Sociology Terms

Durkheim's term for things set apart or forbidden that inspire fear, awe, reverence, or respect

Durkheim's term for common elements of everyday life

According to Durkeheim, beliefs and practices that separate the profane from the sacred and unite its adherents into a moral community

One of the three essential elements of religion--a moral community of believers, also refers to a large highly organized religious groups that has formal, sedate worship services with little emphasis on evangelism, intense religious experience, or personal conversion

a government-sponsored religion; also called ecclesia

Robert Bellah's term for religion that is such an established feature of a country's life that its history and social instructions become sactified by being associated with God

A substitute that serves the same functions (or meets the same needs) as religion; for example, psychotherapy

Ceremonies or repetiteve practices; in religion, observances or rites often intended to evoke a sence of awe of the sacred

Teachings or ideas that provide a unified picture of the world

A sudden awareness of the supernatural or a feeling of coming in contact with God

A term describing christians who have undergone a religious experience so life-transforming that they feel they have become new persons

The transformation of traditional societies into industrial societies.

Weber's term for the desire to accumulate capital--not to spend it, but as an end in itself--and to constantly reinvest it.

Weber's term to describe a self-denying highly moral life accompanied by hard work and frugality

The belief that there is only one God

the belief that there are many gods

The belief that all objects in the world have spirits, some of which are dangerous and must be outwitted

Prejudice, discrimination, and persecution directed against Jews

The belief that social change, especially in values, is threatening true religion and that the religion needs to go back to its fundamentals (roots, basic beliefs, and practices)

in Hinduism and Buddhism, the return of the soul (or self) after death in a different form

A new religion with few followers, whose teachings and practices put it at odds with the dominant culture and religion

Literally, someone to whom God has given a gift; in its extended sense, someone who exerts extraordinary appeal to a group of followers

Literally, an extraordinary gift from God, more commonly, an outstanding "magnetic" personality

A religious group larger than a cult that still feels substantial hostility from and toward society

An attempt to win converts

A religious group so integrated into the dominant culture that it is difficult to tell where the one begins and the other leaves off; also called a state religion

a "brand name" within a major religion; for example, Methodist or Baptist

Belonging to the world and its affairs

The replacement of a religion's spiritual or "other worldly" concerns about "this world"

The process by which a culture becomes less influenced by religion