Clarity and Distinction of Forms of Social Reality

According to Troeltsch the church, the sect and the cult are used to shows the clarity and difference form of social reality. Troeltsh states that there exist three different types of Christianity. The first type the church he defines it as an institution that is endowed with grace and he claims that salvation is the work of redemption. The second is the sect and it is voluntary for members to join and is usually made of believers who are committed to holiness and are united by their experience of the grace.

Troeltsch states that the sect type is made up of a limited number of people and law is paramount than grace. The cult type Troelttsch states are more of a personal and inward experience that brings them together. Troeltsch favored the church type since he believed that Christian ethics worked in favor for social order.

Max Weber categorizes authority into three different types that is a legitimate authority, rational and legal authority and charismatic authority.

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Max Weber states that the authority of the Christian religion specifically the Catholic comes from the traditional, charismatic and rational-legal authority. Traditional authority power comes from the people believing and accepting that a certain person or leader has the right to exercise authority over them while charismatic authority refers to belief of heroism portrayed by the leader. Weber shows the reasons why even though Christians were persecuted when it started by the roman it ended up being the Roman state religion. He shows that most of the Catholic leader starting with the first Pope Paul used to be charismatic leader who inspired people with their extraordinary acts that made them to heroes.

Furthermore, the Bhagavad Gita is termed as having the eternal message of spiritual wisdom. The fact that the Catholic leaders and the Bhagavad Gita offered much help to the human race they exerted a referent power to the people. Referent power refers to the power that both the Catholic Church and the Bhagavad had to an extent that they were able to influence people and create loyalty to the people attracted to them. The second and the third generation of the leader of both Catholic and the Bhagavad Gita are important since they are responsible for ensuring that the religion continues. Most of these leaders have used the Max Weber bureaucratic principles to manage this religion.

First by ensuring that tasks in the organization are divided such that they are simple routine and competent professions are posted to work on them have helped the Catholic and the Bhagavad Gita to remain in operation. Also, establishing a hierarchical authority that is layers of management are created and are responsible for the performance of the staff under their administration has help this religion to reach many people worldwide. According to Max Weber charismatic authority refers to a type of leadership where the authority of the leadership emanates from the charisma of the leader while bureaucratic authority refers to the form of leadership in which the authority comes from rationality and legal legitimacy of the ruling regime. Charismatic leaders have exceptional skills or even a divine power that causes people to rally behind this authority.

Max shows that charismatic authority is unstable since it relies upon the charismatic leader abilities to bring the changes he has promised the people. Mostly, charismatic authority is usually backed by bureaucratic authority. This means that a charismatic leader causes people to support him because of his ideologies. With the support of the people, a charismatic leader will be able to legally offer or even elected to run a regime that is rationally accepted by the people as the authority. Max Weber shows that both the charismatic authority and the bureaucratic authority have similar characteristics by showing that even charismatic leaders have to get the legal backing of the law in order to exercise their authority.

A myth refers to a story or even an idea that is widely known by people but it is false. Most myths are interpreted using a distinct view of myth. The comparative view of myth refers to the act of systematically comparing different culture and trying to find similarities between each culture's myths. Myth ritual view tries to interpret myth by linking them with rituals which are the source of the myth emanating. Euhemerism view of myth tries to interpret myth as charismatic leaders who did something extraordinary thus with time as the story about these people is passed down to generations they become distorted and that the reason myth exists. Allegory tries to explain myth as natural phenomenon or even as a spiritual and philosophical concept that later due to their description turn out to be a myth.

Personally, I agree with the allegory view of myth because most of the myth that existed started from the description given to the specific spiritual concept that later turn out to be a myth. For example, people used to describe the sea as raging due to the violent waves that were being witnessed this lead to people claiming that there is a sea god who is outrageous. Personally, I agree with Schleiermacher, Otto and Clifford Geertz who tried to explain religion in term of the social and psychological function religion have on society. They tried to look at religion from the perspective of the role religion plays in the society. First religion brings about social cohesion this comes out because the society or followers of a specific religion share common rituals and belief thus it helps to maintain social solidarity.

Second, religious morals and norms help people to conform to what society expects of them. Lastly, religion helps society to find meaning and purpose for living and even thing that we cannot explain scientifically. Religion is fundamentalism. Fundamentalism refers to the belief and adherence of ideologies that the society is not supposed to question. Religion has been preserve in a desperate attempt to ensure that the old order stays in place and since most of the teaching from religious books cannot be questioned shows that religion cannot cope up with the modern world. Also, religion has been preserved because of the role it played in society. It brings about social cohesion, conformity and provides the answer to things that the scientific world cannot explain.

Rituals refer to the observance or practice of specific customary rites. Usually, rituals are done in order to reinforce the belief and values of people. For example, baptism is a ritual that is done by the Christians and is a symbol of spiritual cleansing and shows that the person has been reborn. Rituals are important since they remind people of the importance of their religion and bring about a sense of stability and enable the society to continue with their lives. Also, ritual helps people to work and act in a certain manner and stay focused so as to achieve the goal of the ritual which for instance baptism shows spiritual cleansing.

Work Cited

1. Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of criticism. Princeton University Press, 2015.
2. Livingston, James C. Anatomy of the Sacred: An introduction to Religion. New York: Macmillan, 1989.