Journal of Iranian Social Studies

The Types of Religiosity in Confrontation with Coronavirus: An Introduction to the Sociology of Evil

Document Type : scientific

Authors

Abbas Mehregan 1
Mohammad Reza Bayat 2

1 Assistant Professor, Faculty of World Studies, University of Tehran

2 Assistant Professor, School of Teology and Islamic Studie, University of Tehran

https://doi.org/10.22034/jss.2021.138492.1463
Abstract
The present paper is a report of an experimental study that examines the attitude towards the Corona pandemic and observes religious attitudes from the perspective of the sociology of evil and the sociology of religion. An online survey was conducted to interview the sample consisted of 273 Iranians. The aims of this descriptive study are: 1) Measuring attitude towards the dichotomy of divine/natural essence of Coronavirus, 2) Measuring attitude towards the dichotomy of good/evil essence of Coronavirus, and 3) Examining the correlation of attitudes in both cases with the components of faith in Allah. The first finding is that a new multiplex dichotomy of divine/natural and good/evil is formed based on the results. The second and most important finding is that the study of the correlations between the components of faith in God, on the one hand, with views toward the dichotomies of divine/natural and good/evil, on the other hand, illustrates the existence of two various types of religiosity in confrontation with Coronavirus: thoughtful religiosity and imaginative religiosity. Thoughtful religiosity is shaped around the natural-evil pole of the dichotomy, and imaginative religiosity around its divine-good pole.

