations differ significantly. Thus, the Russian Orthodox Church does not keep records of permanent parishioners in churches, and the actual number of parishioners ranges from 10-20 to 2,000 or more. Protestants, as a rule, have a fixed membership, which covers up to 1 million Russians; in addition, they have about 300 missions that specialize in promoting their teachings (see Tables 9.2-9.4).

Table 9.2. Dynamics of the Religious Orientation of Russian Residents in 1985-1995 (in % of the total population; according to sociological surveys carried out as part of Russian (p) or international (l) research projects)

Attitude towards religion	1985 (m)	1989 (p)	1991 (p)	1991 (m)	1993 (p)	1995 (p)
non-believers	75	71	56	53	59	50 (50)
Orthodox	9	20	34	30	33	37 (42)
Followers of other religions	16	9	10	18	8	13 (8)

(In parentheses are the results of an alternative study by the same researcher whose data are given for 1993.)

Table 9.3. The confessional composition of the population of the Russian Empire, the USSR and modern Russia (in % of the total population)

Attitude towards religion	Russian Empire (1897)	USSR (1991)	Russia (mid-1990s)
Total population (1000)	125 000	270 000	149 000
Orthodox (without Old Believers)	71,3	22,8	33-40 (50-60 million)
Catholics	9,2	5,5	0.2 (about 300 thousand)
Protestants	3,0	3,0	0.7 (more than 1 million)
Muslims	11,2	18,5	10-13 (15-20 million)
Buddhists	0,4	0,4	0.7 (about 1 million)
Jews	4,2	0,2	0.7 (approx. 1 million)
Followers of new religious movements	–		0.2-0.3 (300-400 thousand)
non-believers	–	about 50.0	about 50.0

(Including Greek Catholics (Uniates).)

Table 9.4. religious associations(Meaning religious societies, administrative centers of religious organizations, monasteries, religious brotherhoods, spiritual educational institutions.) in Russia: 1990-1995-1998

Top - absolute number; below (in brackets) - the share of associations (in%) of individual religions and churches in the total number of religious communities

Index	Russia 1990	Russia 1995	Russia 1998	Changes (1990=100%)
1	2	3	4	5
Total number of religious associations	6650	13 580	16 017	240,9
Orthodox Churches (OC)	3772	7368	9124	241,9
including :
Russian HRC (Moscow Patriarchy)	3442	6942	8653	251,4
Old Believer communities of various directions	265	240	203	76,6
Roman Catholic Church	34	170	223	655,9
Protestant churches (together)	1853	2728	3262	176,0
including:
Fellowship of Baptists and Evangelical Christians	991	1115	1186	119,7
Pentecostal churches	300	422	615	205,0
Jehovah witnesses	92	190	206	223,9
Seventh Day Adventists	185	266	323	174,0
Lutheran churches	177	178	177	100,0
Mennonites	73	24	2	2,7
Methodist Church	2	38	64	320,0
Presbyterian Church	1	95	166	16 600,0
Islam	914	2708	2891	316,3
Buddhism	16	95	160	1100,0
“New” Religious Movements including:
Vaishnavas (Krishna Consciousness)	9	121	120	1333,3
Faith Bahai	1	37	21	2100,0
Charismatic churches		68	146

Social functions of religion - the nature and direction of the influence of religion on the individual, society or its constituent parts. Religion performs a number of interrelated functions that form the system of its social functions.

worldview function - the formation of a person's stable worldview, a religious view of the world and a person's place in it, certain life orientations and attitudes based on a religious explanation of the world, dogmatics, creeds. The specificity of this worldview is that reality is refracted through the prism of faith in the supernatural world.

A worldview can be characterized by a level of reflection, integrity or fragmentation, balance or inconsistency, consistency or eclecticism.

Regulatory function - the formation of norms of socially permissible and approved behavior, through religious ideas that reflect values. The guarantor of the implementation of these norms is cult activity, in the process of which these attitudes are formed. They, in turn, form the motive and methods of human activity in achieving the set goals, the final of which is the ideal. At the same time, a system of values ​​and norms of religious life is developed, which is the basis of a religiously sanctioned way of life for believers. Religious ideology streamlines a person's thinking and organizes his activity not only in religious, but also in all other spheres of life. This orderliness is reinforced by a system of religious sanctions for violating the rules of religious or public life. The main of these sanctions represent a special responsibility to the supernatural world.

There is a priority dilemma between confessional and state-legal norms, the solution of which is carried out using a philosophical and legal methodology that considers protected values ​​determined by religious ideology. The establishment of the supremacy of religious norms can be both positive, which determines the rule of law over the law, and negative, in the case of protecting a totalitarian-destructive management system in a religious organization, as well as in the case of any kind of illegal activity.

legitimizing function - (lat. legitimus- legal) legitimization of a certain social order, social institutions based on religious values ​​and norms, the highest religious principles - maxims (lat. maxima- principle). The stable existence of a social system is ensured by limiting the actions of its members to a framework that legitimizes patterns of behavior based on ideology. At the same time, religious ideology is brought to life through its legitimization in the relevant legal acts regulating social relations, firstly, religious ones.

Communicative function - the creation and maintenance of social ties between believers among themselves and with the surrounding society, a means of communication about dogma. Cult events are also considered as communication with supernatural forces. Religion offers believers a common language and a common system of life coordinates that contribute to the establishment and strengthening of social ties. It provides communication between believers both in the process of religious activity and in everyday communication, in personal life, in family and other public relations, including and interstate.

