Religion As a Conservative Force + Weber: Religion As a Force for Change

1. It is often seen as conservative in the sense of being 'traditional', defending traditional customs, institutions, moral views, roles etc

2. It is conservative because it functions to conserve or preserve things as they are. It stabilises society and maintains the status quo.

Most religions have traditional conservative beliefs about moral issues and many of them oppose changes that would allo individuals more freedom in personal and sexual matters. eg. The Catholic Church forbids divorce, abortion and artificial contraception. It opposes gay marriage and condemns homosexual behaviour.

Most religions uphold 'family values' and often favour a traditional patriarchal domestic division of labour. eg. In traditional marriage ceremony of Church of England dating from 1602, the bride vows to 'love, honour and obey', groom only required to do former two. (Since 1966, the bride has been allowed to drop the vow to 'obey' her husband if she wishes).

Hinduism endorses male domestic authority and the practice of arranged marriage.

Functionalist see religion as functioning to maintain social stability and prevent society from disintegrating. eg. it promotes social solidarity by creating value consensus thus reducing the likelihood of society collapsing through individuals pursuing their own selfish interests at the expense of others.

Marxists see religion as a conservative ideology that prevents social change. By legitimating or disguising exploitation and inequality, it creates false class consciousness in the working class and prevents revolution, thereby maintaining the stability of capitalist society.

Feminists see religion as a conservative force because it acts as an ideology that legitimates patriarchal power and maintains women's subordination in the family and wider society.

In it, Weber argues that the religious beliefs of Calvinism (a form of Protestantism founded by John Calvin during the Reformation) helped to bring about major social change - specifically, the emergence of modern capitalism in Northern Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Weber notes that many past societies had capitalism in the sense of greed for wealth, which they often spent on luxury consumption. However, modern capitalism is unique, he argues, because it is based on the systematic, efficient, rational pursuit of profit for its own sake, rather than for consumption. Weber calls this the spirit of capitalism.

According to Weber, the spirit of capitalism had what he calls an elective affinity (or unconscious simularity) to the Calvinists' beliefs and attitudes.

1. Predestination
2. Divine transcendence
3. Asceticism
4. The idea of a vocation or calling

God had predetermined which souls would be saved - 'the elect' - and which would not, even before birth. Individuals could do nothing whatsoever to change this, whether through their deeds, as the Catholics believed (eg. prayer), nor through faith, as the Lutheran Protestants believed. God's decision is already made and cannot be altered.

They believed God was so far above and beyond this world and so incomparably greater than any mortal, that no human being could possibly claim to know his will (other than what he had chosen to reveal through the Bible). This included the Church and its priests - leaving the Calvinists to feel an 'unprecedented [never felt before] inner loneliness'.

When divine transcendence is combined with predestination, this created what Weber calls a salvation panic in the Calvinists: they could not know whether they had been chosen to be saved, and they could not do anything to earn their salvation.

Asceticism refers to abstinence, self-discipline and self-denial. eg.Monks lead an ascetic existence, refraining from luxury, wearing simple clothes and avoiding excess in order to devote themselves to God and a life of prayer.