Here is your essay on the relation between religion and social change.
That economic order, political order and cultural order are three different facets of the social order. Religion can change or stabilize the economic order, political order and the cultural order. As you are aware, the economic order primarily refers to the arrangement of individuals and institutions in a relationship of the production, distribution and consumption of goods.
Political order refers to exercise of power and authority. The cultural order largely includes the configuration of symbols and their meanings. To begin with, let us understand how religious ideas can mould the economic system – changing or stabilizing it as ‘a result.
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Religion and the Economic Order:
We can draw insights from Max Weber (1864-1920) to demonstrate that religious ideas can change the economic order. On the other hand, if we carefully understand Karl Marx (1864-1883), it is possible to argue that religion can stabilize an exploitative, miserable economic order. That is to say that the role of religion in society, of which it is an important subsystem, is capable of great harmony and integration; but it can also be a major factor in creating conflict as in fundamentalism.
1) Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: Max Weber on Religion:
In the eyes of Max Weber, religious ideas can act as powerful force in determining the course of the economic order. Through his ‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’ (1958, 1905), Max Weber proposed the thesis that various Protestant sects that emerged during the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe, aided through their doctrines, the emergence of modem rational capitalism. Max Weber’s thesis was part of a larger intellectual debate among scholars, regarding the role of ideal and material factors in historical development.
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The doctrines of the Protestant sects, in particular Calvinism, created new attitudes toward work, money and pleasure. These new doctrines marked a significant departure from what has been hitherto preached by the Catholic Church.
These doctrines were accepted by the emerging classes in Europe, after the breakdown of feudal order, which combined hard work with asceticism. In other words, believers of these Protestant doctrines worked hard but restrained themselves from material pleasures and luxury. This resulted in the accumulation of wealth (capital), which spurred the growth of rational industrial capitalism.
The doctrines of ‘calling’ and ‘Predestination’ are the twin ideas, which left a tremendous impact on the believers. According to the doctrine of Predestination, breached by Calvin, God has already chosen some human beings and angels into everlasting life, for his own glory and in his own interests. Those who are not selected are predestined to everlasting death.
The most significant aspect of this doctrine is that human beings cannot know the will of God. ‘Am I one of the elect?’ ‘Am I one among the God’s predestined invisible church?’ ‘Am I one among those chosen by God for Heaven?’ may be questions which haunt the believers. But there is no answer for them. On the contrary, believers have to trust in God that they are one amongst the ‘chosen’ or the ‘elect’. To attain this trust, intense wordly activity was recommended as the most suitable means.
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A Calvinist has to prove his faith through worldly activity. He has to understand himself as a tool of divine will, and has to indulge in worldly activity for the greater glory of God. The concept of ‘calling’ elevated worldly activity to a highest form of moral activity which can be attained by any individual. ‘Time is money’ and ‘Credit is money’ are the twin cliches which capture the spirit of those times aptly. ‘Time is money’ implies that waste of time is sinful and to the same time earning money is a sign of God’s grace.
For a puritan, who earned money but abstained from luxury and pleasure, generating wealth was an end in itself. Prosperity was an end in itself and it was sign of God’s grace. It is clear that doctrine of Calvin created a situation where abstemious values and norms meant that there was a great saving of wealth which was put back into the work. This resulted in a tremendous economic boost to the society concerned and made Calvinism a set of beliefs which were very positive towards economic growth.
Thus certain doctrines of Protestant sects changed the attitude of believers towards work, money and pleasure which in turn led to the accumulation of capital, necessary for the emergence of rational industrial capitalism. Whereas Max Weber viewed religious ethic of the Protestant sects as having aided the spirit of capitalism, Karl Marx argues that religion is an ideology of the ruling elite.
2) Religion is an illusion: Marx on Religion:
Marx developed his understanding of religion mainly from Prussia. In Prussia, the state defended the Protestant Christian religion. Protestant Christian religion, in that context, acted as an ideology for the new class which arose at the breakup of feudalism in Europe. Since Protestantism helped the growth of capitalism, the State of Prussia supported it.
