Theoretical Perspectives on Religion

Theoretical Perspectives on Religion

7/18/2013

Theoretical Perspectives on Religion

Sociologist looks at society in different types of theoretical perspectives. There are three major types of prospective. Functionalist view is how the topic functions or contributes to the society. Conflicting view looks at society and sees the bad effects the topic has on the society. Integrationist perspective views how society interacts with each other. We are going to view religion in each of these perspectives and see and show how each works. Sociologist with a functionalist perspective looks at religion in society and sees the way religion functions and contributes in our society. According to Richard T. Shaffer, “functionalist emphasizes the way in which the parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability.” (Schaefer 13) They try to look at the ways religion contributes to our society’s survival. Here are some examples of functionalist views on religion in society:
• Religion brings people together and helps maintain social solidarity through shared rituals and common beliefs.
• Religion provides a moral guideline that help maintain conformity and control in society by teaching and practicing moral rights and wrong through religious teachings.
• Religion offers meaning and purpose to life’s questions like; “Why am I here?” “What is my purpose in life?”
Looking in the conflict perspective, sociologist looks at religion and sees how it can be harmful to our society by analyzing the political, economic and social inequalities within cultures. Richard T. Shaffer states that “The conflict perspective assumes that social behavior is best understood in terms of tension between groups over power or the allocation of resources, including housing, money, access to services, and political representation.” (Schaefer 14) Conflict perspective sees religion as a danger to society by saying that religion has too much power and brings conflict between societies. Here are some examples of conflict perspectives on religion in society:
• Religion is used as a tool for discriminating social groups. Even though most religions are practically the same, group identifications will usually overlap with religious identification. This cause the conflicts between religious groups are against each because of social, political and economic reasons and it’s not based on religious reasons, which for the most part doesn’t support conflict.
• Some major wars where started because of religious groups thinking that their religion is more superior and try to push there views on society through violence and overtaking. For example, the crusades were a huge religious conflict Catholic Europe against Muslims, pagans, and heretics.
• Some religious groups have too much power and tend to abuse that power to push there beliefs on our society.

Viewing religion in an interactionism perspective, we look to see how religion interacts with society in everyday life; positively or negatively. Interactionism perspective tries to see how religion affects the daily lives of individuals and how they interpret their religious experiences. Richard T. Shaffer states that, “In studying the social order, whereas functionalist and conflict theorists both analyze large-scale, society-wide patterns of behavior, theorists who take the interactionist perspective generalize about everyday forms of social interaction in order to explain society as a whole. Interactionists are especially interested in shared understandings of everyday behavior.” (Schaefer 17) Here are some examples of interactionist perspectives on religion in society:
• Religions bring people together and create friendships that can affect everyday life.
• Religious people believe that they will be rewarded by behaving properly by being granted an afterlife in paradise and punish those who break the rules with placing them in hell for eternal burning.
• Religion can bring families together but may also cause older generation push there beliefs on the children.
Looking at society with different perspective helps us get a better understanding of religion as a whole and how it effects our society. Whether it’s a functionalist, conflict, or interactionism perspectives, we see the good and bad effects, and the way religion interacts with society. So keep an open mind when analyzing different aspects in our society.

Resourses

Schaefer, Richard T.. Sociology: A Brief Introduction, 9th Edition. McGraw-Hill Learning Solutions, 2011. .