Integrating function - unification into a community, both individual individuals and various strata and groups of society, on the basis of common religious ideas and cult activities. A single religion contributes to the implementation of a peculiar process of mutual influence of cultures of different peoples, the coordination of the efforts of people, social institutions, groups, organizations based on common values, goals and ways to achieve them. Of particular importance in increasing the effectiveness of the integration process is joint participation in cult activities. Religion in this case is a powerful factor in socio-cultural progress.

Religion can also have the function of disintegration, causing conflicts, provoking religious strife, intolerance.

Stabilizing function - ensuring the preservation of faith, strengthening social institutions and public order, through a positive impact on conflicts and changes that are constantly occurring in society, to a certain extent, managing them.

Compensatory function - replenishment, in the present or future tense, of the practical impotence of a person in confronting the aggressive surrounding world. The result is overcoming the effects of stress, restoring psychological balance, maintaining inner peace, and on the basis of this, maintaining social stability.

Educational function - a purposeful constant impact on a person of a complex of religious events, methods and means, in order to form his religious consciousness and worldview, as well as the corresponding active behavior. At the same time, a certain amount of religious knowledge, skills, and abilities are transferred to the educated.

Political function - the development of a religious political ideology, the formation of an appropriate consciousness, views, culture, a person's ability to analyze political events and choose an acceptable behavior.

Economic function - the development of ideas of service to society and God through the work of high professionalism and quality, as well as economic ethics, which is the basis of the social economic order.

Culture-forming function - the realization of the own nature of religion in the ordering, harmonization and development of social processes, the interaction of social institutions and the formation of social relations. This function is determined by religion, on the one hand, as an integral part of culture, on the other hand, as the creator of this culture and the subject of its constant development and improvement, leaving its mark on all its components.

Definition of religion. Religion is one of the oldest social institutions. It appeared before science, the institution of the family, the state, and the institutions of social protection. The first religious systems arose from the need to explain the amazing and fearsome phenomena of nature and the cosmos. In the future, in the process of the formation of scientific knowledge, the function of explaining the unknown is increasingly transferred to them, and religion is assigned such social functions as the consolidation of society, the strengthening of power and control systems, the strengthening of social control, the provision of social protection, social support and psychological relief.

Religion is studied by various scientific disciplines - philosophy, history, psychology, religious studies, etc. In confessional Christian religious studies, for example, there are two approaches to assessing the relationship between religion and society. Representatives of the separating approach proceed from the fundamental differences between the system of beliefs and society. For them, religion is initially transcendental (i.e., otherworldly), non-social and agnostic, while society is "this-worldly" and quite cognizable. Only certain aspects of religion are social - religious organizations, institutions, communities, etc. Supporters of this approach also give appropriate definitions of religion. For example, the Protestant theologian and sociologist Robert Otto (1869–1937) believed that religion is the experience of a saint, and its subject should be considered numios, that is, the will, power, power emanating from a deity, causing fear and trembling in a pious person at the same time charm and excitement. The connecting approach does not build an impenetrable dividing line between religion and society, and its representatives consider it quite normal to study religion together with other social structures. For example, the German theologian, culturologist and sociologist Ernst Troeltsch (1865–1923), defining religion, simultaneously raises the question of the influence of economic, political, family and other social relations on it.

The sociological approach in the study of religion focuses on the social relations that connect belief systems and human communities, on the social functions performed by religions in certain societies, on the place, role and social status of the church in society, its relations with other social institutions, primarily queue with the state.

Contemporary American sociologist Gerhard Lensky defined religion as "a system of beliefs about the essence of the forces that ultimately govern the fate of a person, and the rituals associated with them, performed by members of a particular group." As you can see, Lensky understands religion as one of the factors influencing a person along with other social factors. Another American scientist, Ronald Johnstown, thinks in the same direction, for whom religion is “a system of beliefs and rituals by which a group of people explains and reacts to what they find supernatural and sacred” and which links religion and a particular social group.

The structure of religion. As a system of beliefs and rituals, religion includes the following elements:

groups of believers, which are understood as communities of Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Orthodox, Muslims, Buddhists, etc., as well as sects of Pentecostals, shakers, whips, etc.;

sacred concepts, sacraments, i.e., phenomena associated with supernatural forces (miracles, prohibitions, covenants, communion, etc.);

religion, that is, a set of beliefs that explain the structure of the world, human nature, the surrounding nature, supernatural forces;

rituals, i.e., a set of certain actions, patterns of behavior in relation to sacred and supernatural forces;

ideas about a righteous way of life, that is, a system of moral principles, norms of life that regulate people's behavior. For example, the ten commandments of Christianity, Sharia norms in Islam Meit.d.

Religion has all the hallmarks of a social institution. As a social institution, it is characterized by a value-normative structure (a set of certain norms and values) and a structure of behavioral patterns.

The value-normative level of religion is a complex set of beliefs, symbols, values, moral precepts contained in sacred texts. These sacred texts are for believers a source of knowledge about the world, nature, space, man and society. Knowledge is closely intertwined with the artistic-figurative or fantastic depiction of earthly and heavenly life. Religious ideas have a strong impact on the feelings and emotions of believers, forming in them a special, religious perception of the world.

Religious beliefs and knowledge are value systems based not so much on reason as on faith, on a special religious feeling. In addition, they include traditional moral values ​​and norms of human civilization. Therefore, religion, as a rule, contributes to the integration and stabilization of society.

Behavioral level of religion. Religious behavior differs sharply from behavior in other areas of human activity, primarily in the predominance of emotional affective experiences. Therefore, religious action belongs to the type of affective, illogical, irrational social action, largely associated with the unconscious sphere of the human psyche. The central place in religious activity belongs to worship, the content of which is determined by religious norms and values. It is through cult activities that a religious group is formed. Cult actions include religious rites, ceremonies, sermons, prayers, divine services, etc. Cult actions are considered by believers as acts of direct interaction with divine forces.

