9.1 Learning Outcomes
Aimee Samara Krouskop and Kimberly Puttman
This chapter offers you the opportunity to:
- Explain the relationship between religion, spiritual belief systems, and power.
- Compare and contrast how early sociologists explained religion and spiritual belief systems in society.
- Discuss how the contemporary feminist, critical race, and queer sociological perspectives view religion and spiritual belief systems in society.
- Describe how religion and spiritual belief systems can be used as a tool of oppression or to support social justice.
- Explain how religion and spiritual belief systems play a role in addressing our climate crisis.
a communally organized and persistent set of beliefs, practices, and relationships that meet social needs and organizes social life.
the systemic and extensive nature of social inequity and harm woven throughout social institutions as well as embedded within individual consciousness.
a state where "everyone has fair access to the resources and opportunities to develop their full capacities, and everyone is welcome to participate democratically with others to mutually shape social policies and institutions that govern civic life.”