An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

church concretised the ideas of religious conflict and competition in contemporary society,and provided the vocabulary with which many white liberals in the UK saw BlackPentecostal churches as “sects” who had somehow to be enticed into mainstream churchlife.Weber (1968) suggests that, even if religious experience is inexplicable for the “religiouslyunmusical‟, nonetheless an objective understanding of religion as an independent force insociety is possible. He goes further to suggest that the rise of Protestantism can helpexplain, rather than as Marx argues, just reflect the development of capitalism. Durkheim,too, discusses religion as an independent social force underpinning law, morality and socialjustice. Jones (2002) tries to make these writers relevant to theology and show that suchsociological work can inform preaching, examining issues such as types of prophecy, ideasof charisma or spiritual power. They are equally fundamental to understanding of howreligious institutions shape fundamental ideas about well-being,or health. Durkheimproposes that religion is the moral thread that holds society together although morality forone group may differ from another group‟s understanding (cf Collinson 2006, Hill, 1973).Durkheim understandings of the functions of religious ceremonies and rituals inestablishing the collective consciousness, or sense of community provides a different wayof thinking about religion to that of either Weber or Marx. Where the latter both seereligion as something that might be either present or absent in society, Durkheim sees„religion‟ as the name of that set of beliefs, norms and rituals which is required for anysociety to hold together. Parsons‟ understanding of what holds society together is asynthesis of the thought of Weber and Durkheim. His identification of medicine as a keyelement in the modernisation and rationalisation of society is grounded in the ideas of theclassical sociologists about religion, which are also the starting point for contemporary36