Religion & Ritual

Religion

A Western concept like work/economy/politics/technology. In western society, Religion is mostly seen as a clearly

delineated aspect of society, separate from the other terms above. Not the case within all cultures. Ex: Ancient Egypt

ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF RELIGION

DEFINITION OF RELIGION: Any set of beliefs and practices involving the supernatural.

Many cultures do not make a sharp distinction between the “natural” and the “supernatural.”

ULURU,SACRED TO THE

ABORIGINAL

PEOPLES OF

AUSTRALIA

Uluru

Religious Perspectives in Anthropology

Religious perspectives vary among Western and “primitive” societies

In Western societies: Nature was ordained by heaven to be dominated

and exploited to human’s desires and needs.In “primitive” societies:

“Religion is present in human’s view of his/her place in the universe”

“Human’s relatedness to the universe, nonhuman nature, reality & circumstance” Religion is evident in daily life, agriculture, hunting,

health measures, arts, and crafts.

CULTURAL RELATIVISMThere are no “universal” standards by

which all social and cultural groups can be evaluated.

No one religion is superior to another.People’s religious beliefs and practices

must be studied within the framework of their own culture and history.

All religions are equally meaningful to their adherents.

This is in contrast to ETHNOCENTRISM: The concept that one’s own culture or religion is superior to others and should be judged from that perspective.

ANTHROPOLOGY SEEKS TO UNDERSTAND

• The range and diversity of human beliefs and practices.

• What makes beliefs and practices meaningful to people.

• What the roles religion plays in the organization of cultures and societies.

Defining Religion within a Society3 good basic questions to start with:

1. Functional: What function (or role) does religion have in society?

– Does it provide a moral code? Explanations for natural events?

2. Analytic: How is religion manifested in society?

– Through Narratives? Rituals? Ethics?

3. Essentialist: What is the relationship between society and the supernatural?

INDIGENOUS BELIEFS AND PRACTICES

• Many indigenous groups have distinct religious systems of beliefs and practices in the same way that they have their own languages and cultures.

Syncretism

Combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought.

RELIGIOUS SYNCRETISMThrough time a culture’s

religious beliefs and practices persist, but also change through incorporating new elements.

Religions are adopted and transformed.

FOR EXAMPLE: Early Christianity incorporated European paganism so that “Christ’s Mass” became integrated with pre Christian symbols and practices.

The Native American Church

Peyote as a sacramentCombines Christian symbolism with traditional Native American symbolism

They provide meaning in peoples’ lives.

They help people manage anxiety and increase their sense of personal order.

They reinforce the social order.

They instigate social and cultural change.

RELIGIONS FULFILL SOCIAL NEEDS

RELIGIONS PROVIDE A “COSMOLOGY”

A COSMOLOGY is a set of principles and/or beliefs about: The nature of life and death. How the universe was created. The origin of society. The relationship of individuals and groups to one another. The relationship of humans to nature.

CHARACTERISTICS OF RELIGION

SACRED NARRATIVES

SYMBOLSSPIRITSSACRED POWERSRITUALSADDRESSING THE

SUPERNATURAL

SACRED NARRATIVES

“Myths” that recount historical events, heroes, gods, spirits, and the origin of all things.

Anthropology defines “myth” as realities lived and stories told.Sacred narratives are integral to a society’s rituals, moral code, and

organization.

RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS

S P I R I T SMost religions assert the world

is filled with beings and powers that have life and consciousness separate from humans’, but whose existence cannot be scientifically validated.

GOD: A spirit that is believed to have created the world, or who exerts control over the world.

SACRED POWERSMANA: A special kind

of sacred power or energy that infuses the universe.

Mana can be concentrated in humans, other creatures, spirits, and objects.

Integral to many different religions across cultures.

Mana

The idea of mana arises from the awe inspired by strange, unusual, and powerful things.

Things filled with Mana

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RITUALSRituals are ceremonial

acts with repeated, stylized gestures that manipulate religious symbols for specific purposes.

People enact and reinforce their religious beliefs through these ritualized practices.

Diversity of Rituals

Symbols are Central to Rituals

Dominant Symbols They are condensed, many different phenomena are

given common expression Dominant symbol amounts to a fusion of divergent

meanings Dominant ritual symbols entail a polarization of

meaning

COMMUNING WITH THE SUPERNATURAL

• The majority of rituals are designed to commune with and/or control supernatural spirits and powers through a combination of:– PRAYER– SACRIFICE– MAGIC

RELIGIOUS PRACTITIONERS

SHAMAN: An average member of a community who is socially recognized as having the ability to mediate between humans and spirits.

