Tidak semua orang hidup dalam kehidupan yang religious, namun kita dapat melihat kehidupan religius dalam kehidupan beberapa orang dalam komunitasnya. Sebagian agama percaya bahwa ada satu makhluk yang sungguh maha dahsyat sedangkan beberapa lainnya mempercayai bahwa ada lebih dari satu sosok maha dahsyat. Keberagaman agama yang dianut biasanya terwujud dalam berbagai bentuk ritual-ritual, dan terdapat berbagai jenis ritual yang bervariasi pada tiap kepercayaan.
Setidaknya ada enam tujuan dari berdirinya sebuah agama yaitu (1) untuk mengataasi rasa takut dan gelisah, maksudnya manusia tahu bahwa kehidupan di dunia ini penuh ketidakpastian sedangkan manusia memiliki berbagai keterbatasan dan hal tersebut menimbulkan rasa takut dan gelisah. Manusia memerlukan campur tangan dari sesuatu yang melampaui kemampuan mereka aga merasa aman. (2) untuk pembenaran diri dan juga pencarian makna tertinggi, maksudnya manusia mencari ketenangan dari berbagai hal yang terjadi dalam kehidupan mereka. (3) pencarian sesuatu yang lebih dalam diri, maksudnya manusia mencari sensasi yang diluar kebiasaan yang membuat mereka merasa luar biasa, atau sebuah motivator dalam kehidupan mereka, (4) perayaan kekuatan dan prestasi manusia, bahwa ada ungkapan yang menunjukkan hubungan manusia dengan penciptanya, (5) Memahami dunia, sebuah usaha untuk berusaha menjelaskan dan menafsirkan keadaan sehingga membuat dunia lebih bermakna, (6) mendukung nilai dan norma sosial, bahwa dalam masyarakat pasti ada nilai dan norma yang muncul dan agama menjadi penguat norma maupun nilai tersebut.
Banyak sosiolog percaya bahwa inti dari keberagamaan ada pada pengkultusan sesuatu. Apapun bisa dikultuskan dan tidak hanya sebagai sebuah instrument namun menjadi pusat keagamaan mereka. Mereka mempercayai bahwa segala sesuatu tidak benar-benar bisa terjadi tanpa campur tangan dari sosok yang mereka kultuskan.
pada sesuatu yang rutin dan lainnya pecaya pada sesuatu ambisius dan terpisah. (4) Organisasi. Kegiatan keagamaan biasanya membentuk basis komunitas orang percaya. Organisasi diperlukan untuk memelihara kepercayaan dan tradisi, untuk merekrut ahli agama, membentuk dewan agama dan sebagainya.
Agama didefinisikan sebagai kesatuan sistem keyakinan dan latihan kegiatan yang mengarah padahal hal yang suci, menjadi satu dalam satu komunitas moral yang terdiri dari semua orang yang mengikuti keyakinan dan latihan itu
ORGANISASI SOSIAL
Bersatunya agama dan kelompok kehidupan.
Ketika identitas keberagamaan dan identitas sosial menjadi satu, maka akan itu disebut agama golongan. Dalam agama golongan seseorang digolongkan sebagai orang percaya atau menjadi anggota komunitas agama bila ia menunjukkan kebajikan dalam keluarganya, kelompoknya, dan sebagainya. He is born in to the religion, and if he renounces it, he thereby renounces his social group. It is said that in the communal religion of ancient china, "there was no choice in religious beliefs, but neither did it occur to the common man to make any other choice. Religious values were imbedded in the traditional moral order, and religion was an integral part of communal existence, inseparable from the individual's existence."
One mark of communal religion is the combination of religious and secular roles. In a family-based communal religion the father is also the priest and the home is the temple. In the broader city-based communal religion political and religious authority are combined. High priest, judge, and political chief are often one.
RELIGION DIFFERENTIATED
science, art, education, law, and economics seek freedom to develop on their own. They encourage the perception of religion as a specialized sphere and set limits to the scope of religious authority.