There are two types of cult activities:

magical (witchcraft) actions;

propitiatory cult.

Magical actions occupied a large place in primitive religions. In modern world religions, they have been filled with new content and turned out to be subordinate to a propitiatory cult. The meaning of the latter is that believers turn to the objects of worship with requests and wishes.

In developed religious organizations, there are intermediaries between believers and sacred forces (priests, clerics). In primitive religions, cult activities were usually performed collectively; in modern religions, cult activities can be individual.

Historical forms of religion. Sociologists and anthropologists still do not have a common opinion about the timing of the emergence and existence of certain religious forms. The tendency of the development of forms of religion from polytheism to monotheism and from anthropomorphic images of gods to an abstract idea of ​​God can be considered proven. At least all modern world and major regional and national religions are monotheistic. Investigating the historical path of the development of religion, sociologists distinguish the following forms of it:

Fetishism. Fetish (lat. fetish - magical) - an object that struck the imagination of believers (an unusual stone, animal tooth, jewelry), endowed with mystical, supernatural properties, such as: healing, protection from enemies, help in hunting, etc. With a fetish people are connected not only by religious, but also by practical, everyday relationships: for help, a fetish is thanked, for failure, they are punished or replaced by others.

Totemism is the belief in the existence of a family relationship between a group of people (genus, tribe) and a certain type of plant or animal. The term "totem" comes from the language of the Ojibwe Indians and means "his kind." The Indians considered totem those species of plants and animals that gave them the opportunity to exist and survive in difficult conditions. At the first stages, it was supposed to use totems for food. Therefore, among the Australian Aborigines, the analogue of the word "totem" means "our meat." Then elements of social, kinship relations are introduced into totemism. Members of the clan (tribe) began to believe that their ancestors had certain features of the totem. The strengthening of the cult of ancestors led to the understanding of the totem as a ban (taboo) on eating it, with the exception of special rituals.

Magic (Greek mageia - witchcraft, sorcery) - a set of ideas and rituals, which are based on the belief in the possibility of influencing people, objects and phenomena through certain actions. Bronisław Malinowski, an English social anthropologist of Polish origin, in his work “Magic, Science and Religion”, based on field research conducted in Melanesia (the islands of New Guinea, Trobian, etc.), concluded that magical ideas arise when a person is not sure in his power, when the solution of problems depends not so much on him, but on other factors. This causes him to rely on the help of mysterious powers. For example, the natives of the Pacific Islands use magic when fishing for sharks, large fish and do not use when catching small fish, use spells when planting tuberous plants, the yield of which is unpredictable, and do not use when growing fruit trees that give a stable harvest. Modern magic has differentiated. According to the purposes of influence, magic can be harmful, military, industrial, healing, love, etc. According to the methods of influence, magic is divided into contact, initial (non-contact), partial (indirect influence, for example, through cut hair) and imitative (for example, through photography).

Animism (lat. anima - soul) - belief in the existence of souls and spirits. Hence the belief in the transmigration of souls, in the spiritualization of natural phenomena. The classic study of animism was carried out by the English social anthropologist Edward Taylor (1832–1917) in Primitive Culture. Not all sociologists agree with E. Taylor's statement "Animism is the minimum definition of religion", which means that fetishism and totemism are pre-imistic forms of religion. Primitive beliefs in the conditions of the strengthening of social communities (the formation of tribal unions and then states) and the process of social differentiation take the form of theism.

Theism is the belief in gods or one god. Such gods are conceived by people similar to humans (anthropomorphic) and endowed with their own names. The hierarchy of gods usually corresponds to the organization of human society. Belief in many gods is called polytheism and arises earlier than monotheism - belief in one God. Monotheism in human society arose in the process of the formation of Judaism (the turn of the 1st–2nd millennium BC) and three so-called world religions: Buddhism (6th–5th centuries BC), Christianity (1st century BC). e.) and Islam (7th century).

Theory of Religion. O. Comte, the founder of sociology, was very interested in the significance of religion for social progress, its essential characteristics and social functions. He believed that the first stage in the development of human thinking and society, in which people explained all their speculations, social actions and natural phenomena almost exclusively by the action of supernatural forces, would inevitably be theological. At this stage, as Comte rightly noted, three phases, or periods, successively flowed, when fetishism, then polytheism, and finally monotheism became the predominant religious form. In the second and third stages (metaphysical and positive), due to the increasing role of science, the influence of religion decreases. But such functions of religion as the sanctification and moderation of power, the education in people of a feeling of love for their neighbor and the unity of human society, will undoubtedly be preserved in the society of the future. Therefore, Comte, instead of the old Christian one, creates a new universal religion, where the role of a deity is called upon to play the Great Being - an abstract substance, which the "father of sociology" endows with the best features taken from prominent representatives of human civilization, which should be cultivated in people of a positive, unified, industrial and peaceful future. society.

