On Sun, 24 May 1998, renihan wrote:
> I am doing a study on Religion's Control Over Society throughout time, and
> one of the areas I am looking at is medieval religion.
> By control, i mean the way the masses were kept in their place through
> religion, by awe, fear, reverence, whatever.
In addition to all the other reactions to this message, one more thought.
I am particularly struck by the implicite suggestion in you message that
church leaders actually knew better than the religious "nonsense" they
were feeding the people. This way, you almost suggest a massive conspiracy
by the clergy to keep the masses in control.
This may be a naive way of looking at the relation religion - society.
Clergy was as much part of culture and society as laymen. Religion can be
defined as a system of symbols by which people perpetuate and
communicate their ideas about society and culture (with a variation on
Geertz). The clergy is part of that system, and part of that society,
rather than the outsiders who use the system to exert control just for the
sake of power itself.
I suggest you read some general works on the study of religion in relation
to society. You might sdtart at Geertz's Interpretation of cultures, but
that's tough reading (unlike others, I assumed you are a high-school
student, not a teacher). You might start with a book I use in my classes,
"Seven Theories of Religion" (I forget the author ... I'll mail that later
if you're interested.)
-------------------------------------------------------
Frans van Liere
Department of History
College of Charleston
Charleston SC 29424
NEW ADDRESS as of 7/15
home: 336 Rosewood Ave. SE
East Grand Rapids MI 49506
work: Department of History, Calvin College
3201 Burton Street SE
Grand Rapids MI 49546
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|