Notes · SociologyUK · A-Levels

Beliefs in Society (optional topic)

This Paper 2 option examines ideology, science and religion as belief systems, the competing theories of religion, its relationship to social change and stability, the range of religious organisations and movements, and the debate over secularisation in a globalising world. It applies the perspectives to ask what religion does, whether it conserves or transforms society, and whether it is declining.

5 sections~20 min reading time3 competenciesLevel Standard 2 · Advanced 3

T·101010 / 15

Exam profile

AO1 · Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of belief systems, theories of religion, organisations, participation and secularisationAO2 · Apply this material to the Item and to social groups, movements and global trendsAO3 · Analyse and evaluate religion as a conservative force versus a force for change, and the secularisation thesis, reaching a judgement

Operators:outline and explainapplying material from the Item, analyseevaluateassessdiscuss

basic level

AS-Level expects the main theories of religion, the types of religious organisation and the secularisation debate.

higher level

The full A-Level requires sustained evaluation of religion as conservative versus transformative and of the secularisation thesis, using the perspectives.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

Beliefs in Society (optional topic)

Ideology, science and religion as belief systems#

AdvancedAQA 7192/2 Beliefs in SocietyDfE GCE Sociology subject content

Open versus closed belief systems

Fig. 1Open systems expose claims to testing and revision; closed systems protect their core beliefs from refutation - though science is more paradigm-bound than Popper allowed.

The topic begins by treating religion as one kind of belief system alongside ideology and science, and asking what distinguishes them. A belief system is a set of ideas that explains the world and guides action; the key sociological question is whether a belief system is 'open' or 'closed'. Popper argued that science is an open belief system because its knowledge claims are provisional and open to testing, criticism and falsification - no claim is beyond challenge - whereas many religious and ideological systems are closed, containing self-sustaining devices that protect their core beliefs from refutation.

Horton's distinction between open and closed systems develops this. In a closed belief system, apparent failures of prediction are explained away by the system's own internal logic (for example by invoking hidden causes), so that no evidence can ever count against the core beliefs; the system is self-confirming. Science, by contrast, is supposed to be open: it exposes its theories to potential refutation and revises them in the light of evidence. This contrast is central to the debate about whether sociology itself can be scientific, examined in the theory-and-methods topics, and it frames the analysis of religion as a belief system.

Yet the neat contrast is complicated, and recognising this is the mark of a strong answer. Kuhn argued that even science operates within 'paradigms' - shared frameworks of assumptions that are resistant to challenge and abandoned only in occasional 'revolutions' - so science is more closed than Popper allowed. Interpretivists and others point out that science is a social activity, shaped by funding, careers and power, and that Merton's account of science as governed by norms of communism, universalism, disinterestedness and organised scepticism (CUDOS) describes an ideal not always realised. Marxists treat some belief systems, including aspects of science and religion, as ideology - ideas that serve the interests of a dominant group by presenting a partial, distorted view of the world as natural and universal.

The concept of ideology is thus the third term and a crucial one. Marxists see the dominant ideas of a society as the ideas of its ruling class, functioning to legitimate inequality and produce false consciousness; Mannheim distinguished ideologies (conservative, defending the existing order) from utopias (radical, seeking to change it), and worried about the partiality of all belief. Feminists analyse patriarchal ideology. Evaluating belief systems means seeing that the boundaries between religion, science and ideology are less clear-cut than they first appear - each can function to explain the world, to legitimate power, and to resist or drive change - and that whether a system is open or closed, liberating or controlling, is itself a contested, evaluative question.

Worked example

Is science an open belief system?

Assess the view that science is an open belief system while religion is closed.

State the contrast
Popper and Horton contrast open science (falsifiable, self-correcting) with closed systems that explain away failures and protect their core beliefs.
Credit the contrast
Science does expose theories to testing and revises them, unlike belief systems that treat their core as beyond challenge.
Complicate it
Kuhn shows science works within resistant paradigms; science is socially shaped by funding and power; Merton's CUDOS is an ideal not always met.
Add the ideology point
Marxists treat some scientific and religious claims as ideology serving powerful interests, blurring the open/closed line further.
Judgement
Conclude that science is more open than closed systems but less purely open than Popper claimed, so the contrast is a matter of degree.

