Sociology of Religion - Essay Example

Over time, the Roman empire established what would become the ultimate form of government amongst the countries of the world. It was a template that the religious leaders of the early Catholic faith took to as a sample of the way that they would govern their religious flock. Thus creating a direct relation between the state and church. Regardless of what the church and governments say, each one still looks strongly to the other for moral support during their time of need. Just as the kings and pharaohs did during the times of conquest and political turmoil in their lands.

Thus we can justly say that religion has had a time immemorial standing relationship with politics. Kings and pharaohs who viewed themselves as Gods turned to religious leaders for the affirmation of this fact. Thus giving the church a free rein to help govern the land by becoming advisers to the king or pharaoh whom the religion helped to install and give credibility to by proclaiming the leader as the “chosen one of god” (Long, Roderick “Religious Influence on Political Structure: Lessons From the Past Prospects for the Future”). . re is written perfectly and therefore, anyone who lives his life by the written word shall never commit a sin (The Free Dictionary, “Fundamentalism”).

Keeping in mind that religion is what creates political power in some instances, and that the followers of these political leaders and religions tend to be die-hard fundamentalists, it then becomes easier to understand how religion can also become a social class determinant in some cases. After all, religious organizations have been given the opportunity to forgo paying taxes by those they helped install into power. In fact, a view of the early religious classes will show a definitive social structure between the followers of a religion.

With some churches having separate and deliberately different worship services for this with and without money or political power. In fact, it was the scholar Vittorio Lanternari (qtd. in Lippy 5) who insisted that:” . while popular religion are not popular opposites, each reflects different social strata within a culture. Official religion tends to be a religion of the elite, of those who exercise effective power and therefore dominate a society.” It was his belief that the dominance of the religion in the lower strata of society , who were limited in political and financial power, was the method by which the social class responded to the higher social classes of society.

Therefore, popular religion became the method by which the lower social classes developed a positive self image even though they were politically oppressed. Having come to an understanding as to how religion affects the social classification of people, one cannot help but wonder as to whether religion might also have an effect on how specific gender types express themselves in terms of religion. Does gender