The sociology of religion owes much of its origin to those processes in European society that began with the era of the Enlightenment and anti-feudal bourgeois revolutions. One of the most important sources of the sociology of religion was the socio-philosophical criticism of feudal social relations and the church as a social institution (OpenStax et al. 334-338). This criticism contributed to arousing interest in questions about the social conditioning of religion and its role in society. Religion stands out from the totality of social institutions as a phenomenon of a special kind, in relation to which all other social realities are regarded as secular.
The phrase “Religion is the opiate of the masses” is attributed to Vladimir Lenin, although for the first time Karl Marx used the expression that religion is the opium of the people in his work A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, published in 1844. Marx borrowed a comparison of religion with opium from Christian socialist Charles Kingsley (OpenStax et al. 339-340). One can agree with this phrase in the sense that religion reduces the pain of social beings in an inhuman society. However, today it can hardly be said that in developed societies, religion has a ‘stupefying’ effect on people. In modern European societies, civic religiosity plays the role of a religious factor, influences collective memory in a particular nation, and promotes the regeneration and maintenance of common social and political goals. In a secularized society, civil religion continues to shape social life and gives a sense of belonging to social life, working as a tool for integration and inclusion in the national context, and also acts as a factor in the conflict in the political sphere, which is emphasized by conflict theorists.
At the same time, religious teachings everywhere imply an unequal, subordinate position of women in societyiswhich in a wider context is also due to a commitment to the patriarchal nature of social relations. In addition, religion acts as a means of social control. Emerging social relationships have built a generally accessible regulatory system that has spread throughout the social community (OpenStax et al. 337). The historical significance of religion lies in the fact that throughout the course of the development of mankind during the transition from one socioeconomic formation to another, it contributed to the establishment and strengthening of new social relations and the formation of strong centralized states.
Reference
OpenStax et al. Introduction to Sociology 2e. XanEdu Publishing, 2015.