Psychological functions/ Parsons: Values and meaning/ Civil Religion
Malinowski agrees that religion promotes social solidarity. However it does so by performing psychological functions for individuals helping to cope with emotional stress
Lagoon fishing- Safe and uses predictable and successful methods. Ocean Fishing- Dangerous and uncertain rituals often give people a sense of control and ease tension
Times Of Life Crisis
Events such as birth, puberty, marriage and especially death major and disruptive changes in social groups. Religion helps to minimise disruption.
Funeral rituals reinforce a feeling of social solidarity among the survivors, while immortality gives comfort to the bereaved by denying the fact of death.
Parsons sees religion helping individuals to cope with unforeseen events and uncontrollable outcome.
Two essential functions that religion performs in modern society.
It creates and legitimated society's central values
It is the primary source of meaning
Religion creates and legitimates society's basic norms and values by sacralising them. Protestantism sets core American values of individualism, meritocracy and self-discipline
Source of meaning. Answers 'ultimate' questions about the human condition, such as why the good suffer and why some die young.
Civil religion
Robert Bellah
Interest in how religion unifies society, especially a multi-faith society like America.
Argues Civil Religion integrates society in a way that America's many different Churches and denominations cannot
American civil religion involves loyalty to the nation-state and a belief in God both equated to being a 'true American'. E.g. Flag, National Anthem
Functional alternatives
Non-religious beliefs and practices that perform functions similar to those of organised religion. Bellah argues that another belief system could perform the same functions
The problem with this is the same with functional definitions that it ignores what makes religion distinctive and different E.g. Belief in the supernatural