Functionalist Religion
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Durkheim

‘In a word, anything can be sacred’

Based work on Aborigines in Australia.

Each clan had a ‘totem.’

This totem used as a way of worshipping their society, togetherness, something abstract.

All societies divide the world into sacred or profane.

Social life is impossible without shard values and normal beliefs=collective conscience.

Without it, no social control, order, solidarity or co-operation.

Religion reinforces collective conscience.

Worship of society strengthens values and beliefs that form the basis of social life.

Durkheim emphasised importance of collective worship.

Group express common values and beliefs together.

Express, communicate and understand moral bonds that unite them.

Belief in gods or spirits originates in ancestral spirits of dead relatives.

Worship of God is really of ancestors’ souls.

Souls represent presence of social values and so, in worshipping souls; they are again worshipping social group or society.

Criticisms of Durkheim

1. He only studied small number of Aboriginal groups (untypical) – misleading to generalise about Aborigines, let alone religion as a whole based upon this.
2. Most agree with promotion of social solidarity, but disagree that it is worship of society.
3. Durkheim’s views are more appropriate for small, non-literate, mono-cultural societies, with close integration, where social institutions merge.
4. His views less relevant to modern societies, which have many subcultures and ethnic groups.

Hamilton

“The emergence of religious pluralism and diversity within a society is, of course, something that Durkheim’s theory has great difficulty dealing with”

5.     Durkheim may overstate the extent to which collective conscience permeates and shapes behaviour of individuals.

 “Society, powerful as it is, does not have the primacy (importance) that Durkheim believes it has.”

Malinowski:

Studied Trobriand Islands, looked at fishing, when fishing within the lagoon, it was safe, but if went out to sea, there was sometimes a catch, sometimes not. Also at sea, there was a danger of loss of life. Religion was used in these times of crisis to explain.

Sees religion as reinforcing social norms and values and promoting social solidarity.

HOWEVER….

He doesn’t see it as reflecting society as a whole, nor does he see religious worship as a worship of society itself.

He identifies specific areas of social life that religion is concerned with, and to which it is addressed. These are situations of emotional stress that threaten social solidarity.

Religion is used in times of crisis, not safe periods.

Death is socially destructive as it removes a member from society.

At funeral ceremony, the social group unites to support the bereaved.

This expression of social solidarity reintegrates society.

Malinowski’s contribution is his argument that religion promotes social solidarity by dealing with situations of emotional stress that threaten social stability of society.

Criticisms of Malinowski

1.     Exagerates the importance of religious rituals in helping people to cope with situations of stress and uncertainty

2. A particular function or effect that religion sometimes has, has been mistaken for a feature of religion in general.

          Parsons

• Religion has shaped our norms and values

Beliefs provide guidelines for human action and standards against which people’s conduct can be evaluated.

In Christian society, Ten Commandments demonstrate how social norms can be integrated by religious beliefs.

Religion helps provide consensus which Parsons believes is necessary for order and stability.

• Religion helps deal with crisis

Agrees with Malinowski that religion is addressed to particular problems that occur in all societies.

Problems that disrupt society fall into 2 categories

1.     Individuals are hit by events they cannot forsee e.g. death

2.     The unknown or uncontrollable factors that hinder endeavours

• Religion gives meaning to life

Answers man’s questions about himself and the world he lives in.

Helps make sense of experiences.

Gives meaning to events that people do not expect or feel ought not to happen.

Bellah: Civil Religion

America’s New Faith, collection of beliefs, symbols and rituals with respect to sacred things that are established in American society.

Not opposed to Christianity, shares a lot in common with it, but it is not in any sense Christian.

National shrines, celebrations of national values and unity, symbolise the nation as a ‘people’.

Worship in Americanism

CRITICISMS OF FUNCTIONALIST VIEW

Ignores dysfunctional aspects

Gives little consideration to hostility between different religious groups e.g. N.Ireland

Ignores frequent examples of internal divisions within a community.

Other Notes in this Category

1. Crime according to Marx
2. Elton Mayo and the Hawthorne Studies
3. Functionalist Religion
4. Marxist, Functionalist and Anti-Family Theorists on the Family in Sociology
5. Religion according to Marx
6. Religion According to Max Weber
7. Sociology Glossary
8. Why people commit crimes

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