I used to think so too...

That sounds really interesting, can you please let me know what you find out when you've completed it? My mother did theological studies and it really facinates me how Christianity shaped the way people lived then and now.

Yeah it fascinates me too. At the moment im writing on the Protestant Work Ethic, its amazing how much it resonates through society today.

so this isn't a terrible "Desolation Row" pun?

Nice. Sorry I didn't respond right away after you answered my question--I've been away. So, are you in a theology department, or, philosophy, or sociology (of religion), or, something else? "Construction of morality" and "effect on society" sound like sociology to me, which is my background. Sounds very interesting. I essentially think that all reality (including morality) is socially constructed--what is "real" is what social groups determine for themselves to be real and moral. Groups with the most power in any given society determine what "reality" has most resonance (hegemony) for that society. Is that your stance?

No im from an Anthropology background, which is pretty much an amalgamation of sociology, psychology and history anyway. My view on it is quite similiar to yours, im very much a functionalist in that i see morality as serving to preserve the efficiency and consequent prosperity of civilization. Religion comes into it in that, specifically from a western POV, Christianity was the social institution in which morality was cultivated and impressed onto the public from.

Ok, makes sense. I agree that anthropology and sociology share some theories as well as research methods. I actually borrow a lot from anthropology to study social groups or communities. I would say that I am more a "conflict theorist" rather than "functionalist." Rather than saying that morality/religion functions to "preserve efficiency and consequent prosperity of civilization," I would say that morality/religion mainly serve the purpose of the social group with the most power. The most powerful group uses morality and religion to force onto others in the society the values, norms, perspectives that best serve that powerful group. In other words, by constructing the dominant morality and notion of religion, the powerful group preserves its own efficiency and prosperity, and other members of the society are duped to believe they need to accept this dominant morality/religion to be prosperous, too.