Religions and their Social Influence

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how the three great proselytizing religions of the world -- Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam -- spread throughout major portions of the world and had enormous effects on the political and social development of nations and cultures. It examines how the degree of interpenetration between social organization and religious life varied in these three cases. It shows how these religions demonstrated that the establishment of a religion that is intrinsically connected with a form of social organization tends to produce the firmest, most lasting type of religious orientation in a society.

From the Paper:

"From the fourth century the Roman Emperors in the West had taken a strong interest in the affairs of the Christian Church in the hope that unified belief would aid them in unifying the people of their disintegrating empire. But the invasions of the Germanic tribes, and others, brought about the fall of the empire. Of the Germanic tribes only the Franks were early converts to Christianity and in 800 the Frankish king Charlemagne, attempting to assume the authority of the fallen empire, had himself crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the pope at Rome. This led to the gradual unification of Christian belief among most people of Western Europe and Christian ideals and notions of hierarchy became the foundation for social development. The Church was organized along hierarchical lines copied from the Romans, with each major region having an archbishop who reported to Rome and ruled over the bishops (usually one in each important city) who, in turn ruled over the various parish priests. But the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire also led to centuries of conflict between the popes and the emperors over spiritual and temporal authority. One of the chief quarrels was over the right to appoint bishops--which many kings and the emperor believed was their right."

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