Another great Frenchman, E. Durkheim, the founder of the national school of sociology, also did not pass by the study of religious life. In his fundamental work "Elementary Forms of Religious Life" (1912), he set the task of developing a general theory of religion based on an analysis of primitive religious forms and social institutions, primarily totemism and the tribal system of the Australian Aborigines. Durkheim believed that the essence of religion was not belief in a transcendent god, as most anthropologists and sociologists believed, but the division of the world into sacred and secular phenomena. Religion, as Durkheim defined it, “is a solidary system of beliefs and practices related to things sacred, isolated, forbidden, beliefs and practices that are combined into one moral community called the church, of all who accept them.” He believed that there are many religions, including higher ones (some schools of Buddhism, for example), in which there is no deity. Moreover, both the concept of mystery and the concept of the supernatural are of later origin than most primitive religions. Hence the essence of religion is the division of the world into the natural and supernatural, or sacred, and its structure consists of a system of sacred concepts and ideas, a system of beliefs and a system of rituals. “Where and why does religion appear in society?” - the answer to this purely sociological question and sought Durkheim in his work. In religious activities caused by primitive totemic or more modern monotheistic beliefs, in addition to the sacred, there is a constant feeling of dependence (on the totem, Zeus or Yahweh - in this case it does not matter). A similar feeling, Durkheim wittily remarks, constantly accompanies any person living in society. It accompanies because the nature of society is holistic and different from the individual nature of man. The individual constantly feels dependence on society, which forces him to obey the norms and rules of the community, contrary to human instincts, to obey, while experiencing a sense of superiority and moral authority of society over his consciousness. The power of society over the individual excites and constantly feeds in him a sense of the divine and a sense of another, higher authority in relation to him. It is society that promotes the emergence of a belief system and the willingness to worship it. After all, exaltation, argues Durkheim, with which a religious cult begins, was equally experienced by both Australian aborigines and French revolutionaries who tried in the 18th century. create a religion of "Motherland, Freedom, Reason". Thus, religion, according to Durkheim, is created by societies, consecrating certain systems of values. This theory explains well the essence and process of creating modern ideologies: communism, anarchism, fascism, etc.; secular religions and cult-religions.

The German sociologist and economist M. Weber connected his studies of religion with the economic behavior of a person. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904), he formulated the problem in this way: “How and in what direction did various religions influence the economic behavior of people? How did the Protestant pattern system shape and accelerate capitalist relations? Weber defines the spirit of capitalism by contradiction, starting in his reasoning from the relations that have developed in a traditional society that preceded the capitalist one. In a traditional society, a person does not ask the question: “How much can I earn in a day by maximizing the productivity of my labor?”; The question was put differently:

“how much do I need to work in order to ... meet my traditional needs?”. The spirit of capitalism is characterized by the presence of production organizations (enterprises), the rationalization of labor and the desire for profit. At the same time, the point is not in the unbridled pursuit of wealth (individuals who are thirsty for money exist in any society), but in a combination of the desire for profit and rational discipline. Where did this spirit of capitalism come from in the countries of Northwestern Europe? M. Weber analyzed four Protestant currents (Calvinism, Pietism, Methodism, Anabaptism) and found (to a greater extent in the first) a completely different attitude to work and professional activity than, for example, in Catholicism. The Christian doctrine of predestination was interpreted by the Calvinist "Westminster Confession" (1647) as an opportunity by indirect signs: success in work, deeds, in a career, to be sure in advance of one's salvation. Considering the colossal influence of the church on the worldly behavior of people of that time, it can be stated, Weber argues, that the determining influence of the Protestant code of conduct on the formation of the “spirit of capitalism”, capitalist relations (which he understood positively) in the 17th century. in Europe. Later, studying the religions of the primitive and eastern societies of China and India (“Sociology of Religion”, “Economy and Society”, “Economic Ethics of World Religions”), Weber did not find in them the potentialities that direct human worldly activity to systematic rational work that creates the notorious “ spirit of capitalism.

The classification of religions. Currently, there are quite a few systems of classification of religions. The German philosopher Georg Hegel divided all creeds into religions of nature (Chinese, Indian), religions of freedom (Persian, Syrian, Egyptian), religions of spiritual individuality (Jewish, Greek, Roman) and absolute religion (Christianity). According to the American sociologist Neil Smelser, it is best to classify religions by the names given by their adherents: Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, etc.

According to the number of gods, religions are divided into monotheistic (based on the belief in one god that determines all the phenomena of the world, including the social behavior of people) and polytheistic (pagan), in which each deity is “responsible” for certain phenomena of nature and the cosmos and can either not to help a person within the boundaries of his "zone of responsibility".

Religions can be classified according to their prevalence. In this case, they can be subdivided into: world (world), regional and national religions (Table 13). Currently, there are three world religions on the planet: Christianity, which has three main branches (Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Protestantism), Islam, consisting of two currents (Sunnism and Shiism), and Buddhism (there are Tantrism (Indian Buddhism), Lamaism (Tibetan Buddhism), Chan Buddhism (Chinese Buddhism), Zen Buddhism (Japanese)). Regional religions are understood as being spread in several, usually neighboring, countries. For example, Hinduism has a place in India and Nepal, Confucianism - in China, Korea, Japan, Taoism - China and Japan. It is also possible to single out diasporic religions, which should be understood as a system of beliefs characteristic of the diaspora, i.e., an ethnos scattered around the world that has not lost its identity and historical memory. Diasporic religions include, for example, Jewish, Christian-Gregorian (Armenian Church) and some others. National religions include those that belong to one nation and, as a rule, are closed within national boundaries.

On a geographical basis, the religions of the West are distinguished, which include all the religions of the ancient societies of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, the Slavs, as well as Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The religions of the East include Iranian, Indian, Chinese (Far Eastern) beliefs. Peripheral religions include African, Siberian, Indian (American Indian) and religions of the Pacific tribes.

Table 13

World and national religions

11.2. Religious organizations, religious behavior and functions of religion

11.2.1. Types of religious organizations

According to most modern sociologists, there are four main types of religious organizations that differ in the source of membership and involvement of parishioners in the church community, relations with the state, type of leadership and dogma (Table 14).

