7.1.3
Social Stability & Religion
Functionalism and Religion
Functionalism and Religion
Functionalists believe that religion creates social stability.
Australian Aborigines
Australian Aborigines
- Durkheim conducted a study on Australian Aborigines.
- He found that their religion was based on totemism.
- To a community, their chosen sacred symbol represents themselves as a society along with a higher power that protects them.
Collective conscience
Collective conscience
- Therefore, by worshiping their god, they are also celebrating their own society.
- He argued that by worshipping together, religion provides the community with a collective conscience.
- This means they had a shared understanding of the norms, values and beliefs that held their community together.
Psychological functions
Psychological functions
- Malinowski claimed that religion also provides society with psychological functions.
- He argued that when faced with a life crisis religion can help you overcome this.
- He referred to this as a rite of passage.
- A rite of passage, such as a funeral, helps the community return to normality as quickly as possible therefore maintaining social order.
Bellah
Bellah
- Neo-functionalist Bellah argued that America has its own civil religion known as ‘Americanism’.
- In order to avoid conflict and promote integration, the worship of the American culture unites its citizens better than any other religion.
Americanism
Americanism
- For example, Americanism can be said to ‘worship’ the American flag.
- A civil religion is a faith in Americanism or ‘the American way of life’ rather than one almighty God.
Marxism and Religion
Marxism and Religion
Marxists believe that religion creates social stability.
‘Opium of the masses’
‘Opium of the masses’
- Marx said religion was the ‘opium of the masses’ as it dulls the pain of oppression by giving its followers a temporary ‘high’ through promises of a better afterlife in order to distract them from their exploitation.
- Lenin agreed, comparing religion to ‘spiritual gin’, an intoxicant that numbs the pain of oppression.
An ideology
An ideology
- Marx believed that religion's main function was to benefit capitalism through its power as an ideology.
- He claimed that it maintained capitalism in two ways.
Maintaining capitalism
Maintaining capitalism
- Firstly religion suggests that inequality is God-given and therefore unchangeable.
- Secondly, it teaches the poor that their poverty is a test from God that will be compensated in the afterlife.
Accepting inequality
Accepting inequality
- By convincing the proletariat to accept inequality, religion is succeeding in its purpose to maintain the false class consciousness.
- The proletariat remain unaware of the true extent of their exploitation and as a result will never revolt against the bourgeoisie.
Feminism and Religion
Feminism and Religion
Feminists believe that religion creates social stability.
Religion and patriarchy
Religion and patriarchy
- Feminists argue that religion reproduces patriarchy as it is male dominated.
- For example in monotheistic religions:
- God is a man.
- Sacred texts portray women negatively.
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir
- Simone de Beauvoir believes that religion successfully maintains gender inequality by tricking women into thinking that they are equal to men in the eyes of their God and that they will be compensated for any hardship in the afterlife.
Armstrong
Armstrong
- Armstrong studies how women are often blocked from positions in the top of the mainstream churches.
- She studied the Church of England.
- Women in the church have not been able to progress to the top religious positions.
- This issue is not only confined to the Church of England as many other religions face the same issue.
1Theory & Methods
1.1Sociological Theories
1.2Sociological Methods
2Education with Methods in Context
2.1Role & Function of the Education System
2.2Educational Achievement
2.3Relationships & Processes Within Schools
3Option 1: Culture & Identity
3.1Conceptions of Culture
3.2Identity & Socialisation
3.3Social Identity
3.4Production, Consumption & Globalisation
4Option 1: Families & Households
4.1Families & Households
4.2Changing Patterns
4.3The Symmetrical Family
4.4Children & Childhood
5Option 1: Health
5.1Social Constructions
5.2Social Distribution of Healthcare
5.3Provision & Access to Healthcare
5.4Mental Health
6Option 1: Work, Poverty & Welfare
6.1Poverty & Wealth
7Option 2: Beliefs in Society
7.1Ideology, Science & Religion
7.2Religious Movements
7.3Society & Religion
8Option 2: Global Development
8.1Development, Underdevelopment & Global Inequality
8.2Globalisation & Global Organisations
8.3Aid, Trade, Industrialisation, Urbanisation
9Option 2: The Media
9.1Contemporary Media
9.2Media Representations
10Crime & Deviance
10.1Crime & Society
10.2Social Distribution of Crime
Jump to other topics
1Theory & Methods
1.1Sociological Theories
1.2Sociological Methods
2Education with Methods in Context
2.1Role & Function of the Education System
2.2Educational Achievement
2.3Relationships & Processes Within Schools
3Option 1: Culture & Identity
3.1Conceptions of Culture
3.2Identity & Socialisation
3.3Social Identity
3.4Production, Consumption & Globalisation
4Option 1: Families & Households
4.1Families & Households
4.2Changing Patterns
4.3The Symmetrical Family
4.4Children & Childhood
5Option 1: Health
5.1Social Constructions
5.2Social Distribution of Healthcare
5.3Provision & Access to Healthcare
5.4Mental Health
6Option 1: Work, Poverty & Welfare
6.1Poverty & Wealth
7Option 2: Beliefs in Society
7.1Ideology, Science & Religion
7.2Religious Movements
7.3Society & Religion
8Option 2: Global Development
8.1Development, Underdevelopment & Global Inequality
8.2Globalisation & Global Organisations
8.3Aid, Trade, Industrialisation, Urbanisation
9Option 2: The Media
9.1Contemporary Media
9.2Media Representations
10Crime & Deviance
10.1Crime & Society
10.2Social Distribution of Crime
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