Marx also argued that religion is an illusion which veils the real exploitative conditions in society. At the same time, religion is a mode of protest, albeit a misdirected protest, adopted by those who are oppressed and exploited. To add further, religion is a form of alienation, characteristic of the capitalist society.
Religion is a direct outcome of the exploitative conditions in society, and hence religion can be discarded only by changing the exploitative social condition (i.e. capitalism) which gives rise to the need for religion. Thus for Karl Marx, religion is an illusion, a form of alienation and misdirected protest. Religion stabilizes, the social order, by veiling the exploitation and misery of the capitalist economic order.
Religion and the Political Order:
Religion can change the political order as well as preserve it. Assuming that political order includes the mode of exercise of power and authority, various categories like the State, Nation and Sovereignty creep into our analysis. Every religion has a political idea, a sense of community; a mode of power and authority; a particular understanding of sovereignty. In other words, ‘Kingdom of God’ and ‘Darul Islam’ are political ideas. Every religion has a specific conception of politics, whose interpretation may change from time to time, no matter whether this conception is actualised in reality or not. In this sense, there cannot be a strict separation of religion from politics for religion at times has to be this wordly as well.
As you are aware, in the Hindu caste system, Kshatriya is the ruler and his dharma is to protect and conserve the social order. The Brahmin has to uphold system ‘of knowledge, and values. At a theoretical level, one finds a clear separation of spirituality and power, and power being subordinated to spirituality. But at the level of practice, this is a questionable postulate.
In fact, the tension between spirituality and power, State and the religion, can be presented as a universal dilemma. During the medieval ages in Europe (8th to 15th century), many kings (and by implication, their kingdoms) clearly remained subordinated to the authority of the Pope (who is the spiritual head of the Roman Catholic Church).
The situation changed in Europe, after the Reformation, and rulers became the head of their respective national churches. For example, Queen of England is the head of the Protestant Anglican Church of England. The many fundamentalist and revivalist movements which are arising all over the world are also defining their own idea of a political state.
The fundamentalist and revivalist are re-interpreters of religion. They go back to, what they consider to be pure, original code of religious behaviour, which involves a total world- view. With the intention of restoring these authentic values the fundamentalists ignore all other values.
Islam, for example, is particularly clear about the conduct of the Muslim community. The universe of a Muslim is circumscribed by his or her religion, were politics and religion are inseparable. The resurgence of Islam is recent decades witnesses this linkage.
Most often, it is the oppressed communities which use religion as a tool to change the political order. The oppression of Jews, and the consequent diaspora does not prevent them from considering themselves as a nation – Israel.
This incipient nationalism of Jews, has its basis in the Bible. Israel has a specific identity, which can be traced to the Bible. And in India, many scholars opine that, Gandhi effectively used Hindu symbols of self-sufficient, autonomous ideal-village communities as Ram Rajya. Numerous tribal uprisings and revolts against the colonial rule, has an explicit religious tinge.
For instance, Birsa Munda who led a movement against the exploitation of Mundas by outsiders, began by saying that he has obtained a ‘revelation’ from God. He claimed himself to be a God (Dharti Aba, means ‘father of the world’) and tried to perform miracles.
Thus a growing number of liberation theologists have allied themselves with the poor in a political struggle against the ruling class in whose hands the wealth is concentrated.
Liberation theology has been strongly resisted by the rich ruling class as well as the Roman Catholic Church. Many liberation theologists have been killed in the widespread violence that engulfed Latin America. The Roman Catholic Church has strongly opposed the mixing of religion and politics. The Roman Catholic authority believes that liberation theology diverts the attention from other wordly concerns of Christianity to get involved in political controversy.
Nonetheless, the liberation theology movement continues to grow in Latin America with the firm belief that both Christian faith and a sense of human justice demand efforts to change the plight of world’s poor. Religion can stabilize the power structure and at the same time, it can be used to change the power structure also. So far this has been elaborated vividly.