The church is understood as a religious organization that has a sufficiently large number of members in many social strata or in the majority of society, as well as strong, long-term and branched ties with this society.

The denomination is a typical American phenomenon, because it is placed in competition with other churches, denominations for parishioners. Denominations have grown out of small religious communities, such as sects, and managed to spread their influence in society, but have not yet reached either the numbers or the influence of churches.

If a denomination coexists calmly in society, grows at the expense of new members and expands its influence, then a sect is such a religious organization that rejects some (but not all) of the foundations of the church's dogma, fights with it, closes in its problems. It is characterized by a small number, but the devout devotion of the members.

A cult is also a small religious organization, which is characterized by closeness from society, opposition to the dominant church, totalitarian inner life, specificity of rituals and unbridled passion for them. The most dangerous are the so-called totalitarian cults (sects), which require the complete devotion of members, establish the community of property, the prohibition of leaving the organization and the obligation to fulfill any, even the most absurd, requirement of the head of the cult.

11.2.2. religious behavior

People have different attitudes towards religion and church. Some earnestly perform all the rites, regularly visit the temple, observe all fasts. Others believe that God must be inside a person, that convinced faith is more important than ostentatious worship. Sociologists who study the problems of relations between parishioners and religious organizations typologize believers. Typically, the following types of believers are distinguished:

type of theologically convinced believer - possesses religious knowledge, knows how to prove and defend his religious principles;

the emotional type of the believer - shows his religious feelings more than he can rationally explain them;

ritual type of a believer - inclined to perform religious rites, but almost does not experience real religious feelings;

type of imaginary believer - as a rule, he tries to convince others of his faith, which is not;

type of imaginary atheist - does not participate in rituals, but deep down retains faith in supernatural forces, in miracles, etc.

M. Weber singled out two types of religious action:

Mysticism is a renunciation of the world, a contemplative feeling of one's salvation. Man is not an instrument, but a vessel of the divine will. This behavior is typical for Eastern religions (Buddhism, Hinduism), as well as for Islam and Judaism.

Asceticism is an active, including mundane, activity, a radical understanding of salvation through the conscientious performance of one's professional duties. This type of behavior, as already mentioned, is inherent in Protestant ethics.

11.2.3. Functions of Religion

Religion as a social institution has existed for thousands of years. It plays an important role in society and has actually proven its necessity or functionality. Sociologists distinguish the following functions of religion:

integrative function. This function allows you to unite people into a single society, stabilize it and maintain a certain social order. According to P. Berger, religion is a “sacred veil”, through which the values ​​and norms of human life are sanctified, the social order and stability of the world are guaranteed.

The regulatory function lies in the fact that it strengthens and enhances the effect of social norms of behavior accepted in society, exercises social control, both formal (through church organizations) and informal (through the believers themselves as bearers of moral norms). This function is also carried out through the mechanisms and means of socialization.

psychotherapeutic function. Religious actions, divine services, ceremonies, rituals have a calming, consoling effect on believers, give them moral stamina, confidence, and protect them from stress and suicide. Religion helps people suffering from feelings of loneliness, restlessness, uselessness, to feel involved in the general social action during the performance of religious rites. In addition, the church attracts such people to charitable activities, helping them to “enter society” again, to find peace of mind.

communicative function. Communication for believers unfolds in two ways: firstly, communication with God, celestials (the highest form of communication), and secondly, communication with each other (secondary communication). As a result of communication, a complex set of religious feelings arises: joy, tenderness, delight, admiration, submission, obedience, hope for a positive solution to problems, etc., which creates a positive attitude, forms motivation for further religious communication and church attendance.

The cultural-transmitting function allows preserving and transmitting cultural values ​​and norms, cultural and scientific ideas about the world and man, historical traditions, memorable dates that have both a societal and universal character.

Thus, religion in modern society continues to be a fully functional social institution and plays an important integrating, regulatory, communicative, psychotherapeutic, cultural-translating role.

11.2.4. Perspectives on Religion

We examined the history and current state of religion as a social institution and the church as a social organization. Now let's try to reflect on the future of religion. Being an attribute of society, experiencing the impact of a wide variety of objective and subjective, external and internal factors, religion cannot but change along with it. What are the directions and tendencies of these changes?

Most modern sociologists put secularization in the first place among the trends in the development of religion.

Secularization is the process of replacing the religious picture of the world with its scientific and rational explanation, it is the process of reducing the influence of religion on the life of society and the activities of people, these are measures to separate the state and other social institutions from the church, to reduce the “control zone” of the church in society.

As we can see, secularization is a long and branched process, covering a long period of time that began after the Middle Ages and includes such events as the reforms of religion and the church, the deprivation of the latter of land and taxes levied in its favor, the separation of church from state and school, the creation of state systems social protection, upbringing, healthcare, education, science, etc. Currently, secularization continues under the influence of factors such as:

development of science, engineering and technology;

increasing the role of state and public organizations in solving problems that were previously solved by the church (helping the poor, orphans and the needy, education and upbringing, treatment and prevention of diseases, explanation of unknowable phenomena, etc.);

the presence and free development in civilized countries of several churches and denominations competing for parishioners;

the loss by church events, primarily holidays, of a purely religious nature and the tendency to turn them into more secular ones;

the erosion of religious consciousness among the majority of believers, who are far from always able to explain the essence and meaning of church rites, biblical and gospel stories;

the emergence of strong competition from the church in the implementation of the psychotherapeutic function in the face of medicine, psychology, folk medicine, etc.;

a decrease in the role of religion and the church in the implementation of all other social functions (integrative, regulatory, communicative, culturally broadcasting).

