Religion and Social Stratification. Xxxxx In his inspiring studies on religion, Xxx Xxxxx regularly referred to something called “popular religion”.12 In the context of social stratification, he evaluates religiosity in 12 The terms Xxxxx uses, Volksreligiosität, Massenreligion, and Massenglauben, are generally rendered in English as “popular religion”. two categories. He conceptualizes this distinction as “status stratification”. Using the musical metaphor of the ‘virtuoso’, he distinguishes between the different qualifications of believers. According to Xxxxx, human beings vary in their religious capacities and in the special personal attributes needed to achieve the highest religious goals. He introduces the term ‘unmusical’ in “The Social Psychology of the World Religions”, stating that ‘heroic’ or ‘virtuoso’ religiosity stands in opposition to ‘mass’ religiosity (1946, p. 287). In his writings on the sociology of religion, Xxxxx’x standard approach is to show how the substance of belief is closely associated with the class culture of believers. Xxxxxxxxx, proletariat, aristocracy and bourgeoisie have different material interests and life experiences, and will therefore respond to different kinds of religious messages (Xxxxxx, 1982, p. 52). Redfield’s theory (1956) can be considered to be parallel to Xxxxx’x (1946). Xxxxx’x ‘virtuoso’ religiosity corresponds with the religion of the members of the ‘great tradition’ as portrayed by Xxxxxxxx, while Xxxxx’x ‘mass’ religiosity points to Xxxxxxxx’x portrayal of the ‘little’ tradition in religion. In that sense, it can be argued that, with the popularization of cultural-religious elements of the great tradition, popular religiosity is the non-derivative ‘mass’ religiosity of the members of the little tradition. Up to here it can be seen that there are two definitions of popular religion that contradict each other to a certain extent. ‘Popular religion’ by reference to the non- privileged social or economic attributes of a group and ‘popular religion’ through its religious practice and beliefs. What, then, were Xxx Xxxxx’x criteria for defining popular religion? In an important article, Xxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxxxx suggested to accommodate the differences between these two definitions by identifying two main approaches to popular religion, based on a Weberian conception. These are (1) the economic and social approach and (2) the praxis approach. In the economic and social approach13, popular religion refers to the religious tendencies of strata not “c...