PRIEST: A person who is formally elected, appointed, or hired to a full-time religious office.

Characteristics of Priests

Training (by other priests) Hold authority of office Conservators of Tradition Hold scheduled ceremonies for congregations Role-Models for congregants Often full-time practitioners Perform scheduled rituals Organized into hierarchies

WITCHCRAFT AND SORCERY

Witchcraft and sorcery are very common elements of religious beliefs and practices in many cultures.

Based in earlier anthropologists’ research among “non Western” cultures: WITCHCRAFT is The ability to harm others by

harboring malevolent thoughts about them.

SORCERY is the conscious and intentional use of magic.

Witchcraft based in “Western” cultures is the intentional use of magic to aid or harm others, society, and the environment, and thus comparable to sorcery.

AZANDE OF AFRICA

Sorcery and Witchcraft

Develop because of inadequacies and/or to support the legal system

MAGICBelief that supernatural

powers can be influenced through the use of ritual formulas. Sympathetic magic uses

representational objects, such as dolls.

Contagious magic is a direct relationship between ritual and the body, such as use of the subject’s hair or fingernails.

Oral & Written Religions

Written Religions Based on a sacred text

‘Religions of the Book’ Believers expected to

have some knowledge of the texts

Since text bound, these religions can be spread throughout the world Islam

Nigeria, Java, Egypt, Iran

Religions of Conversion One has to affirm one’s

faith

Oral Religions Locally confined and

locally relevant Gods tend to be

associated with revered places in the tribal areas

Tend to be embedded in social practices of society

Religion and the Human Capacity for Language

Religion is made possible by our human ability to use language.

No other animal has language or religion.

Language:A System of Symbolic

CommunicationSymbol: An object or event that stands for some

other object or event, the relationship between them being determined solely by consensus.

- Helen Keller’s insight that “everything has a name”

Language and Culture

Culture itself is made possible by language. Religion is the purest example of culture as a

system of meaningful symbols. Religion provides a system of symbols which

explain how humans are related to the world around them.

In this, religion contrasts with science.

Religion and Science

Science and Religion are different approaches to understanding our place in nature.

Science is concerned with finding mundane, practical solutions to problems.

Scientific “truths” are always tentative and changeable. They are simply our currently most useful explanations of phenomena based on the information we have so far.

The Paradox of “Social Science”

In order to be useful for solving problems, scientists create mechanical models—models that help us understand how things work in terms of lawful, mechanistic relationships among the parts of the models.

When applied to human social and cultural life, such “objective” models fail to capture the meaningfulness that life has for human groups.

Science “thingifies” the universe—even when building models of the human condition

- e.g., “The heart is a pump. The lungs are like bellows. The brain is like a computer.” Such analogies may help us solve practical problems such as how to repair a leaky heart valve, but they may also be a source of alienation and anomie for human subjects.

Anthropomorphic versus Mechanomorphic Models

Humans do more than solve practical problems. We are not simply robots. Rather, we live in a world that is rife with existential meaningfulness. Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to

animals, non-living things, phenomena, objects, or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits, 0r deities.

Mechanomorphic is a doctrine that the universe if fully explicable in mechanistic terms

In addition to thinking in practical terms, humans also “humanize” the world around them by projecting human qualities into the non-human world. This is common in:

- Fantasy Play - Art - Courtship Love - Mental Disorders - Religion

Fantasy Play

Children are born without language. Their normal mental state is an “altered state of consciousness” in which they perceive the external world as an extension of their own egos.

In fantasy play, children spontaneously “project” human qualities into the world around them.

- A sheet becomes a ghost. - A broom becomes an embodiment of their concept of “horse.” Such fantasy play transforms an unknown and

potentially hostile environment into an extension of their own egos, making it seem safer and more controllable.

Engaging in fantasy play involves ritual-like behavior.

Art

Artistic reverie is similar to fantasy play. It too is an altered state of consciousness in which the external world is treated as an extension of the human ego rather than as something separate and independent.

Artistic performance, like fantasy play, involves role playing in which the boundaries between self and not-self are dissolved.

- e.g., the dancer “becomes one with the music.”

Like the rituals of religion, artistic performance can be highly choreographed.

Courtship Love

In courtship love, we do not perceive our partner objectively either.

