Religion, Belief and Faith

What Religion, Belief and Faith covers

Religion, Belief and Faith is examined on component 03 of OCR Sociology, Debates in contemporary society. It is one of the three Section B options on that paper, of which a student sits one. 138 recall questions across 12 subtopics.

The 12 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Defining religion, faith and belief, churches and denominationsRecall questions on substantive, functional and social constructionist definitions of religion and their weaknesses, the distinction between faith and belief, and churches and denominations in the church-sect typology.Open →
• Sects, cults, new religious and new age movements and fundamentalismRecall questions on how a denomination differs from a church, sects and cults and the difference between them, Wallis's world-rejecting, world-accommodating and world-affirming new religious movements, new age movements as privatised spirituality, religious fundamentalism, and Giddens on why fundamentalism has grown in a globalising world.Open →
• Measuring religiosity and believing without belongingRecall questions on religiosity and the problems of measuring it through attitude surveys and attendance statistics, Davie's believing without belonging and vicarious religion, Voas and Crockett's challenge, belonging without believing, and why religiosity is hard to compare between faiths.Open →
• Functionalist and Marxist views of the role of religionRecall questions on functionalist views of religion, Durkheim's sacred and profane and the worship of society, Malinowski on religion for the individual, Parsons on social order, Marxist views of religion as ideology and the opium of the people, and Gramsci's hegemony.Open →
• Neo-Marxist, Weberian, feminist, phenomenological and postmodern views of religionRecall questions on Maduro on the relative autonomy of religion, the Weberian approach and the theodicy of disprivilege, feminist views of religion as patriarchal and their qualifications, Berger's sacred canopy and plausibility structures, and the postmodern view of the role of religion today.Open →
• Religion, social change and whether religion is positive or negativeRecall questions on functionalist, orthodox Marxist, neo-Marxist and Weberian views of religion and social change, the Calvinist beliefs Weber linked to the spirit of capitalism, arguments that religion is positive or negative for society, and evidence that religion is a conservative force or a force for change.Open →
• Class and gender patterns in religiosityRecall questions on social class and religious participation, Weber's theodicy of disprivilege and sect membership, Marxist explanations of religiosity among poorer groups, the middle-class appeal of new age movements, the gender pattern in religiosity, socialisation explanations, Davie on birth and death, and the risk-aversion argument.Open →
• Women's changing religiosity and ethnic and age patternsRecall questions on women in new age and holistic movements, the decline in women's religiosity, religiosity by ethnicity, cultural defence and cultural transition explanations, religiosity across migrant generations, the relationship between age and religiosity, and the ageing and generational explanations of age differences.Open →
• Age cohorts, global religious trends and resurgenceRecall questions on why cohort and ageing explanations predict different futures, exceptions to low religiosity among young people, the global trend in religion's significance, Pentecostal growth in the global South, the United States puzzle, existential security theory, religious resurgence, evidence of decline in Britain, and cautions about global affiliation figures.Open →
• Defining secularisation and evidence of religious declineRecall questions on defining secularisation, evidence for and against the decline of religious belief, practice and influence in Britain, Weber's disenchantment, structural differentiation, and Bruce's argument that religious diversity causes secularisation.Open →
• Pro- and anti-secularisation theoriesRecall questions on individualism in pro-secularisation arguments, Davie's challenge to the secularisation thesis, religious market theory and religiosity in the United States with its criticism, religious renewal, postmodern re-enchantment, and cultural amnesia.Open →
• Religion and social policy, the golden age critique and global patternsRecall questions on the golden age criticism of the secularisation thesis, religion in state education policy, equality law, the law on religious hatred and discrimination, religious freedom in human rights law and why it is qualified, criticism of policy towards religious minorities, and how global patterns of religion complicate secularisation.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Religion, Belief and Faith further

The same content, four other ways.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is meant by a substantive definition of religion?

   Model answer

   It defines religion by its content — belief in a god, gods or a supernatural realm — so religion is identified by what people believe in.

2. 2

   Why do critics say substantive definitions of religion are ethnocentric?

   Model answer

   They are modelled on Western monotheism, so traditions without a creator god, such as some forms of Buddhism, are wrongly excluded.

3. 3

   What is meant by a functional definition of religion?

   Model answer

   It defines religion by what it does — the functions it performs for the individual or for society, such as integrating people or supplying meaning.

4. 4

   State the main weakness of functional definitions of religion.

   Model answer

   They are so inclusive that secular activities such as nationalism or devoted support for a football club could be classed as religions.

5. 5

   How does a social constructionist approach define religion?

   Model answer

   It refuses to impose one fixed definition and instead studies how different groups themselves construct, negotiate and contest what counts as religion.

6. 6

   How do sociologists distinguish faith from belief?

   Model answer

   Belief is holding something to be true, while faith is the trust and commitment placed in that belief, which adherents hold without demanding empirical proof.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Religion, Belief and Faith revision questions

What does Religion, Belief and Faith cover in OCR A-Level Sociology?

12 subtopics: defining religion, faith and belief, churches and denominations, sects, cults, new religious and new age movements and fundamentalism, measuring religiosity and believing without belonging, functionalist and marxist views of the role of religion, neo-marxist, weberian, feminist, phenomenological and postmodern views of religion, religion, social change and whether religion is positive or negative, class and gender patterns in religiosity, women's changing religiosity and ethnic and age patterns, age cohorts, global religious trends and resurgence, defining secularisation and evidence of religious decline, pro- and anti-secularisation theories and religion and social policy, the golden age critique and global patterns. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Religion, Belief and Faith organised?

By the OCR H580 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.