6.2 THEORIES OF THE ROLE AND FUNCTION OF RELIGION Flashcards
How do functionalists see society?
Functionalists regard society as a social system - a set of parts which work together to form a whole. Functionalists assume that society had basic needs/prerequisites that must be met in order to survive.
How is social order made possible according to the functionalist theory?
Value consensus
Social integration
What is Durkheim’s view of religion?
Set of myths/imaginary forces
He believed that the divine and supernatural had no foundation in reality.
Food for physical life
According to Durkheim, what was the totem a symbol of?
God and society
Sacred
Power of the divine and supernatural
collective conscience
What does Durkheim view worshipping a god and venerating the sacred and divine the equivalent of?
Worshipping society
What does Durkheim argue that religion is an important agent of?
Secondary socialisation
What is the main function of religion according to Durkheim?
The major function of religion is to socialise society’s members into a collective conscience by investing particular values with a sacred quality, or by encouraging a sense of belonging to society.
Why are moral codes important?
Moral codes provide codes of behaviour that people and societies can use to regulate both personal and social life.
What does Durkheim claim that religion and its associated rituals help people to do?
Understand the reality of social relations
Communicate with one another
Establish obligations
Maintain stable boundaries
Avoid conflict with other belief systems
What three functions does religion perform according to Parsons?
Religion provides moral guidelines into which people can be socialised.
Religion provides a means of adjusting to events that cannot be predicted/controlled and that may disrupt social order.
Religion may function by applying a higher meaning and purpose to events that have the potential to disrupt society.
What function does religion perform according to Malinowski?
Malinowski argues that religion functions to relieve the tensions and fears that arise from unpredictable situations.
What do functionalists argue that the status quo is based on?
Consensus
How can the functionalist theory of religion be criticised?
Bruce (2002) - secularisation
Religious practice and belief are not the same thing.
Hamilton (2012) - dysfunctional
Religious pluralism
Flawed evidence
It is rare that followers of ‘new-age’ religions come together as a group.
Marxists and feminists argue that religious belief systems are ideologies that aim to justify and produce inequality.
What is a civil religion?
A civil religion refers to a belief system that induces a mass response, with similar levels of passion, dedication and commitment to those found in mainstream religions.
What are the names of the sociologists who criticise the concept of a civil religion?
Beckford
Moosa (2010)
What does Feuerbach (1854) argue that God is?
Feuerbach (1854) argued that God is merely a projection of humanity, while Christianity is a form of wish fulfilment. He believed that God is a fictive being who is socially constructed by societies.
Feuerbach argued that God is a representation of human fears, anxieties and aspirations.
What does ideology refer to?
Ideology refers to a set of powerful ideas which are essentially false but which are widely accepted as true.
What is the role of the superstructure
It hides inequality; it legitimises inequality, and it reproduces inequality generation by generation.
Why does Marx argue that religion is a form of ideological power?
Class-system - God-given
Poverty was viewed as an outcome of sin.
Convinces the proletariat that they will be compensated for their suffering by God in an afterlife - by explaining poverty in supernatural terms.
‘chosen ones’
Higher authority
Why does Marx compare religion with opium?
The comfort religion provides is only temporary and is blinding people to reality.
Name the sociologist who argues that there is a strong connection between the ruling class/Establishment, state and religion in the UK.
Leach (1998)
What type of theology are the poor attracted to?
Prosperity theology
