Religious stratification is the division of a society into hierarchical layers on the basis of religious beliefs, affiliation, or faith practices. According to Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore, "[t]he reason why religion is necessary is apparently to be found in the fact that human society achieves its unity primarily through the possession by its members of certain ultimate values and ends in common". Furthermore, Davis and Moore contend that it is "the role of religious belief and ritual to supply and reinforce this appearance of reality" that these "certain ultimate values" have. This is one possible explanation for why religion is one of the underlying factors which links various forms of inequality into a chain of stratification.
Critical overview Broadly defined, social stratification is constituted by the division of a society into hierarchical layers of wealth, power, and prestige. These layers, or strata, have been related to a variety of social categories, such as:
Race Class Gender Ethnicity Religion Sociologists have paid attention to stratification based on race, class, gender, and ethnicity. Religion is closely tied to ethnic affiliation. Research suggests that religious stratification deserves more attention than it usually gets. It is a common development in religiously diverse societies. Once it becomes embedded in societies' laws, customs, and ideologies, it tends to persist. It also has societal consequences. Thus, it is important in its own right, but also in relation to other forms of stratification.
In the United States Sociologists James D. Davidson and Ralph E. Pyle (2011) argue that religious stratification emerged during America's colonial period, as a result of religious ethnocentrism, religious competition, and unequal resources. They show that Anglicans, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians were over-represented among the economic, political, and educational elites. Other Protestant groups, Catholics, Jews, and people with no religious preference ranked much lower in status. The ranking of religious groups has changed in some ways over the course of U.S. history (Davidson and Pyle 2011, Pyle 1996). Most notably, Jews have risen into the upper stratum, while Catholics have climbed into the upper-middle stratum. However, religious stratification persists. For example, Anglicans (now Episcopalians), Congregationalists (now United Church of Christ), and Presbyterians remain in the upper stratum, and other Protestants groups such as Baptists (who ranked low in the colonial period) still have not experienced much upward mobility. These developments are linked to inter-religious power struggles related to membership size, organizational capacity, and resources. The struggles affect societal laws, ideologies, and customs. In the colonial period, religious stratification was justified by law: Congregationalists were the "established" church in New England colonies; Anglicans were the "established" church in southern colonies. The First and Fourteenth Amendments, along with other civil rights laws, have knocked the legal foundation out from under religious stratification. The pro-Protestant ideology that emerged in the colonial period has been tempered somewhat by multiculturalism, but it remains an integral part of American culture. Religious groups that have adapted most to this ideology have experienced more mobility than other groups. Colonial elites also have developed a number of customs, such as church-sponsored preparatory schools, private colleges, universities, and legacy admissions that have perpetuated their prominence (Coe and Davidson 2011). Another custom has been the tendency to appoint other religious elites to political office (Davidson, Kraus, and Morrissey 2005). Jews and Catholics have developed customs of their own, such as parochial schools and business ownership, that have contributed to improvements in their social status. Contrary to Davis and Moore's argument that stratification is functional for society, Davidson and Pyle (2011) argue that religious stratification destabilizes society. It produces social problems, like religious hate crimes, that would not otherwise exist.
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