The changes taking place in modern religion also manifest themselves in the trend towards reform and modernization. This trend has always been characteristic of the Protestant churches, which were born out of the desire for reform. At the end of XX - beginning of XXI century. reformism began to manifest itself in the activities of the Catholic Church. At present, reforms and changes are overdue in the Orthodox Church.

The modernization of religion is manifested in the modernization of temple architecture, religious painting, sculpture and literature, the change in worship, in the holding of secular events in churches (of course, contributing to the moral growth of people and expanding the circle of parishioners), in the more active participation of the church in the secular life of society, the encouragement of music by the church , arts, sports, in the care of education, leisure of parishioners outside the church.

The most important trend in the development of religion is also the desire for ecumenism. The ancient Greeks called ecumene the part of the Earth inhabited and developed by man. Modern religions under ecumenism understand the desire for ever deeper interfaith understanding and cooperation. The Protestant churches are the most active in this, which put forward a proposal for the complete unification of all Christian churches and in 1948 created a special body for this - the World Council of Churches. At present, the Pope and the Catholic Church actively support the idea of ​​cooperation with all Christian churches, including the Russian Orthodox Church. But the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church does not share these ideas.

Many sociologists, primarily American, believe that what is going on is not so much secularization, that is, the displacement of religion from the spiritual sphere and its replacement by science and other social institutions, but the process of pluralization of religion, by which they mean the emergence of a plurality (lat. pluralism - plurality) of new denominations and cults competing with the "old" churches, giving every member of society the opportunity to make their choice. Often new creeds are formed under the influence of Eastern religions. Thus, communities appeared that profess Zen Buddhism, transcendental meditation, calling themselves "Krishna Consciousness", etc. Thus, in parallel with the multiplication of beliefs, a process of the emergence of a new religious consciousness based on personal faith and experience, and most importantly, on personal choice (N. Smelser).

Other sociologists (for example, T. Luhmann) believe that religion is being transformed into a new social form containing certain sets of religious and secular values, norms and patterns of behavior, and each person in this case is free to choose the system of religious meanings that suits him.

T. Parsons at one time drew attention to the gradual convergence of the secular, secular order with the religious model of the world, and R. Bell, following the example of O. Comte (remember his religion of the Great Being), created the concept of "civil religion" as a synthesis of official ideology and Christian morals.

11.2.5. Prospects for Religion in Russia

In the XX century. The Orthodox Church, like religion in general in Russia, has gone through a difficult time. Under the Bolsheviks - militant atheists - from a de facto state institution of imperial Russia, the church turned into one of the most persecuted and humiliated organizations. After the communists left power in Russia, a religious renaissance began: old churches are being restored and new churches are being built, religious communities are growing, and the total number of believers is increasing. There is a growing interest in religious values ​​and norms, religious rites, and the history of religions. Despite the fact that according to the Constitution the Russian Federation is a secular state, the influence of religious ideas on the spiritual life of society and the clergy - on state policy is objectively increasing.

At the same time, it should be recalled that the State Duma adopted the Law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations” (1990), according to which every citizen has the right to profess any religion or be an atheist.

In modern Russia, the Orthodox religion clearly dominates, and as an organization that represents it, the Russian Orthodox Church, to which approximately 85% of Russians are oriented (of course, atheists should be excluded from this number). Given this fact, Christmas according to the Orthodox calendar (January 7) is declared a national holiday in Russia. Other Christian denominations (Catholic, Protestant), as well as Judaism, have little influence, they are distributed mainly in Moscow, St. Petersburg and large cities, in the Volga region (in places where ethnic Germans live).

Islam in Russia is practiced by approximately 15–20 million people. (10-12% of the population), living mainly in the Volga region (Tatarstan, Bashkortostan) and in the North Caucasus (Chechnya, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia). There are Muslim communities in Moscow, St. Petersburg, large cities.

The third world religion - Buddhism - is widespread in the Altai Territory, the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia. There are Buddhist temples in some major cities.

Questions for self-control

What approaches do sociologists use to define religion?

What elements and levels does the structure of religion consist of?

What kinds of cult activities does it include?

Describe the historical forms of religion.

What contribution to the development of the theory of religion was made by O. Comte, E. Durkheim, M. Weber?

Tell us how religions are classified by name, by the number of gods, by their prevalence in the world, by geography.

What are the types of religious organizations?

Using table. 14, list the signs of different types of religious organizations and give the necessary explanations.

What types of believers are distinguished by sociologists?

What types of religious action did M. Weber single out?

Name and describe the functions of religion.

What are the main trends in the development of religion?

What are the prospects for religion in Russia?

Literature

Aron R. Stages of development of sociological thought. M., 1993.

Weber M. Protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism // M. Weber. Selected works. M., 1990. S. 61–272.

Weber M. Sociology of religion (types of religious communities) // M. Weber. Favorites. Society image. M., 1994. S. 78–308.

Durkheim E. Elementary forms of religious life //R. Aron. Stages of development of sociological thought. M., 1993. S. 343–359.

Isaev B. A. Course of sociology. Petrodvorets, 1998. Lecture 8.

History of Religion: Textbook / Nauch. ed. A. N. Tipsina. SPb., 1997.

Comte O. Spirit of positive philosophy. Rostov-on-Don, 2003.

Comte O. System of positive policy //R. Aron. Stages of development of sociological thought. M., 1993. S. 142–145.

Radugin A. A., Radugin K. A. Sociology: a course of lectures. M., 2000. Topic 11.

