Religion and social life

Throughout history almost every people has understood its life in connection with some belief system, which is why religion is studied as a social phenomenon. In religious studies “function” is the way religion acts in society, while “role” is the sum of the results of these functions. The worldview function is answering questions about the meaning of life and death; the consolation function helps keep inner balance in times of grief; the identity function unites people around shared values (for example Shinto for the Japanese, while in Judaism belonging to the religion can be connected with belonging to the people). The norm-setting and control functions regulate relations such as family, neighbourliness and honesty by rules; the adaptation function helps migrants preserve language and customs in a new environment. Sociologists have assessed religion’s influence in different ways: Émile Durkheim analysed religion as a system uniting the community in “The Elementary Forms of Religious Life” (1912), while Max Weber studied the influence of religious values on economic behaviour in “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” (1904–1905). In history religion has also sometimes been used for political and economic interests; so the relations of religion with science and with power must be assessed in their historical context.