Programme full

Wednesday 15 April 2015 16:00 - 17:30
PAPER SESSION 3
Religion and Weltanschauung: The Politics of Religion and the Religiosity of the Political
Schnabel, A., Beyer, H.
(Bergische Universitaet Wuppertal)
During last years, the politization of religion became more widespread: the recent emergence of the Islamic State (IS)
is the most palpable manifestation of this trend, the take-over of social care by faith based communities, Churches
and charities a more common one. Instead of a 'banalization of religiosity' we observe that religion regains importance
as an ideology ('weltanschauung') showing political consequences.
The presentation investigates this peculiar elective affinity of religion and politics theoretically and empirically.
We want to contribute to a better understanding of how and why political agendas seem so compatible with religious
ones and vice versa. First, we provide an analytical distinction between the concepts of 'weltanschauung' and
'religion', defining the former as constituted by beliefs about the social and the latter by beliefs about the
transcendental. Subsequently we investigate mutual structural elements, as Manichean categorizations of good/evil,
utopian ideas of salvation, and the ontological construction of meaning.
The empirical part of our presentation presents evidence for these considerations. Using European Value Survey Data
(EVS), we show correlations between different manifestations of weltanschauung and religious beliefs. We also tackle
their embeddedness in social practices and memberships. Although the specific behavioral manifestations of religion
and weltanschauung show differences they share a reinforcing function of the underlying belief system.
The presentation contributes to understanding of how religion becomes politicized and politics get religiously loaded
and the mechanisms behind.
An Organisational Analysis of Religious Leadership Change
Patrikios, S.
(University of Strathclyde)
Who gets the top spot is a complex political decision for any large organisation, whether religious or secular.
Management succession in the corporate sector indicates that the profile of new CEO appointments reflects a
combination of factors that include the following: environmental contingencies, such as falling profits and external
competition; internal competition among personnel subunits with different functions for control over organisational
resources; and normative conceptions of authority.
Leadership transitions in religious organisations generate rather different questions, which revolve around the
disposition of the new leader: for instance, does s/he represent the liberal or the conservative wing of the church? This
question reflects a common view of churches as intrinsically different from for-profit bureaucracies, even though
churches experience much the same problems of administration and exposure to competition as those faced by firms.
Extending the work of Mark Chaves, this study aims to ask similar questions about religious leadership succession as
those asked in the study of business corporations. For example, are top posts being filled, increasingly, by individuals
with greater administrative experience ('religious managers'), and under what circumstances are these individuals
more likely to be appointed?
The analysis is based on the collection of publicly available information on the biographical backgrounds of religious
leaders in selected European countries. The focus is on organised religions at the national level and examines change
over time by looking at leadership successions since the 19th century. The results have implications for organisation
studies and secularisation theory.
Connecting Religion and the Social: Georg Simmel's Theory of Religion
Motak, D.
(Jagiellonian University)
It would be difficult to find another classical sociologist whose understanding of society would be so inextricably
interwoven with their theory of religion as it is the case in Simmel. Nevertheless, his writings on religion continue to be
neglected by general sociology (especially by comparison with works of Durkheim and Weber). I will try to
demonstrate that this still not properly appreciated part of Simmel's legacy is most intimately connected with his widely
acknowledged contribution to the theory of society.
Simmel attempted to reveal the common root of both social as well as religious phenomena: a drive for unity which is
the most powerful integrating factor. This cohesive force expresses itself in very strong, elementary emotions – 'social
feelings', which play the crucial role in creation of social institutions and provide conditions for emerging of a special
137 BSA Annual Conference 2015
Glasgow Caledonian University