Result: Science is more open to testing and revision than closed belief systems, but Kuhn's paradigms and the social shaping of science mean the open/closed contrast is a matter of degree rather than an absolute divide.

Typical mistakes

Presenting science as purely open and religion as purely closed, ignoring Kuhn and the social shaping of science.
Using 'ideology' loosely without the Marxist (ruling-class ideas) or Mannheim (ideology versus utopia) senses.

Active revision

Outline and explain two differences between open and closed belief systems. (10 marks)

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for sociology (Department for Education)

Theories of religion: functionalist, Marxist, feminist#

StandardAQA 7192/2 Beliefs in SocietyDfE GCE Sociology subject content

Theories of religion

Fig. 2The main theories of religion - all tend to see it as conserving an existing order (of consensus, class or patriarchy).

Functionalists analyse religion by the contribution it makes to social solidarity and order. Durkheim, from his study of totemism, argued that religion is essentially social: in worshipping the sacred, society is really worshipping itself, and religious ritual reinforces the collective conscience and binds members into a moral community. The distinction between the sacred and the profane, and the collective effervescence of shared ritual, are his key concepts. Malinowski added that religion helps individuals and groups cope with the anxiety of uncontrollable events (such as death), and Parsons that it provides meaning and answers to 'ultimate questions', while Bellah's concept of civil religion describes how shared national beliefs can perform a religious function of integration.

Marxists analyse religion as ideology serving the ruling class. In Marx's famous formulation, religion is the 'opium of the people' - it dulls the pain of exploitation by offering illusory comfort and the promise of reward in an afterlife, discouraging the oppressed from challenging their condition. Religion legitimates inequality (presenting the social order as divinely ordained), justifies the position of the powerful, and produces false consciousness, so that it helps reproduce class society. For Marxists, religion is thus a conservative force that maintains the status quo in the interests of the dominant class.

Feminists analyse religion as an institution of patriarchy. They point to male domination of religious hierarchies and texts, the frequent representation of women as subordinate or as sources of temptation, and the use of religion to control women's bodies, sexuality and roles. Armstrong traces the historical marginalisation of women in religion, and De Beauvoir argued that religion, like other patriarchal institutions, consoles women for their subordination while legitimating it. Like Marxists, feminists therefore tend to see religion as reinforcing an existing structure of inequality, though some note the meaning and status religion can also provide for women.

Evaluating these theories means recognising both their insight and their one-sidedness, and setting them against the evidence of religion's varied roles. Functionalism captures religion's integrative power but assumes a consensus and struggles with religious conflict and diversity; Marxism exposes religion's ideological and conservative functions but cannot easily explain religion that challenges the powerful; feminism reveals patriarchal control but can understate women's active religious agency and the diversity of religious traditions. Crucially, all three tend to see religion as conserving the existing order, a view directly challenged by the evidence, examined next, that religion can also be a force for radical social change - so the strongest answers use these theories as the starting point for the conservative-versus-change debate rather than as the final word.

Worked example

Model essay plan: the Marxist view of religion

Plan a 20-mark answer evaluating the Marxist view of the role of religion.

Set up the debate
Marxism sees religion as ruling-class ideology; functionalists and others disagree. Signal a judgement. Hook to the Item.
Develop Marxism
Religion as the opium of the people; legitimating inequality as divinely ordained; producing false consciousness - a conservative force serving the powerful.
Evaluate with functionalism/feminism
Functionalists see integration and meaning, not just class control; feminists see patriarchy, adding a dimension Marxism neglects.
The decisive critique
Religion can also drive change (Weber's Protestant ethic; liberation theology; civil rights) - which the conservative Marxist view cannot easily explain.
Judgement
Conclude that religion often serves conservative, ideological functions as Marxism claims, but can also be transformative, so the Marxist view is powerful but one-sided.

Result: A top-band plan develops the Marxist ideology thesis, evaluates it with functionalist and feminist views, and decisively uses religion's capacity to drive change to judge the Marxist account powerful but incomplete.

