Types of Religious Organisation | Beliefs in Society | A-Level Sociology

welcome to this tutorial sociology topic video looking at beliefs in society focusing on types of religious organization in examining the different types of religious organization it's important to be able to define the different terms churches sex denominations and cults and differentiate between them the first sociological typology of churches came from max weber and it was

quite a simplistic definition from somebody like weber he identified churches as being large organizations and sects as small ones however this is quite a limited explanation as it is based upon subjective interpretations of size and doesn't really categorize religious organizations based upon their functionality or characteristics of the organization and their beliefs nowadays sociologists use the typology

of ernest trulch which was more comprehensive in its analysis of churches and sects chulch defines churches based upon a number of characteristics not merely the size of the congregation as weber did churches look to claim a monopoly over the truth as do sects however they differ on other matters churches are more closely connected to

the state and often are endorsed by the state for example the church of england has close connections to government yet is removed from decision making churches have developed hierarchical and bureaucratic structures with different strata of authority from ministers through to higher level authorities and churches are largely mainstream and conservative organizations preserving the status quo and

reinforcing traditional norms and values in contrast trolch saw sex as being different in a number of ways he argued that sex claim a monopoly over the truth and are often hostile to other religious organizations theirs is the one true faith and others are misguided they often depend upon charismatic leadership and this comes through the form of