The Society Religion as a Social Glue

The Society Religion as a Social Glue

The view in the title is a functionalist’s view. Durkheim claims that

religion is to do with the sacred and certain things, people and

places are perceived to be sacred for example Jesus Christ, totem and

the Tajmahal. He claims that what people perceive to be sacred are

actually symbols of a collective consciousness. By worshipping these

sacred things etc. they are actually reinforcing the beliefs, values,

norms and tradition which make social life possible. He says religion

reinforces and strengthens social solidarity. Malinowski says that

religion meets the psychological needs of people; there are two

situations that religion is characteristically involved. The first of

these is life crises such as birth and death, these events may lead to

uncertainty and religion provides valuable mental attitudes. The

second is where the out come is uncertain but important for example

the Trobriand islanders and their fishing. In this way according to

Malinowski religion reinforces social solidarity and discourages

anxiety. Parsons claims that religion is our primary source of

meaning; it answers the eternal questions and help to understand

things like suffering and pain. It also produces, sacralises and

legitimises the core values of society e.g. Protestantism in the USA

encouraged individualism, democracy and equality of opportunity.

Bellah claims that there is a civil religion and gives the example of

America and its faith in Americanism, he says that civil religion

unites society. However the functionalist view can be criticised: It

focuses on the positive aspects of religion and ignores that it is the

cause of conflict in much of the world e.g. Northern Ireland and

conflict between protestants and Catholics, It does not explain the

origins of religion, explaining what functions religion performs does

not help us to know where it came from. Durkheim did his studies I

small scale non-literate societies, it is difficult to see how

religion performs its functions in out large complex religiously

plural society. Bellah’s idea of civil religion gets around this

problem but because of the problems with defining religion it is