Typical mistakes

Treating the theories as simply describing religion rather than as contestable accounts with strengths and weaknesses.
Assuming religion is only ever conservative, ignoring its capacity to drive change (the next section).

Active revision

Applying material from the Item and your knowledge, evaluate the Marxist view of the role of religion in society. (20 marks)

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Sociology (7192) specification (AQA)

Religion, social change and stability#

AdvancedAQA 7192/2 Beliefs in SocietyDfE GCE Sociology subject content

Weber: the Protestant ethic thesis

Fig. 3Weber argued Calvinist beliefs unintentionally fostered the spirit of capitalism - religion as an independent cause of change.

The central debate of the topic is whether religion is a conservative force that maintains the existing order or a force for social change, and the strongest answers show that it can be both. The conservative case draws on functionalism and Marxism: religion promotes value consensus, social solidarity and stability (Durkheim), and legitimates the existing order and dulls opposition to it (Marx). Traditional religions typically uphold established moral codes, family forms and hierarchies, and their conservatism is real - so the claim that religion conserves society has strong support.

The decisive challenge to this view is Weber's classic study of the relationship between Calvinist Protestantism and the rise of capitalism. Weber argued that the beliefs of ascetic Calvinism - above all the doctrine of predestination, which produced intense anxiety about salvation, relieved by disciplined, methodical work and the reinvestment rather than enjoyment of wealth as a sign of election - unintentionally fostered the 'spirit of capitalism'. Religious ideas, on this account, were not a mere reflection of economic interests (as crude Marxism would have it) but an independent force that helped bring about a profound social transformation. Weber thus shows that religion can be a cause of change, not only a brake on it.

Later evidence reinforces the transformative potential of religion. Liberation theology in LatAmerica combined Catholic belief with a commitment to the poor and to social justice, sometimes in opposition to authoritarian regimes; the black civil rights movement in the United States drew organisation, leadership and moral authority from the churches; and religiously inspired movements have driven reform and resistance in many settings. These cases show religion providing not opium but a source of collective identity, moral critique and mobilisation - the opposite of the purely conservative role the classic theories emphasise.

Evaluating the debate means refusing a simple answer. Religion can be conservative (upholding order, legitimating inequality) and transformative (inspiring and organising change), and which role predominates depends on the specific beliefs, the social context, and the relationship between religion and other forces. Neo-Marxists such as Gramsci, with the concept of hegemony and the possibility of a counter-hegemonic religion, and Bloch's idea of the 'principle of hope', offer ways of holding both together. The judgement a strong essay reaches is not that religion is conservative or transformative but that it is potentially either, so that Weber's demonstration of religion as an independent causal force is decisive against any view - functionalist or Marxist - that reduces religion to a mere support for the status quo.

Worked example

Model essay plan: is religion conservative?

Plan a 20-mark answer evaluating the view that religion is a conservative force.

Set up the debate
Functionalism and Marxism cast religion as conservative; Weber and later evidence show it can drive change. Signal a both/and judgement. Hook to the Item.
The conservative case
Durkheim (solidarity, consensus) and Marx (legitimation, opium); traditional religions uphold established codes and hierarchies.
The change case
Weber's Protestant ethic (religion as an independent cause of capitalism); liberation theology; the civil rights movement - religion as mobilisation and critique.
Reconcile
Neo-Marxists (Gramsci - counter-hegemony) show religion can be either; which role predominates depends on beliefs and context.
Judgement
Conclude that religion is potentially both conservative and transformative, so the 'conservative force' view is too one-sided - Weber is decisive against it.

Result: A top-band plan develops the conservative case, uses Weber and liberation theology to show religion can drive change, and judges that religion is potentially either - refuting the one-sided 'conservative force' claim.

Typical mistakes

Arguing religion is only conservative or only transformative rather than potentially either depending on context.
Misrepresenting Weber as claiming Calvinism intended to create capitalism - the effect was unintended.

