To What Extent Is Liberalism a Single Doctrine

Substantive: concerned with what religion is rather than what it does for its members. Focused on the substance of religious belief.

Exclusive; thus these usually define religion in a limited way referring to beliefs, actions and institutions orientated towards supernatural beings/ powers. To be a religion, a set of beliefs must include belief in god or supernatural.

• Narrow, others aren’t able to qualify as a religion.
• Accused of western bias e.g. exclude religions such as Buddhism which don not believe in the western notion of god.
• Ethnocentric- not all cultures make a distinction between natural and supernatural
• Leads to the belief that religion has declined.

Functional definitions: define religion in terms of its purposes and use for society and the individual, and the social affects it has on its members. -> Inclusive; usually define religion in a broad way whereby several ideologies which aren’t considered as a religion are included.

• TOO WIDE: anyone can qualify to have a religion
• Anything which provides a function can be seen as a religion… even though they do not hold religious principles.
• Just because religion may help integration doesn’t make it a religion, e.g. football.

DURKHEIM: THE ELEMENTARY FORMS OF RELIGIOUS LIFE

• Durkheim relates religion to the structure of society; he believes religion only exists where there is a distinction between profane and sacred.
• Sacred people, objects and symbols are basically set apart from ordinary things and access to them is often limited.
• He studied totemism amongst Australian aborigines, he saw this as the most basic religion and thus all other religions performing similar function as this religion.
• Totemism is a system of religious belief which attributes divine properties to an animal or plant. Which is believed to have sacred properties thus makes it uneatable. There is nothing natural about the totem that made it sacred, they imparted their own values which they have been socialised into onto it.  
• The totem becomes a symbol of their beliefs thus the ceremonies involved in the worship of this totem, they are effectively worshiping their society whilst reaffirming social solidarity.
• Durkheim used this example of the totem to show that by effectively worshiping societies values in the totem, this demonstrated the moral superiority of society over the individual.
• The totem represents societies collective conscience- participating in shared rituals reminds them they are part of something bigger than themselves which they owe a loyalty to.
• In this sense also performs a function for the individual in reminding them that they belong to something bigger than themselves strengthening individuals to overcome obstacles that might otherwise defeat them.
• Through maintaining social solidarity, religion acts to support the status quo and acts as a conservative force thus maintaining social order and stability.

Bellah- Neo- functionalist- analysed modern societies and the rituals and ceremony that are associated with national loyalties.

e.g. national anthems, pledge of allegiance, flags, poppy, etc.

-‘civil religion’- when sacred qualities are attributed to aspects of society itself.

For example, America is evidently a nation of immigrants. Despite of social/ cultural division there is a higher loyalty expected towards faith in Americanism in other words a ‘civil religion’ civil religion generates widespread loyalties to the nation state.

Traditional religions bind individuals to their communities whereas civil religion in America binds the nation. It doesn’t need to have a connection with god; god and Americanism go in hand in hand. Americanism originates in America as an immigrant nation, the god they talk of doesn’t have an allege to a faith rather the god of America.

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Using Material from Item A and elsewhere assess the functionalist view that religion benefits both society as a whole and for individual.

Functionalists take a consensus approach to religion as item A states, they advocate that religion benefits both society and the individual in contrast Marxists and Feminists take a conflict approach emphasising conflict and inequality where some individuals and groups benefit from religion at the expense of others.

Durkheim a functionalist sociologist, uses his study of totemism as a religion amongst Australian aborigines to demonstrate how religion benefits both the individual and society as a whole. Here, attributes of divine properties are attached to an animal or a plant, in result of this they come to be considered to be sacred, and the groups own values are then aligned to the plant or animal. According to Durkheim through collective worship of the totem, the collective conscience is effectively reinforced as they are worshiping their society’s values inside the totem. At the same time, performing psychological functions as they are reminded that they are a part of something bigger than themselves that they owe loyalty to. This helping individuals to overcome obstacles that might otherwise defeat them if alone. Therefore, through reaffirming social solidarity and the collective conscience through the collective worship of the totem, religion acts to support the status quo and acts as a conservative force, maintaining social order and stability of society. Durkheim is often critised as his findings are based on secondary research based on previous illiterate societies, to what extent are these findings still applicable to modern complex societies characterised by a plurality of religions? Are these functions applicable to newly found religions? For example, Bellah a neo Marxist has coined the term ‘civil religion’ to describe how perhaps stability is maintained in pluralistic religious societies.  

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