The Dynamics of Religious Legitimation

This chapter examines legitimation theory and the ways in which religion has justified inequality throughout most of history. The rise of economic and political inequality generated social attitudes and beliefs that justified it, making it seem proper, natural, and consonant with the mandates of celestial powers. Elites’ ideology presented this inequality as necessary and fair. Because religion also meets psychological and social needs, until modern times, religion played the major ideological role in legitimating inequality, social institutions, and behavior. Inequality and class or other group-based hierarchy can be maintained by either physical force or ideological persuasion. Physical force can be expressed as threat of imprisonment, torture, or death. But physical force generates resentment and expensive policing. Less costly, ideological control is generally expressed through the manipulation of social discourse. Thus, it is most effective for elites to embrace self-serving ideological systems that are convincing to themselves and to those below them.