Smelzer N. Sociology. M., 1994. Chapter 15.

Tikhonravov Yu. V. Religions of the world: Educational and reference manual. M., 1996.

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Frolov S. S. Sociology. M., 1996. Yakovlev N. P. Sociology. SPb., 1992.

One of the imperative needs of people is the need to understand what is happening, explain it and build their lives in accordance with the idea of ​​the essence of things, the picture of the world, the meaning of life itself, the nature of man and his destiny. For centuries, religious consciousness has responded to this need by offering man, as a finite being, a way out beyond the limits of his earthly existence. This feature of religion, se transcendence (going beyond the limits of existing being) makes it possible to include the world and man in the context of eternity, thereby giving meaning to the structure of the world and the existence of people in it.

It is a system of beliefs shared by groups of people who perform certain rituals, beliefs that embody the idea of ​​the sacred, the supernatural, which determines the fate of a person. The elements of religion are: the presence of a group of believers; idea of ​​the sacred, supernatural; a special system of beliefs (religion); special rituals (a system of actions in relation to what is considered sacred); an idea of ​​a special way of life that corresponds to the postulates of faith.

The concept of the sacred

Religious ideas have been inherent in mankind since ancient times. Historically, religion begins from the moment when a person was able to imagine the existence of a supernatural being, and the spirit was such an imaginary supernatural being. The ancestors of modern man were not able to explain the obvious inconsistency of the dual phenomenon associated with dreams, when the person himself sleeps, he is motionless, and his double freely moves in space. This "other I", this double is my spirit. And death is nothing but the separation of two beings: one corporeal, finite, mortal, and the other incorporeal, infinite, immortal, i.e., spirit (soul). The imagination of primitive man endowed the whole world around him with an infinite number of powerful spirits - mysterious and invisible.

Religion is a global social institution that includes many thousands of types and forms of religious beliefs. Nevertheless, one fundamental feature is characteristic of all of them: the allocation and distinction between what is holy (the highest power, perfect, inviolable, undoubted, above all), and what is imperfect, ordinary, everyday. What is holy inspires horror, reverence, deep respect. It has unusual, supernatural and sometimes dangerous qualities, and you can communicate with it only as part of a special ritual (prayers, spells, ritual cleansing). Anything can be classified as a sacred object - God, a king, the sun, the moon, a rock, a tree, or a symbol such as a cross. In contrast to the holy, that which is ordinary does not belong to the world of the supernatural. However, something becomes holy or remains ordinary only if, as such, it receives this or that social definition with which such an object is endowed by a community of believers.

So religion as a social institution can be defined as a system of socially recognized beliefs and related practices that are oriented towards the realm of the sacred, the supernatural.

As Durkheim showed, one can speak of the presence of a certain religion when belief in the sacred is combined with the corresponding practice of the community of believers (performing actions arising from such faith - participation in the activities of a religious community, performing rituals, observing prohibitions, etc.) .

From a sociological point of view, the following types of religions can be distinguished: simple belief in the supernatural, animism, theism, abstract ideal.

The first type of religion is characteristic of primitive, pre-industrial societies, does not include belief in gods or spirits, but recognizes the presence of supernatural powers that have a positive or negative impact on people's lives.

The animistic type of religion recognizes active activity of spirits in the world. These spirits can exist in people, but also in natural objects (rivers, mountains, winds), they are personified, endowed with human qualities (motives, will, emotions). These are not gods, they are not worshipped. Communication with them is achieved through magical rituals. They can be good or evil or indifferent to human affairs.

Theistic religions are based on belief in gods. God is powerful, he is interested in human affairs and deserves to be worshipped. The most common form of theism is polytheism, the belief in many gods. Among them stands out the "highest god", or "father of the gods." Another form of theism is monotheism, the belief in one God. This faith underlies the world religions - Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism. Religions based on abstract ideals do not worship gods, but focused on achieving ideals in thinking and behavior. The goal is to achieve an elevated state of being and consciousness, which, as their proponents believe, allows one to realize the full potential of a person. The goal of Buddhism is to achieve unity with the universe through years of meditation, i.e. a person’s psychological disconnection from the outside world, liberation from it, immersion in the inner world with the help of spells, in order to achieve a special (exalted) state of consciousness.

A common feature of religions is the presence of theodicy - an emotionally satisfying explanation of the most essential problems of human existence: the appearance of man, his suffering and death. The universal sequence of birth, short life, suffering and death seems meaningless, but theodicy makes sense of it, explaining or justifying the presence of evil and misfortune in this world.

The social function of religion. The most important social function of religion in the history of mankind was to maintain the integrity of a given social system. Studying the simplest forms of religion on the example of Australian aboriginal totemism, Durkheim stated that a totem is any ordinary object, either a plant or an animal, or a symbol representing them, which becomes sacred. Each clan is organized around its totem and bears its name. The totem is not only sacred, but it is also a symbol of the clan itself as a society. Hence the conclusion: when people worship something sacred, they are, in fact, worshiping nothing but their society. The Divine is nothing but a transformed and symbolically conscious society. In the era of feudalism, the earthly structure - the hierarchy of feudal society and the state is projected onto the heavenly hierarchy, will create the SS according to the earthly pattern and likeness, while "earthly forces take on the form of unearthly ones" (Marx), and then, but already with an aura of holiness and infallibility, this structure is transferred back to earth, thereby legitimizing and sanctifying the authority of earthly power with the authority of heavenly power.