Active revision

Applying material from the Item and your knowledge, evaluate the view that religion is a conservative force in society. (20 marks)

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for sociology (Department for Education)

Religious organisations and movements#

StandardAQA 7192/2 Beliefs in SocietyDfE GCE Sociology subject content

Classifying religious organisations

Fig. 4Religious organisations range along a spectrum from church to cult, with Wallis's three types of new religious movement.

Sociologists classify religious organisations along a spectrum, and the classic typology begins with Troeltsch's distinction between the church and the sect. A church is a large, formal, bureaucratic organisation, often with a professional clergy and close ties to the state and mainstream society, into which members are typically born and which claims a monopoly on truth. A sect is a small, exclusive, often oppositional group, demanding intense commitment, drawing sharp boundaries with the wider society, and frequently formed by breaking away from a church. Niebuhr added the denomination - a church that has lost its monopoly and accommodated to a pluralistic society, one faith among many - and the cult, a loose, tolerant, individualistic grouping, often focused on personal fulfilment.

New Religious Movements (NRMs) and New Age movements extend the typology to contemporary forms. Wallis classified NRMs by their relationship to the world: world-rejecting movements (demanding a radical break with mainstream society), world-accommodating movements (largely neutral towards society, focused on spiritual renewal), and world-affirming movements (embracing the world and offering techniques for success and self-improvement within it). Stark and Bainbridge offered an alternative classification and analysed the 'religious market'. New Age movements, emphasising individual spirituality, self-discovery and a pick-and-mix approach to belief, are characteristic of a consumer society and are important evidence in the secularisation debate.

Sociologists also explain why people join sects and movements and what happens to them over time. Explanations include marginality (movements offering the marginalised meaning and status), relative deprivation (spiritual or social deprivation felt even by the materially comfortable), and social change (movements offering certainty amid rapid change). Niebuhr and others noted that sects tend either to die out with their founder or to compromise and evolve into denominations, though some persist as established sects. This dynamic connects organisational type to wider social conditions and to arguments about religious decline or transformation.

The proliferation and character of religious organisations is central to evaluating secularisation and religious change. The growth of NRMs, New Age spirituality and a diverse 'spiritual marketplace' is read by some as evidence that religion is not declining but changing form - shifting from collective, institutional religion towards individualised, consumer-style spirituality. Others read the fragmentation of belief into small, often short-lived movements as itself a symptom of the weakening of religion's social power. The typology of organisations thus supplies essential evidence for the secularisation debate, and the strongest answers use it not merely to classify but to analyse what changing patterns of religious organisation reveal about the place of religion in contemporary society.

Worked example

Explaining why people join movements

Explain two sociological reasons why people join new religious movements.

Reason one: marginality/deprivation
Movements offer meaning, status and community to the marginalised, or answer a felt relative deprivation (spiritual or social) even among the materially comfortable.
Develop
World-rejecting movements in particular attract those seeking a radical alternative to a society in which they feel they have no place.
Reason two: social change and uncertainty
Rapid social change and the decline of traditional certainties lead some to seek the security, structure and answers that a committed movement provides.
Develop
World-affirming movements, offering techniques for success and fulfilment, suit a consumer society; New Age spirituality suits individualised belief.

Result: People join movements to meet needs generated by marginality, relative deprivation and rapid social change - each reason linked to a type of movement (world-rejecting for the marginalised, world-affirming for the consumer society).

Typical mistakes

Confusing the organisational types (especially sect and cult) or treating the typology as rigid rather than a spectrum.
Describing organisations without connecting them to explanations of joining or to the secularisation debate.

Active revision

Outline and explain two reasons why people may join sects or new religious movements. (10 marks)

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Sociology (7192) specification (AQA)

Religiosity, secularisation and globalisation#

AdvancedAQA 7192/2 Beliefs in SocietyDfE GCE Sociology subject content

Illustrative trend in religious participation

Fig. 5Typical illustrative pattern (not official statistics): attendance has fallen faster than belief - the gap Davie calls 'believing without belonging'.

The secularisation thesis holds that religion is declining in social significance in modern societies. Its supporters, such as Wilson and Bruce, point to broad evidence of falling church attendance and membership, the declining social influence of religious institutions over law, education and morality, and the disenchantment of a scientific, rational culture. On this view, modernity - through science, rationalisation, social and religious diversity, and the differentiation of institutions - progressively erodes the plausibility and reach of religion, and the growth of small, individualised movements is a symptom of, not a counter to, this decline. Any figures should be treated as broad, well-established trends rather than precise statistics.

