Religion as a social adhesive: study of the patterns of religious diversity of rural communities in the village of Sembungan-Boyolali

¹ Faculty of Ushuludin and Da’wah - IAIN Surakarta, Pandawa Street, Pucangan, Kartasura, Sukoharjo 57168, Indonesia
² Department of Library and Information Science, Diponegoro University, Prof. H. Soedarto SH Street, Semarang 50275 Indonesia
³ Postgraduate Program in Cultural Studies, Sebelas Maret University, Ir. Sutarmi 36A Street, Surakarta 57126, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: sarbinidamai@gmail.com

Abstract

For rural communities, religion is understood as the core of the value system to control the actions of the community in order to remain sustainable in accordance with the values of the religious teachings. Religious behavior is a sacred symbol that is based on religious teachings. This study uses a sociology of religion approach that attempts to describe the empirical reality of religious communities related to doctrine, beliefs, social behavior and functional teachings that give birth to religious phenomena. Research methods by collecting data through observation, interviews, and smoothing documentation that is narrated in descriptive-qualitative form with descriptive-interpretive analysis. The results of the study of rural communities have a tendency to make new meanings in sustainable life towards a system of values and religious norms that are confident and internalized in a homogeneous community environment, and express values of appreciation in the form of efforts to maintain togetherness through functional religious messages. When the new meaning of individuals in society results in an interest conflict that is influenced by the individual's social status, then the power of transcendent values is needed. The discovery of this new transcendent meaning is then called the awareness of social collectivity in society.