Joint participation in worship creates an emotional feeling of inspiration, ecstasy, not experienced alone. Shared religious beliefs grow out of society and contribute to its cohesion. Rituals unite people and contribute to the transmission from generation to generation of values, norms, prohibitions (taboos), the violation of which leads to repentance and purification. Rituals support and comfort people in grief, especially in connection with death. Every society, Durkheim concludes, needs a religion or belief system that provides the same social functions.

Marx derived the functions of religion from the theory of social (class) conflict, considering religion as a form of alienation, as a tool to support the dominant social order. Religion can be an element of social conflict, as, for example, during periods of religious wars. In accordance with the thesis of M. Weber about Protestant ethics as the spiritual basis of modern capitalism, its development was facilitated by the norms of such an ethic, in which wealth was seen as a sign of being chosen by God, and thrift, and not wastefulness, the multiplication of capital, and not its waste, as the main religious, social value and virtue. Here religion performs the function of promoting industrial and social development.

The principal feature of the modern period of social development in Russia is the revival and spread of religious consciousness. The Constitution of the Russian Federation (Article 28) guarantees freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, including the right to profess individually or jointly with others any religion or not to profess any, freely choose, have and disseminate religious and other beliefs and act in accordance with them.

The very fact of the existence of faith after many decades of its suppression by "militant atheism", planted using the methods of state violence, indicates the existence of an essential social function implemented by religion. In itself, the practice of state atheism, which has essentially turned into a quasi-religious dogma, where the role of the organizer of “heaven on earth” was attributed not to God, but to man, paradoxically, but testifies to the constant need for society, for individual consciousness to have something that goes beyond the ordinary , urgent, the need to believe in the presence of something higher, orienting consciousness and behavior.

It is fundamentally important, of course, what is the essence of such a faith. Of particular importance in the conditions of Russia, where religious beliefs are embodied in various confessions, are those features of such beliefs in which tolerance and respect for someone else's faith take their rightful place. Only under this condition will religious faith fulfill the function of a spiritually creative principle in the social development of Russia as a multi-confessional country. The religious revival in Russia will fulfill a constructive function in the event that mutual trust, morality, diligence, and hope based on faith enter social practice and become the moral core of social development.

In this case, at least two dimensions of the relevant social interactions are of fundamental importance: a) religion and the state; b) religious denominations among themselves. The Constitution of the Russian Federation (Article 14) defines the Russian Federation as a secular state. No religion can be established as a state or obligatory one. Religious associations are separated from the state and are equal before the law.

In two cases, the creative, constructive, integrating function of religion is not capable of being realized. First, by subordination of religion to the state, the transformation of religion into a dependent appendage of the state, the loss of its function as an independent carrier of higher moral principles, higher moral authority, which leads to the loss of sacredness by religion, its sacred character, independent of earthly structures, on the one hand. Secondly, by takeover by state religion, the acquisition by religion of official state status as a single and mandatory form of belief, the loss of such a theocratic state of its secular nature, the loss of its function as a guarantor of freedom of religion, which leads to discrimination and suppression of other beliefs.

Freedom of conscience, equality of religions, independence from the state can be really ensured only in the presence of a democratic state and social system. Only under these conditions is individual freedom ensured (freedom of conscience is its most important ingredient); religious tolerance, equality and freedom of religion are guaranteed; the secular nature of the state is preserved; the moral and spiritual basis of social development is being created. Legal norms provide structuring of social life, regulation of social interactions in order to give them formal order and certainty. But content of a similar order, the definition of what is considered right and fair, and what is unfair, criminal, what is essential, vital, and what is not, i.e., law can acquire its essential, value-based nature only from the outside. The moral and ethical principles of religion can also serve as such a source.

Functions of Religion for social science is, first of all, social functions of religion. Various sociologists and religious scholars have cited many functions that religion performs. We will consider main functions of religion.

1. Satisfaction of a mystical need. This function, based on belief in the supernatural, is present only in religion, unlike the rest.
2. regulatory function. Creation and explanation of spiritual norms in social behavior and activities. It can even affect those areas of human activity that are not affected by law or even morality (for example, dietary rules or behavior in the sexual sphere).
3. Compensatory function. Comforting, in its essence, the function, the purpose of which is to give relief in suffering and strength in difficult situations.
4. communicative function. Creates "interest groups", that is, unites believers of the same denomination within the framework of common worldview points.
5. educational function. The main goal - the formation of values, in short - is a function of human socialization.
6. worldview function. Gives a person a picture of the world, worldview, understanding of the world order (of course, from the point of view of a particular religion). This function is also called value function or sense-making function.
7. The function of socio-religious identification. It enables a person to identify himself in society, that is, to find his place and role.
8. Function of moral perfection. One of the most basic functions of religion, sometimes it is combined with an educational function. In any religion, a person must constantly strive for some kind of model (the highest ideal, God), which contributes to his spiritual development.

In addition to these eight, researchers identify several more functions of religion as a social institution associated with secular human activities:

1. Sacralization of social norms and values. This function favors stability in social relations.
2. Socio-critical function. Religion can criticize the existing social situation and, in this way, influence it, put pressure on it, contribute to the resolution of conflicts and other social problems.
3. political function. With the development of industrial civilization (19th century), the church became completely separated from the state. Or almost completely. Some connection still remains. Some religious values ​​are interconnected. With some legal norms and, accordingly, have analogues in legalized regulatory legal acts. In addition, some types of religion are protected by the state, and this is reflected in entire sets of laws. Thus, religion has an impact on the political sphere of society.

What conclusions can be drawn from studying the functions of religion? First, religion is one of the three regulators of human behavior in society along with morality and law. Secondly, religion is an important type of social consciousness and worldview, actively influencing the social, cultural and political activity of a person.