Orthodoxy, Religious Discordance and Alienation

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine if discordance theory is helpful in understanding the relationship between religiosity and alienation. Using a sample drawn from the general population in Memphis, Tennessee, hypotheses derived from the theory which implicate religious discordance (the perception that socio-cultural change is undermining religious ideals) as an intervening variable between orthodoxy and alienation were tested. Consistent with the theory, orthodoxy had a positive effect on alienation which was mediated through religious discordance. Unexpectedly, however, orthodoxy also had a negative direct effect on alienation which suggests that orthodoxy functions to integrate actors into society as well as alienate them from it. Implications of the findings for discordance theory and previous research are discussed, and an explanation is offered for orthodoxy's integrative influence. The notion that religion functions to integrate the individual into society dates back at least to the writings of Durkheim. In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), Durkheim proposed that religion provides an overarching system of sacred beliefs and practices which binds together societal members into a cohesive whole. Although Durkheim's major concern was to understand how religion performs an integrative function at the societal level, his ideas have clear implications for its integrative role at the level of the individual as well. In Durkheim's view, religious norms provide the very basis for the social and moral order and are essentially coterminous with social norms. Presumably, then, if one accepts religious norms, one is in effect accepting social norms and feels a deepened sense of societal integration or belonging - a feeling reinforced in the individual through participation in collective religious rituals. Durkheim developed his ideas after studying a simple, undifferentiated society in which religious norms permeated virtually all other sectors of life. Since complex societies are characterized by a greater separation of religious and social norms, the applicability of his ideas to such societies has often been questioned. Nevertheless, contemporary researchers have drawn heavily on Durkheim's ideas in formulating hypotheses about religion's integrative function for the individual. Most of these researchers have examined the effects of religiosity on alienation expressed in terms of personal anomie or normlessness. Although the theoretical reasoning which has guided their investigations varies from study to study, much of it has been strongly influenced by the writings of Durkheim and implies that religion reduces anomie because it encourages acceptance of social norms. Stack (1981: 299), for example, states