- e.g., our beloved’s face becomes an embodiment of our concept of beauty.

The rules of courtship also involve highly predictable patterns of behavior—i.e., “rituals.”

Mental Disorders

Mental Disorders also involve both trance states (states in which the normal boundary between self and not-self) is dissolved and ritual behavior (aka “symptoms”).

Like the trance states and rituals of fantasy play, artistic reverie and performance, courtship love, and religion, they provide short-term relief from stress.

Religion

Religion too makes use of trance states and rituals that reduce our subjective experience of stress.

As the most highly socialized system for entering trances and engaging in rituals, participants learn to channel both into appropriate times and settings.

- In this, religion contrasts markedly with mental disorders.

Religious Anthropomorphism: Perceiving a Connection with the non-Human

A chocolate Mary

Religion: A Definition

Religion is a socially shared system of anthropomorphic beliefs and attendant feelings, both of which are expressed in words and in rituals by means of which nonhuman parts of the universe are thought to be influenced.

No other animal can be described as “religious.”

Life Cycle

Naming Ceremonies

Life Cycle

Adulthood Rituals

Life Cycle

Marriage Rituals

Life Cycle

Old Age: Hindu and Jain Ascetic Renunciates

Life Cycle

Funerals

Theories of Religion

Evolutionary

When/how religion beganThis theory was introduced in the 1800s and went hand

in hand with Modernism and the Enlightenment. Logic, science and Monotheism were the pinnacles of

human achievement Western Society represented this pinnacle

Positivism The only real knowledge is scientific knowledge

This approach generally carries a lot of negative baggage and is seen as outdated. All other societies were seen as “primitive” compared to

Western Society.The quest for Religion’s origins is still ongoing and

many elements of Evolutionary Theory are now combined under the Psychosocial Approach…

SIR EDWARD B. TYLOR1832-1917

A social evolutionist.He asserted that the development of

religions from one stage to the next is universal throughout the world’s cultures: ANIMISM: Belief in souls, and that all

things in the world are endowed with a soul.

TOTEMISM: Religious practices centered around animals, plants, or other aspects of the natural world held to be ancestral or closely identified with a group and its individuals.

POLYTHEISM: Belief in more than one, or many gods.

MONOTHEISM: Belief in one god.

Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (1871)

Religion: the belief in spiritual beingsFunctions of religion: provides answers to

perplexing questions about such phenomena as sleep, dreams, fainting, and death.

TYLOR’S MINIMALIST DEFINITION OF RELIGION

“BELIEF IN SPIRITUAL BEINGS” – ANIMISM

Primitive people were rationalists and scientific

philosophers.

The notion of spirits was not the outcome of irrational

thought.

Preliterate religious beliefs and practices were not

“ridiculous” or a “rubbish heap of miscellaneous folly.”

They were essentially consistent and logical, based on

rational thinking and empirical knowledge.

SIR JAMES FRAZER1854-1941

A Scottish ethnologist.The Golden Bough (1890-1915):

compares the myths, magical practices, and religions of the world’s cultures throughout history.

Frazer developed the social evolutionary model of:MAGIC > RELIGION > SCIENCE

He asserted Australian Aborigines were the most primitive of all because they practiced only, what he defined their spirituality as, magic.

Marxist

Developed in the 1800s around same time as the Evolutionary Approach

Karl Marx Religion as a construction of those in control of

society Obey this religion & “us” and you will be happy

A crutch for people too depressed by the miseries of capitalism.

“Opiate of society” Religion functioned as a drug and diverted interest from

the real political issues to silly fantasies about a happy afterlife and the pious and obedient.

MARX’S CRITIQUEMID 1800s: The history of the

world is a history of class struggle between the “haves” and “have nots.”

Every aspect of society is part of a superstructure determined by its economic base.

Religion is part of the superstructure, and a false ideology that provides excuses for the oppressors to maintain the inequitable status quo.

Belief in god or gods is an oppressive by-product of class struggle and should be dismissed.

Functional

What role does religion serve in society?Émile Durkheim

Collective Conscious: Religion serves to hinder selfish tendencies of the individual and promote social cooperation. Symbols are a manifestation of the collective conscious and, when brought up during religious rituals, help to reinforce social cooperation.

Radcliffe-Brown Need group solidarity (Religion) in order for

society to surviveBronislaw Malinowski

Magic and religion as emotional and mental support

Emile Durkheim (1858)

“A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, i.e., things set apart and forbidden--beliefs and practices which unite in one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them.”