The thesis is strongly contested. Critics argue that religion is not declining but changing form: Davie's concept of 'believing without belonging' suggests that people retain religious belief while ceasing to attend, and her idea of 'vicarious religion' describes a minority practising on behalf of a larger sympathetic population. Others point to the persistence and even growth of religion globally, the vitality of religion among some minority ethnic communities, and the rise of new spiritualities. The 'religious market' theory (Stark and Bainbridge) argues that religion responds to supply and competition rather than simply declining, so that apparent decline may reflect a lack of attractive religious 'products' rather than a loss of underlying demand.

Religiosity is also patterned by social group, and explaining these patterns is part of the topic. Participation and belief vary by class, gender (women are, on many measures, more religious than men), ethnicity (religion remaining significant for many minority ethnic groups, sometimes as a source of identity and community in a new society) and age (older people tending to be more religious, which the secularisation thesis reads as evidence of generational decline and its critics read as a life-cycle effect). These patterns are evidence to be explained and are used on both sides of the secularisation debate.

Globalisation reframes the whole question. It has spread religion across borders, fuelled religious diversity, and, some argue, provoked the growth of fundamentalism - Giddens interprets fundamentalism as a defensive reaction to the uncertainty, cosmopolitanism and challenge to tradition that globalisation brings, an assertion of certainty against a threatening modernity. The global vitality of religion, and its entanglement with identity, politics and conflict, challenge the assumption that modernisation inevitably brings secularisation. Evaluating the debate therefore means weighing the evidence of institutional decline in some societies against the persistence, transformation and global resurgence of religion elsewhere, and reaching a judgement - typically that religion in modern societies is being transformed and privatised rather than simply disappearing, while remaining globally powerful.

Worked example

Model essay plan: is religion declining?

Plan a 20-mark answer evaluating the view that religion is declining in importance.

Set up the debate
Secularisation theorists say religion is declining; critics say it is changing form or resurgent. Signal a judgement. Hook to the Item.
The secularisation case
Wilson and Bruce: falling attendance and membership, declining institutional influence, disenchantment through science and rationalisation.
The critics
Davie's believing without belonging and vicarious religion; religious market theory; the vitality of religion among some ethnic groups and new spiritualities.
Globalisation
Global resurgence and fundamentalism (Giddens) challenge the modernisation-equals-secularisation assumption.
Judgement
Conclude that institutional religion has declined in some societies but religion is being transformed and privatised rather than disappearing, and remains globally powerful - so the strong secularisation thesis is overstated.

Result: A top-band plan develops the secularisation evidence, uses believing without belonging, religious market theory and global resurgence to qualify it, and judges that religion is transforming rather than simply declining - an evaluative, not one-sided, conclusion.

Typical mistakes

Equating falling church attendance with the disappearance of religion, ignoring believing without belonging and changing form.
Citing precise 'statistics' from memory - present participation as broad, established trends, not exact figures.

Active revision

Applying material from the Item and your knowledge, evaluate the view that religion is declining in importance in modern society. (20 marks)

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Sociology (7192) specification (AQA)

References & sources

Sources

Department for Education

GCE AS and A level subject content for sociology

AQA

AQA AS and A-level Sociology (7192) specification

Beliefs in Society (optional topic)

5 sections~20 min reading time3 competenciesLevel Standard 2 · Advanced 3

Beliefs in Society (optional topic)

Key points

Is science an open belief system?

Key points

Model essay plan: the Marxist view of religion

Key points

Model essay plan: is religion conservative?

Key points

Explaining why people join movements

Key points

Model essay plan: is religion declining?

Sources

Beliefs in Society (optional topic)

Key points

Is science an open belief system?

Key points

Model essay plan: the Marxist view of religion

Key points

Model essay plan: is religion conservative?

Key points

Explaining why people join movements

Key points

Model essay plan: is religion declining?

Sources