Sacred: those extraordinary elements of life that inspire a sense of reverence, awe and fear in people
Profane: commonplace ordinary elements of everyday life.
Beliefs, institutions, practice
PERSPECTIVES
Functionalists
Social cohesion
Social stability
Legitimation of political and economic systems
Provide a sense of meaning and purpose
Conflict
Exploitation
Reflect underlying mode of economic production - preserves it
Focuses attention to life after death instead of this world
Inhibit social change
Dysfunctional elements of religion (religious wars, cult behavior, expenditure
of funds)
Protestant Ethic and the Rise of Capitalism
Max Weber - Protestant ethic (world view and values associated with Protestant Christianity) promoted social change - in interpretation of economic success - predestination (one’s fate in the afterlife was decided at birth)
Worldly asceticism - denial of material self-indulgence
Success in work and economic wealth indicated your future in the afterlife
Fundamentalism/ humanism