Sociology › Section O · Religion › Topic O.2
World religions
Most people alive today identify with a religious tradition, and those traditions differ in how they are organised, what they hold to be divine and what they ask of their followers. Sociologists classify religions to compare them fairly and to understand how they grow, split and change.
In this topic
- Types of religious organisation
- Organisations change over time
- Classifying beliefs: what is held divine?
- The labels have limits
- Hinduism and Buddhism
- Confucianism and Taoism
- Judaism, Christianity and Islam
- The global picture
- Worked example: placing a group on the continuum
- Worked example: explaining changing shares
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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