The Birth of Buddhism and Christianity in the Conflict of Conflict Theory

Abstract

There is an interdisciplinary link between History of Religions and Sociology in terms of religious research. Thanks to Sociology, sacred and historical texts turn into a source that enables us to understand social life and allows them to be better understood by accurately constructing them through cultural codes as well as historical context. At the same

time, thanks to the theories developed in the field, the emergence, development and change phases of religions can be examined scientifically and thus enable various analyzes to be made. Looking at previous studies, it is seen that most of the studies on religion and conflict in our country have been produced and progressed through Islam. It is obvious that examining different religions from a sociological perspective and with a unique method will contribute to similar studies and thus to the expansion of the literature in our country. Thanks to the method of Comparative History of Religions, societies with similar beliefs in different geographies or societies with different beliefs in similar geographies can be compared. In this study, the subject, the story of the emergence of Buddhism and Christianity, in addition to the reasons for the participation of new adherents in these religions during their establishment processes, were aimed to be examined sociologically on the axis of conflict theory and the documentation method was used for this purpose. In the study, first of all, an information transfer based on descriptive information on the History of Religions was made, then the conflict theory was discussed in a conceptual framework and its classical and modern representatives were emphasized, and finally, in the light of the analysis of Dahrendorf's theory within the scope of Sociology of Religion, it was concluded that leaders with charismatic authority emerging from the social structure in crisis or crisis due to the dominance of religious authority can mobilize the masses by starting a new religious and social movement.