CULTURE
The intimate relation between religion and art may be accounted for, at least in part, by the importance of Symbolism in religion. In most religions, symbols are much in evidence. They dramatize belief; they inspire reverence or fear; they form the stuff of which ceremonies are made. The true significance of a symbol lies not in its literal meaning or form but in what it connotes and suggests. A king's crown is not a mere ornament but a symbol of sovereignty and authority that the crown is placed upon his head by a high priest may symbolize the importance and autonomy if the church or the integration of an established church and the state. Thus acts as well as artifacts have symbolic meaning. In summary, two sources of tension between religion and art are (1) the risk of idolatry, and (2) the risk of profanation, especially the weakening of religious values and their subordination to aesthetic ends.
SOCIALIZATION
Religion not only makes people religious but helps socialize them into the secular order. 'While the otherworldly ideals of religion can provide the individual with a perspective from which to criticize the secular order, religion serves more often to reconcile the individual to it. Religion helps make the Secular order acceptable to the individual in several basic ways. (1) By casting an aura of sanctity over such social institutions as the state and the family, religion enhances their authority. (2) By reinforcing ethical norms with supernatural
sanctions, religion aids in the acceptance and internalization of those norms. (3) By providing religious rewards and consolations to offset secular failure and personal tragedy, religion facilitates the continuous adaptation of the individual to the circumstances of his life.\
PRIMARY RELATIONS
Official religious opposition to interfaith marriage undoubtedly deters sonic individual, from engaging in close social relations with people of other faiths or from making marriages that might otherwise be congenial. However. The official doctrines of religious groups do not account for existing rates of interfaith marriage. At least three factors influence rate of interfaith marriage. (1) The varying distribution of religious groups in the community, (2) Social distance, (3) Extent of primary ties to family and ethnic community.
STRATIFIKASI
On the basis of doctrine as expressed in the Gospels, it might be expected that (1) Christianity embraces all social classes in a single religious community transcending all secular
distinctions between rich and poor, the weak and the powerful; (2) church organization ignores status distinctions; and (3) the poor participate in the church more than those who have "great possessions."
Though modified and often abused in practice, he social philosophy of the Church contained the following elements; (1) Poverty continued to be exalted as a virtue. This was evident in monastic asceticism, in which poverty was an essential aspect of the religious life. (2) There was virtually no conception of improving the material conditions of the poor. On the other hand, the poor were not condemned as failures. Poverty was regarded as a status into which one was born, and the poor were regarded as proper objects of Christian charity and
compassion. (3) Profit-making-as opposed to merely being reimbursed for one's costs and time-was condemned. The principles of the medieval Catholic Church were explicitly
anticapitalist. (4) Secular society was conceived to be a divine community with the Church fit its apex. All people were members of one church, and all aspects of society, including the relations between the social classes, were regarded as proper subjects of religious
governance. (5) Social inequalities were not only accepted but justified. Society was
compared to an organism composed of different and interdependent parts, each having it own function. The ruler and the ruled, the wealthy and the poor, were likened to the mind and the hand, one fitted only to toil, the other only to govern. Social justice was conceived as giving to each one his due. But what was due to each was defined by existing differences in wealth and power rather than by a desire to achieve a more equitable distribution of the world's goods.
Interplay of sect and church A number of sociologists have studied the relation between sect and church." two conclusions are important .
Some sects develop into denominations. If a sect is strongly interested in seeking new members, it may tend to "water down" its beliefs and take in people who are not truly committed. If in addition the sect's demands are simple asking only that the member affirm that he feel convened. It will not be clearly insulated from the world and in time may adapt to it. Other institutionalizing processes, such as concern for a stable ministry and religious education, for respectable quarters. benefit funds. seminaries, and "good works" help this evolution along. But not all sects become denominations. One important criterion is whether the sect is conversionist, reaching out into the world rather than merely withdrawing from it.'
2. There is also a reverse movement, from church to sect. This comes about mainly by a process of schism. The watered-down belief and practice, the respectability and
accommodation. of the church, may become unacceptable to some of its members. Thus the poor may leave middle-class churches to form religious groups of their own, characterized by greater purity of belief, emotional fervor. a lay ministry, and an all-encompassing communal life. However, as the founders of the sect become more prosperous and
respectable, they become more receptive to church-like organization and behavior. They in turn neglect the special religious needs if the poor. "This pattern recurs with remarkable regularity in the history of Christianity. Anabaptists, Quakers, Methodists, Salvation Army, and more recent sects of like type illustrate this rise and progress of the churches of the disinherited."