—Émile Durkheim

Durkheim, cont.

The primary function of religion is to inspire respect for customs and institutions that must be respected if society is to survive.

Thus, religion reinforces the unity and integrity of society.

RELIGIONS GENERATE SOCIAL COHESION. BELIEFS: All religious beliefs presuppose a classification of all things, real

and ideal, into two opposed groups: the sacred and the profane. This distinction is the foundation of religions, not sacred spirits.

The SACRED encompasses the social community. The PROFANE encompasses the personal and private.

RITUALS: Rules of conduct that prescribe how people should behave in the presence of sacred things, and that reinforce social behaviors:

POSITIVE: The individual renews her/his commitment to the community. NEGATIVE: Reinforces taboos to maintain communal order. PIACULAR: Performed during a crisis to repair and solidify the community.

The TOTEMIC PRINCIPLE: He focused on Australian aborigines in which each clan has a sacred, totemic animal or plant. Totemism provides systems of order and classification. The totem or “god” of the clan IS the CLAN itself.

THUS: For Durkheim, GOD and SOCIETY are the same: Both are superior to individuals Individuals depend on both All must submit to the rules

EMILE DURKHEIM’S (1858-1917) FUNCTIONALIST THEORY OF RELIGION

EARLY 20th CENTURY ANTHROPOLOGY

Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942) and Franz Boas (1858-1942) developed the method of “participant observation,” and lived among other cultures for extended periods.

They were both emphatically opposed to social evolution.Anthropology becomes more grounded in cultural relativism.Anthropologists stop focusing on the origins of religions to:

How religions spread through DIFFUSION, the mixing of cultural elements from one society to another through contact over time.

What FUNCTIONS religions serve in society.

MALINOWSKI’S FUNCTIONALIST THEORY OF

RELIGION

He set out to prove that “savages” were rational and not the “living fossils” of a social evolutionary paradigm.

The Trobrianders hunted and gardened with empirically-honed skills.

They turned to magic when practical knowledge had reached its limits.

Religion functions in conjunction with practicality.

His model focuses on how social institutions serve the biological and psychological needs of individuals.

Through comparative methods, he focused on how society functions at the macro, structural level.

A society’s “fixed” religious beliefs and practices (those that remain over time) maintain social order.

This was a time when anthropology was attempting to validate itself as a science.

Structural processes can be observed and documented with greater scientific validity then the psychologically oriented processes of Malinowski’s model of functionalism.

RADCLIFFE-BROWN’S (1881-1955) STRUCTURAL FUNCTIONALISM

Social institutions function to support the structure of society and social needs.

Society functions to become something greater than the sum total of its institutional parts.

Stratification and inequity function to maintain social cohesion.

CRITIQUE: Functionalism is a macro approach that focuses on the status quo, and cannot adequately theorize social conflict or change.

THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL USE OF THEORIES OF FUNCTIONALISM

Interpretive

Developed in response to the Functional Approach.

Clifford Geertz The goal of the anthropologist should be to discover

meaning, not to look for origins and laws! Based on the work of Max Weber, who was the first to

propose looking at culture through Emic Analysis.

CLIFFORD GEERTZ(1926-2006)

Geertz focused on interpreting the symbols that give meaning to peoples’ lives.

He asserted that anthropologists must deeply analyze and thickly describe cultures and their symbols through the interpretive model in order to make difference understandable.

He argued that religions are too particularistic with regard to events, individuals, and groups to be understood through functionalist theories.

GEERTZ ON RELIGION AS A CULTURAL SYSTEM

Geertz’s definition of culture: "a historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes toward life.”

Geertz’s theory of religion as a cultural system: A symbolic system, religion is a social construct that--through social interaction--

creates reality, and provides people with a blueprint for how to live. Generates powerful and lasting moods and motivations in people. The moods are

in and of themselves, and the motivations are directed towards goals. Infuses these moods and motivations with the sense that they are uniquely real. Provides an overall ordering for existence that gives life meaning, and provides

explanations for why problems and tragedies occur. Infuses the overall explanations and ordering for existence with the sense that it is

factual. Together, these dynamics seem so powerful to believers that religion becomes the

only sensible explanation for reality. Belief is fortified through ritual, and then taken into the world to transform it to conform with religion.

POST-STRUCTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Post-structuralism emerged as a critique of structuralism, and the array of post-structural theories are numerous and eclectic.

