THEORIES OF RELIGION

THEORIES OF RELIGION

Apply (sociologists apply the major theoretical approaches to the study of religion just as they do to any other topic. Each approach provides distinctive insights into the way religion shapes social life)

Functions of Religion: Structural- Functional Anlysis

According to Durkheim (1965, orig. 1915), society has a life and power of its own beyond the life of any individual. In other words, society itself is godlike, shaping the lives of its members and living on beyond them. Practicing religion, people celebrate the awesome power of their society.

No wonder people around the world transform certain everyday objects into sacred symbols of their collective life. Members of technologically simple societies do this with a totem, an object in the natural world collectively defined as sacred. The totem- perhaps an animal or an elaborate work of art- becomes the centerpiece of ritual, symbolizing the power of society over the individual. In our society, the flag is treated with respect and is not used in a profane way (say, as clothing) or allowed to touch the ground.

Similarly, putting the words “In God We Trust” on U.S. currency (a practice started in the 1860s at the time of the Civil War) or adding the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance (in 1954) symbolizes some widespread beliefs that tie society together. Across the United States, local communities also gain a sense of unity by linking totems to sports teams, from the New England Patriots to the Iowa State University Cyclones to the San Francisco 49ers. Durkheim identified three major functions of religion that con tribute to the operation of society:

1.      Establishing social cohesion. Religion unites people through shared symbolism, values, and norms. Religious thought and ritual establish rules of fair play, organizing our social life.

2.      Promoting social control. Every societying God as a “judge,” many religions encouragepeople to obey cultural norms. Religion can also be used to back up the power of political systems. In medieval Europe, for example, monarchs claimed to rule by “divine right,” so that obedience was seen as doing God’s will. Even today, our leaders ask for God’s blessing, implying that their offorts are right and just.

3.      Providing meaning and purpose. Religious belief offers the comforting sense that our brief lives serve some greater purpose. Strengthened by such beliefs, people are less likely to despair in the face of change or even tragedy. For this reason, we mark major life course transitions – including birth, marriage, and death- with religious observances.

    Evaluate In Durkheim’s structural- functional analysis, religion represents the collective life of society. The major weakness of this approach is that it downplays religion’s dysfunctions, especially the fact that strongly held beliefs can generate social conflict. Terrorists have claimed that God supports their actions, and many nations march to war under the banner of their God. A study of conflict in the world would probably show that religious beliefs have provoked more violence than differences of social class.

Constructing the Sacred : Symbolic-Interaction Analysis

From a symbolic-interaction point of view, religion (like all of society), is socially constructed (although perhaps with divine inspiration). Through  various rituals-from daily prayers to annual religious observances such as Easter, Passover, or Ramadan-people sharpen the distinction between the sacred and the profane. Peter Berger (1967: 35-36) claims that placing our small, brief lives within some “cosmic frame of reference” gives us the appearance of “ultimate security and permanence.”

Gambar : Religion is founded on the concept of the sacred – aspects of our existence that are set apart as extraordinary and demand our submission. Bowing, kneeling, or prostrating oneself are all ways of symbolically surrendering to a higher power. These Filipino Christians seek atonement for their sains in annual Lenten ritual.

Marriage is a good example. If two people look on marriage as merely a contract, they can agree to split up whenever they want. Their bond makes far stronger claims on them when it is defined as holy matrimony, which is surely one reason that the divorce rate is lower among people with strong religious beliefs. More generally, whenever human beings face uncertainty or life- threatening situations- such as illness, natural disaster, terrorist attack, or war- we turn to our sacred symbols.

v  Evaluate Using the symbolic- interaction approach, we see how people turn to religion to give everyday life sacred meaning. Berger notes that the sacred’s ability to give special meaning to society requires that we ignore the fact that it is socially constructed. After all, how much strength could we gain from beliefs if we saw them merely as strategies for coping with tragedy? Also, this microlevel analysis ignores religion’s link to social inequality, to which we turn next.

Inequality and Religion: Social- Conflict Analysis

The social- conflict approach highlights religion’s support of social inequality. Religion, proclaimed Karl Marx, serves ruling elites by legitimizing the status quo and diverting people’s attention from social inequality.

Today, the British monarch is the formal head of the Church of England, illustrating the close ties between religious and political elites. In practical terms, linking the church and the state means that opposing the government amounts to apposing the church and by implication, God. Religion also encourages people to accept the social problems of this world while they look hopefully to a “better world to come.” In a well- known statement, Marx dismissed religion as preventing revolutionary change; religion is, in his words, “the sigh of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people” (1964: 27, orig. 1848).

Religion and social inequality are also linked through gender. Virtually all the world’s major religions are patriarchal, as the Thinking About Diversity box explains.

v        Evaluate Social- Conflict analysis emphasizes the power of religion to support social inequality. Yet religion also promotes change toward equality. For example, nineteenth-century religious groups in the United States played an important part in the movement to abolish slavery. In the 1950s and 1960s,religious organizations and their leaders formed the core of the civil rights movement. In the 1960s and 1970s, many clergy opposed the Vietnam War, and today many support any number of progressive causes such as feminism and gay rights.