The Functionalist View of Religion (AQA A Level Sociology): Revision Note

Functionalism & religion

• Functionalists have a structural view of society and see religion as a key social institution that maintains social order and stability

• Religion is a conservative force, as it acts as a source of shared values and meaning, helping to integrate individuals into society

Social functions of religion

• Durkheim (1915): The sacred and the profane

  • The main purpose of religion is to distinguish between the sacred and the profane

  • A religion is never just a set of beliefs – it involves definite collective rituals or practices in relation to the sacred

  • By worshipping the sacred symbols, people are worshipping society itself

• Totemism (Australian Aborigines – the Arunta)

  • Durkheim believed that the essence of all religion could be found by studying the simplest type of society – clan society

  • Clans come together to perform rituals involving worship of totems (e.g., animals, plants), which symbolise the group’s collective identity

  • Worship reinforces solidarity and belonging

  • For Durkheim, this totem worship is clan members worshipping their own society, even though they are unaware of this

• Collective conscience

  • In Durkheim's view, the sacred symbols represent society's collective conscience - the shared norms and values that hold society together

  • Shared religious rituals create a sense of belonging and strengthen the collective conscience

  • Participating in shared rituals reminds individuals of the power of society, without which they themselves are nothing and to which they owe everything

  • Religion, therefore, performs an important function for the individual:

    • It makes us feel part of something greater than ourselves

    • It strengthens us to face life's trials

    • It motivates us to overcome obstacles that would defeat us

• Socialisation of values

  • Religion acts as an agent of secondary socialisation, reinforcing society’s values through sacred texts, rituals, and ceremonies

  • It teaches followers the norms and values of society, reinforcing the value consensus that underpins social order

  • Parsons (1967) believed that through sacred texts, religion elevates the values of a society into sacred moral codes

    • E.g., the 10 commandments in Christianity generally underpin UK law and culture

• Civil religion (Bellah, 1970)

  • Bellah explored how religion unifies society in pluralistic societies like the USA

  • Belief in a 'civil religion' provides integration in a way that America's many different churches and denominations cannot

  • Civil religion is expressed in various rituals, symbols and beliefs:

    • Pledge of allegiance to the flag

    • Singing the national anthem

    • The Lincoln Memorial

    • Phrases such as 'One nation under God'

  • Civil religion creates a shared identity across ethnic and religious divides and binds together Americans from many different ethnic and religious backgrounds

Cognitive functions of religion

• Durkheim argued that religion doesn’t just unite people socially — it also gives humans the intellectual tools needed to understand the world

• Religion provides the first categories of thought (e.g. time, space, cause and effect) that make reasoning, science, and communication possible

• Through myths and beliefs, religion explains cause-and-effect relationships and gives meaning to major life events

  • E.g., creation stories explain how the world began, giving people a framework to understand concepts such as time

  • E.g. beliefs of heaven can support those in times of grief

• For Durkheim, religion was therefore the origin of human thought and reason, laying the foundations for later scientific knowledge

Psychological functions of religion

• Malinowski (1948) claims that religion helps individuals cope with emotional stress and uncertainty

  • Life crises (e.g., death, illness): Religion provides comfort, meaning, and rituals or 'rites of passage' such as funerals to help individuals and communities cope and return to normality as soon as possible

  • Uncontrollable events: Religion reduces anxiety by offering confidence and control (e.g., Trobriand Islanders performed religious rituals before expeditions for ocean fishing in dangerous seas)

• By reducing fear and stress, religion helps maintain social stability

Parsons: values & meaning

• Like Malinowski, Parsons (1967) saw religion as helping people cope with unexpected events and uncontrollable outcomes

• He also identified two key functions of religion in modern society:

  • Creating and legitimating society's central values

    • Religion gives society’s core norms and values a sacred status

    • By presenting them as God-given, religion makes these values appear universal and unquestionable

      • E.g., in the USA, Protestantism sacralised American values such as individualism, meritocracy, and self-discipline.

  • Providing meaning:

    • Religion addresses 'ultimate questions' — why suffering exists, why injustice happens, and what happens after death

    • By offering answers, religion helps individuals cope with disruption, hardship, and uncertainty

    • This, in turn, supports social stability, as people continue to commit to society’s value system

Evaluation of the functionalist view of religion

Strengths

• Highlights the integrative role of religion

  • Functionalists show how religion can bring people together by creating social cohesion and shared values, which help maintain social order

  • Concepts such as Durkheim’s collective conscience and Bellah’s civil religion demonstrate how religious rituals and symbols reinforce belonging and unity, even in diverse societies

• Recognises multiple levels of function

  • Functionalism acknowledges that religion works at both the societal level and the psychological level

  • This makes the theory comprehensive, as it explains why religion persists by addressing both social stability and personal well-being

Criticisms

• Overemphasis on harmony

  • Functionalism ignores religion’s role in conflict, division, and oppression, especially in complex modern societies where there is more than one religion

  • In contexts of religious pluralism, it is hard to see how religion can unite people and promote integration (e.g., conflict in Northern Ireland, tension in India)

• Outdated in secular societies

  • In many Western societies, secularisation has weakened religion’s influence, so it no longer provides the shared values or collective conscience assumed by functionalists

  • Alternative non-religious value systems (e.g., human rights, individualism, environmentalism) may now play this role as alternative sources of meaning and cohesion

• Too deterministic

  • Functionalism assumes individuals passively absorb religious values, ignoring personal choice and interpretation

  • In reality, people can reject or reinterpret religious teachings and may follow alternative belief systems or secular worldviews