The post-structural moment occurred when it was recognized that people participate in the creation of knowledge and power, and are not mere pawns of cultural and social structural practices and processes.

Post-structuralism asserts that the study of underlying structures is itself a product of culture, and therefore subject to biases and misinterpretations.

To understand culture, it is necessary to study the systems of knowledge which produce culture.

THREE BASIC PRINCIPLES:Meaning is always shifting.Individuals’ perceptions of meaning is always shifting.Power attempts to fix meaning, but this is impossible.

World Religions

Basic Concepts

Theism: Belief in the existence of God(s). Includes Mono and Poly.

Atheism: Belief that God(s) does not exist. Agnosticism: View that nothing can be

conclusively or definitively known about the existence or non-existence of God(s).

Characteristics of Religion

The French sociologist Emile Durkheim stated that religion involves “things that surpass the limits of our knowledge”.

Beliefs Ideas, based upon faith, that people consider true

The sacred and profane Sacred: that which has supernatural qualities Profane: that which is the ordinary

Rituals Routines that reinforce the faith

Moral communities People who share a religious belief

Personal experience Grants meaning to life

Sects and Cults

Sects: Loosely organized

religious group Non professional

leadership Actively rejects social

environment Breaks away from a

larger religious group Deny beliefs of others

Cults Non-conventional religious

group Largely outside a society’s

cultural traditions Social conditions demand

separation Members required to

withdraw from normal life Full-time communal

obligation for members Many long standing

religions – Judaism, Islam, Christianity – began as cults

Charismatic leader is needed

Word ‘cult’ is used by sociologists with no prejudice

Religion in Pre-Industrial Societies

Animism- the belief that elements of the natural world are conscious life forms that affect humans.

Animistic people view forests, oceans, mountains, and even wind as spiritual forces. Many Native American and African societies are animistic.

Hunters and gathers might have singled out someone to be the Shaman with special religious skills, but they have no full time religious leader.

Among pastoral and horticultural people, there arose a belief in a single divine power responsible for creating the world.

In agrarian societies, religion becomes more important, with a specialized priesthood in charge of religious organizations.

Religions that are not tied to a particular culture or location. Colonialism, trade, missionaries, migration, etc., have spread world religions throughout the globe.

There are many localized variations of the world religions, and vernacular or folk beliefs and practices that are closely connected to a specific culture or location. Buddhism Hinduism Islam Judaism Christianity

World Religions

Christianity: 2 billion Islam: 1.3 billion Hinduism: 900 million Secular/Nonreligious/

Agnostic/Atheist: 850 million Buddhism: 360 million Chinese traditional religion:

225 million Primal-indigenous: 150 million African Traditional &

Diasporic: 95 million Sikhism: 23 million Juche: 19 million Spiritism: 14 million

Judaism: 14 million Baha'i: 6 million Jainism: 4 million Shinto: 4 million Cao Dai: 3 million Tenrikyo: 2.4 million Neo-Paganism: 1 million Unitarian-Universalism: 800

thousand Rastafarianism: 700 thousand Scientology: 600 thousand Zoroastrianism: 150 thousand

Christianity

World’s largest religionThree main branches

Roman Catholic Protestant

Luther breaks away from Roman Catholic Church in 16th century

Orthodox Christian Division of Christianity in 10th century Serves eastern Europe

Islam

Second largest religion in worldSignificant beliefs and practices

Only one god that all must recognize Daily prayer, share wealth, pilgrimage

No centralized authority Local clerics rule often with close state ties Two major sects

Sunni Shiite

Judaism

Numerically smallest of world religionsImportant beliefs:

God’s chosen people Torah: first 5 books of the Bible; oldest truths from

GodMajor divisions

Orthodox: strictly traditional Reform: liberal and worldly Conservative: middle ground between Orthodox

and Reform

Hinduism

Largest of the Eastern religions Concentrated largely in India

Important beliefs Dharma: special force makes daily demands and

sacred obligations Karma: spirit remains through life, death, rebirth

Organization Caste membership

Buddhism

Large religion throughout Asia Includes southeast Asian countries and China

Based upon teachings of the Buddha, the enlightened one Monks and lay people spread his teachings

Important beliefs To relieve human suffering one must follow a path

that ultimately leads to enlightenment “Right” thoughts and actions must be daily

performed and evaluated through meditation

Confucianism

Originated with Confucius attempting to solve practical problems of daily living Wisdom summarized guides management of society

Jen: human sympathy that binds people in 5 basic relationships Sovereign and subject Parent and child Older brother and younger brother Husband and wife Friend and friend

Proper etiquette and ritual help these relationships

Religions of the World

American’s Religious Preferences

Importance of Religion Around the World

Religious Fundamentals

Fundamentalism- a conservative religious doctrine that opposes intellectualism and worldly accommodation in favor of restoring traditional otherworldly religion.