However, understanding certain limitations of the relationship between religion and political order is imperative. For instance, in the case of religions spread over the world, there could be differences between the various local/national religious communities on specific political issues. In other words, you should desist from understanding religions as a monolith, since contingent upon various local factors; religions may differ in their relationship to the power structure.
The Universal Roman Catholic Church stabilizers the power structure everywhere almost, by weaving a network of relationships with other secular spheres. But in Latin American countries, the Catholic Church is radical enough to join hands with the oppressed sections of the society to wage a war against the exploitative local power structures.
This radicalism has been the offshoot of a particular modem interpretation of Christian doctrines, known as the liberation theology. In a somewhat similar vein, upon observing closely you will find that Islam in Malaysia and Indonesia supports the process of modernization, whereas Islam in Iran is conservative and backward looking upon comparison.
Religion and the Cultural Order:
Assuming that cultural order is an intermesh of symbols which are potent with meaning, it emerges that religion might change the meaning of symbols, and thus the cultural order. As you are aware, religion is something eminently social, in the eyes of Durkheim (1965 (1912). Religious representations are collective representations, and they express collective realities. Totem, which is an object of worship and veneration, is an emblem.
The totem symbolizes the tribe. In the case of the Arundas of Australia, whom Durkheim selected for analysis, the ‘Churinga’ is the symbol of a clan. Rituals arise from the ‘Collective effervescence’ generated by the society.
Moreover, religion supplies the categories, classifications required to understand the world. Rituals maintain the solidarity of the group. From the discussions of Durkheim, it broadly emerges that religion is strongly related to the social structure.
Now the interpretation is that whenever there is change in social structure, there could be a corresponding change in religion and vice-versa. To be more specific, religious symbols could be acquiring new meanings when there is a change in the social structure.
Also it is possible that, when religion undergoes rapid change, the non-religious symbols like kinship can acquire a new meaning. For instance, when a simple society is under the onslaught of a colonial power which incidentally is also of a different religion, it happens that the whole simple society re-order its myths, symbols, ritual, beliefs and world view. Let us understand this example: During the year 1810, in Mexico, there arose a revolt of local people against Spanish Overlordship.
During this revolt, a particular religious symbol, Our Lady of Gudalupe, acquired meaning from pre-Columbian religious sources, especially from the Aztec mother of the Gods Tonantzin as well as from the Mother of God in Catholic Christian theology and folk practice.
Religious symbols evoke powerful and deep sentiments and everlasting moods. Even then, due to social change, one dominant symbol may acquire different meanings in various socio-historical, socio-political, socio-structural contexts.
The Eastern Orthodox empty cross stresses on the doctrine of Christ risen, the Catholic Crucifix (with its corpus) emphasizes Christ’s humanity and sacrifice, while the Protestant empty Cross implicitly denies the continuing sacrificial character of the Eucharist. Religious symbols are most often manipulated, to facilitate mobilization of a collectivity, around a cause.
For instance, when there is an upsurge militant Hinduism, the elephant-headed, auspicious God of the Hindu Pantheon Lord Ganesh is represented as holding trishuls, spears and swords. When there is social change, we find a corresponding change in the representation of religious symbols, and the interpretation of their meaning. Moreover, protest groups may appropriate the symbols and impute new meanings to them.
During the Veerasaiva movement, which came to contest the subordination of non- Brahmins to Brahmins in the Hindu social order. ‘Linga’ becomes a symbol of protest. Every Veerasaivite was supposed to wear the Linga on his body, in order to claim purity equivalent to that of a Brahmin. The term cultural order, includes our mental classifications (e.g. ‘good’ and the ‘bad’/ ‘evil’), our understanding of time, spare and personality.
It becomes evident that, when there is a change in religion, one’s idea of ‘good and ‘evil’, time, space and personality may undergo corresponding alteration. And the reverse is also true. When there is a change in our understanding of good and evil, time, space, and personality due to various forces including media, education etc., there is every likelihood that our attitude towards religion also might change.