Keywords

Good/Evil
Divine/Natural
Coronavirus
Sociology of Evil
Thoughtful Religiosity
Imaginative Religiosity
Alexander, Jeffrey Charles (2001). “Toward a Sociology of Evil: Getting beyond Modernist Common Sense about the Alternative to “the Good”, in: María Pía Lara (ed.), Rethinking Evil: Contemporary Perspectives. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 153-172.
Arendt, Hannah (1994). Essays in Understanding. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co.
Baltar, Fabiola; Brunet, Ignasi (2012). “Social research 2.0: virtual snowball sampling method using Facebook”, Internet Research, 22, 1, 57-74. doi: 10.1108/10662241211199960.
Beirne, Piers (1983). “Cultural relativism and comparative criminology”, Contemporary Crisis, 7(4):371–391.
Bibave, Rahul N. (2007). “Drug Abuse: A Social Evil”, paper presented at –A One-day Seminar on “Curbing Drug Abuse: A Necessary Social Engineering” in P. E. Society’s Modern Law College, Pune, on 11th August, Online, Available from:
     <file:///D:/My%20Desktop/%D8%AE%D8%AF%D8%A7%20%D9%88%20%DA%A9%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86%D8%A7/%D9%85%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%87%20%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%B3%DB%8C/%D9%85%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B9%20%D8%AC%D8%AF%DB%8C%D8%AF/Social%20Evil/DRUG_ABUSE_A_SOCIAL_EVIL_pdf.pdf>, Accessed: October 13, 2020.
Cabrera, Isabel (2001). “Is God Evil?”, in: María Pía Lara (ed.), Rethinking Evil: Contemporary Perspectives. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 17-27.
Calder, Todd, (2020). “The Concept of Evil”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL
 <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/concept-evil/>.
Choudhury, Hasina Julfa (2016). “Discrimination and Evils against Women in India”, International Research Journal of Social Sciences, Vol. 5(2), 25-27.
Clark, Tom (n. d.). “The Sociology of Evil”, Department of Sociological Studies of the University of Sheffield, Online, Available at: <https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/socstudies/research/sociology-evil>, Accessed: October 18, 2020.
Cohen, Lawrence; and Bryant, Judith (2014). “The effect of ‘social evils’ on trustees’ decisions”, Trusts & Trustees, Vol. 20, No. 9: 882–890.
Cohen, Peter (1990). Drugs as a Social Construct. Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam.
Corak, Miles (2017). “‘Inequality Is the Root of Social Evil,’ or Maybe Not? Two Stories about Inequality and Public Policy”, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Discussion Paper Series, No. 11005. 
Dadaji, Meshram Roshan; Khan, Zeenat A. (2017). “Unemployment: A social evil”, International Journal of Reflective Research in Social Sciences, Vol. 1, Issue 1: 24-26.
Delbanco, Andrew (1995). The Death of Satan: How Americans Have Lost the Sense of Evil Farrar. New York: Straus and Giroux.
Dorling, Danny (2010). “Social Evils – From Unemployment to Idleness to Prejudice: Some Suggestions for Mapping the Modern Equivalents of These Old Evils onto New Injustices”, Review of Economic Analysis, 2: 1-17.
Gupta, Rajeev; Kumar, Praneet (2007). “Social evils, poverty & health”, Indian J Med Res, 126: 279-288.
Gupta, Rajeev (2017). “The evil of dowry in India: A legal insight”, International Journal of Law, Vol. 3, Issue 4, pp. 57-64.
Harris, Jose (2009). “‘Social evils’ and ‘social problems’ in Britain, 1904–2008”, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Online, Available from:
     <https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/%E2%80%98social-evils%E2%80%99-and-%E2%80%98social-problems%E2%80%99-britain-1904%E2%80%932008>, Accessed: October 16, 2020.
Heckathorn, Douglas D. (2015). “Snowball Versus Respondent-Driven Sampling”, Social Methodol., 41(1): 352-366.
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, (2014). Extremism: Recognizing a Social Evil, Helsinki Files, Vol. 34.
Hirvonen, Ari (2007). “The problem of evil revisited”, No foundations: Journal of extreme legal positivism, issue 3: 29-51. 
Höffe, Otfried (2006). Kant's Cosmopolitan Theory of Law and Peace. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lara, María Pía, (2001). “Introduction, Contemporary Perspectives”, in María Pía Lara (ed.), Rethinking Evil: Contemporary Perspectives, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp.1-17.
Mangilal, Teelavath; Kumari, Teelavath Vijaya; Kavitha, Teelavath (2014). “Drug Abuse is a Global Social Evil - Special Reference with Indian Context”, International Journal of Pharmaceutical Research & Allied Sciences, Vol. 3, Issue 3, 1-9.
Morton, Adam (2004). On Evil (Thinking in Action). London: Routledge.
Neiman, Susan (2001). “What’s the Problem of Evil?”, in María Pía Lara (ed.), Rethinking Evil: Contemporary Perspectives, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 27-46.
Nussbaum, Martha C. (1986). The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Parker, Charlie; Scott, Sam; Geddes, Alistair (2019). “Snowball sampling”, in: Paul Atkinson, Sara Delamont, Alexandru Cernat, Joseph W. Sakshaug, Richard A. Williams (eds.), SAGE Research Methods Foundations, <https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526421036831710>, Accessed: October 18, 2020.
Pickering, William Stuart Frederick; Rosati, Massimo (2008). “Suffering, Evil and Durkheimian Sociology: Filling a Gap”, in: W. S. F. Pickering & M. Rosati (eds.), Suffering and Evil: The Durkheimian Legacy, New York: Berghahn Books Press.
Plantinga, Alavin, (1974). God, Freedom, and Evil. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans.
Poston, Ted (2012). “Social Evil”, in Jonathan L. Kvanvig (ed.), Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion, vol. V, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 166-185.
Shahid, Anam; Sumbul, Maria (2017). “Social Evils in Media: Challenges and Solutions in 21st Century”, International Journal of Social Sciences, 3(3), 854-875.
Swinburne, Richard, (2004). The Existence of God, 2nd edition. New York: Oxford.
Tabassum, H.; Ashfaq, Muhammad; Kousar, Rakhshanda; Saghir, Aqeela; Amjad, R. (2010). “Gender Inequality: A Social Evil”, The Journal of Animal & Plant Sciences 20(1): 2010, pp. 60-61.
Vengateshwaran, C.; Velusamy, MA. (2017). “Social and Economic Problems of Alcohol Addiction in Urban”, International Journal of Innovative Knowledge Concepts, 5(8), pp. 118-122.
Waterman, Anthony M. C. (2014). “Inequality and Social Evil: Wilkinson and Pickett on The Spirit Level”, Faith and Economics, Vol. 63: 38-49.
Wijers, Marjan, (2004). “Criminal, victim, social evil or working girl: legal approaches to prostitution and their impact on sex workers”, paper presented at:  Seminario Internacional sobre Prostitución, Madrid 21-23 junio 2001, Instituto de la Mujer, UNED, Online, Available from: <https://www.researchgate.net/>, Accessed: October 19, 2020.
Wilkinson, Iain, (2005). Suffering: A Sociological Introduction. Cambridge UK and Malden MA: Polity Press.
 
Journal of Iranian Social Studies
Volume 14, Issue 4
Spring 2021
Pages 128-158

  • Receive Date 21 October 2020
  • Revise Date 25 September 2021
  • Accept Date 01 May 2021
  • First Publish Date 01 May 2021
  • Publish Date 21 December 2020

Home

Submit Manuscript

Reviewers

Contact Us