Religious Fundamentals

Fundamentalists interpret sacred texts literally. Fundamentalists insist on a literal interpretation of the Bible and

other sacred texts.

Fundamentalists reject religious pluralism. They maintain that their religious beliefs are true and other beliefs

are not.

Fundamentalists pursue the personal experience of God’s presence.

Fundamentalism opposes “secular humanism.” Secular humanism is a general term that refers to our society’s

tendency to look to scientific experts rather than God for guidance about how to live.

Many political fundamentalists endorse conservative political goals. Fundamentalists oppose the “liberal agenda”

Religion and Functionalism

Religion, as a major social institution, provides many important functions Cohesion

Reduce social isolation Increase social solidarity Religion unites people through shared symbolism,

values, and norms Social control

Authority over significant events Social violations become moral offenses Religious ideas promote conformity

Purpose Reduction of anxiety regarding the unknown Religious belief offers the comforting sense that our brief

lives serve some greater purpose

Secularization

The declining influence of religion in daily lifeTransformation of a society from close identification with

religious values and institutions towards non-religious values and secular institutions. Combines with increasing influence of science

The American Religious Economy

More than 1,500 separate denominations exist in the United States.

22 American denominations enroll more than 1 million members each.

In any given week, about 40% of Americans attend services. Some have questioned this number

About 63% are official members of a local congregation or parish.

American Denominations and Literal Faith in the Bible

Percent who agree that “the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word”

Unitarian-Universalist 7

United Church of Christ 12

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 22

Episcopal Church 22

United Presbyterian Church 25

United Methodist Church 31

Jehovah's Witnesses 51

Church of Christ 56

Southern Baptist Convention 57

American Denominations and Literal Faith in the Bible

Percent who agree that “the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word”

Church of the Nazarene 58

Assemblies of God 68

United Pentecostal Church 69

Church of God 81

All Protestants 43

Roman Catholics 20

Declining American Denominations

Members per 1,000 U.S. Population

Denomination 1960 2000%

Change

Christian Church (Disciples) 10.0 2.7 –71

United Church of Christ 12.4 5.0 –60

Episcopal Church 18.1 8.2 –55

United Methodist Church 58.9 29.8 –49

Presbyterian Church (USA) 23.0 12.7 –45

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America 29.3 18.2 –39

Unitarian-Universalist 1.0 0.8 –20

Roman Catholic 233.0 221.7 –5

Some Growing American Denominations

Members per 1,000 U.S. Population

Denomination 1960 2000%

Change

Southern Baptist Convention 53.8 56.3 +5

Church of the Nazarene 1.7 2.2 +35

Seventh-day Adventist 1.8 3.1 +72

Foursquare Gospel 0.5 0.9 +80

Mormons 8.2 18.2 +122

Jehovah’s Witnesses 1.4 3.5 +150

Assemblies of God 2.8 9.1 +225

Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.) 0.9 3.1 +244

Church of God in Christ 2.2 19.5 +786

Why are women more religious?

Gender trends essentially universal

Women socialized to care for family/religious needs of family

Pascal’s wager: non-belief is risky behavior

But belief does involve costs – deny oneself… look to rewards in heaven

Men engage in more risky behavior, less willing to delay gratification

Gender and Religiousness in Selected Nations

Nation Women Men

Percent who attend church at least monthly.

United States 61 54

Canada 44 32

Mexico 70 57

Great Britain 30 17

Germany 36 23

Italy 62 42

Russia 9 3

Japan 16 11

Gender and Religiousness in Selected Nations

Nation Women Men

Percent who pray.

United States 94 87

Canada 88 75

Mexico 95 89

Great Britain 78 54

Germany 74 59

Italy 90 74

Russia 50 21

Japan 90 85

China 28 17

Gender and Religiousness in Selected Nations

Nation Women Men

Percent who say they are “a religious person”

United States 86 80

Canada 77 65

Mexico 80 71

Turkey 78 71

Great Britain 65 47

Germany 64 48

Italy 89 78

Russia 69 39

Japan 32 20