Sociological Perspectives Of Religion, Magic And Ritual

Religion, magic and ritual has played a part in our society since civilization began. No society is free from some sort of religious influence, it appears that in some established societies religion is considered as one of the thee most important institutionalized structures. The institution of religion can be evaluated by varies sociological theories because the institution of religion has been part of every society from tribal communities right up to modern day civilisation. Within any society today it possible to find some sort of religion or spiritual network amongst individuals. This essay will examine the different sociological perspectives of religion, magic and ritual and will look at the different theories such functionalism, conflict,

He suggested that religion is the origin of the concepts we need for reasoning and is also the beginnings of human thought, reason and science. He considered that religion promoted a social solidarity amongst people of a society in order for a society to run smoothly. (Kessler, 2012, p. 66) Through he analyzation of religion Durkheim came to the conclusion that the world divides religion into the Sacred and the Profane, Durkheim explains that through the sacred we set things apart from society so that we can connect to the sacred with strong emotions, these emotions produce feelings such as awe, wonder or fear which in turn are often linked to taboos and prohibitions.(Kessler, 2012, p.66) His thought was that we create the sacred as symbols as a representation of society itself as society has great power therefore, he looked at the sacred as if humans were worshipping society itself when worshipping sacred symbols. Durkheim described the profane as ordinary things with no significant meaning, these ordinary objects create powerful emotions amongst individuals in society as they are put in place to represent and symbolize the individual’s belief in the sacred, he called these totems and described that the objects were a representation of the collective conscious which is a basic set of shared beliefs,

Marx saw society divided into two distinct classes the Bourgeoise and Proletariat, he saw that the ruling class exploited the working class through the means of capitalism. He argued that because of the exploitation by the ruling class there will always be a segregation of the classes and the potential for class conflict. Marx’s views couldn’t be more different than that of the functionalist theory, whereas functionalism sees religion as a positive unifying force that effectually holds society together with values and moral code Marxism sees religion as a feature of a class- divided society between the ruling elite and the working class. Moreover, Marx described religion as ‘the soul of the soulless conditions’ and the ‘opium of the people.’ Furthermore, Marx saw religion as and ideological weapon of the masses, not only did he believe that religion was put into to society to keep the working class under law and order as god fearing individuals, he also saw religion was used by the ruling class as a way of justifying the suffering of the poor as if it is something that is inevitable and God-given, this in turn misleads the poor into believing that the suffering they face throughout their lives is virtuous by nature and that they will be redeemed and rewarded in the afterlife. Marx’s concluded that once a class devided society becomes classless religion will disappear.