Functionalist view of religion

Question 1

Functionalist view of religion

Answer 1

Malinowski - emotional support
- claims religion helps with psychological functions and helps people to cope with emotional distress e.g life crises like death, puberty
- if the distress is not dealt with it could break social solidarity (feeling of having community)
- uses the trobriand islanders to develop this theory

Parsons : creates social harmony
- claims religion promotes value consensus (agreement among members of society of what is right and wrong
- uses religion to promote value consensus and if everyone follows it, it creates social harmony
e.g parsons uses america to talk about how religion unified a society with multiple religions - america took all cultures and made core values from it, for example working hard and individualism

Question 2

Functionalist view of religion (Durkheim)

Answer 2

-Provides guides for how we act
- religion is a shared thing for how we should behave e.g ten commandments “thou shall not lie”
HOWEVER because of religious diversity not everyone follows the same guide which could lead to possible conflict e.g israel and palestine

-Brings people together e.g group worship
- strengthens social solidarity as it gives people a sense of belonging and creates stronger bonds with people
further example - the arunta clan used totemism - worshiped the totem pole which created a sense of belonging between everyone

Question 3

Functions of religion pt 2 (Bellah)
-evaluation of durkheim

Answer 3

Bellah - civil religion
- civil religion is a widespread loyalty to the nation state and can be expressed in the form of rituals, symbols e.g american flag, eagle, statue of liberty etc
-this overcomes divisions of religion and it copies what religion does but in a secular way
- never specified to God and it is a faith in their own country based on their values

civil religion in the uk comes with many examples such as :
- the queens death
- coronations
-weddings.
all of them highlight the importance of the monarchy

Question 4

Beckford
-evaluation of Bellah

Answer 4

-argues that if the Uk does have a civil religion then it is occasional at its best but at its worst it is weak
- do not have a religion as strong as the US do because the UK did not require civil religion but amaerica did because they had to manufacture to bring everyone together