Max Weber's Three Different Views On Religion

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B. When it comes to analyzing sociological perspectives, the book breaks them up into three different views. The Functionalist perspective, the Conflict perspective, and the Symbolic Interactionist perspective. When it comes to religion, each of these perspectives has a different view entirely. First, the Functionalist view sees religion as something that has certain function in society. Émile Durkheim, French socialist, says that religion serves three main functions. Cohesion of the society as a whole. Social control over the population’s beliefs, rituals, and actions. And finally religion provides a purpose to the life of the population. Often religions have afterlives and rewards tied to them, so this gives the followers a reason to live a certain way or practice certain rituals. The second view of religion is the Conflict view. Those who hold to this perspective see religion as something that causes …show more content…
Power is the ability to achieve one’s ends despite resistance. And Authority is The socially legitimated use of power. People who have power have ultimate control under those who do not. This is the reason that some places have a military rule. The military has all of the guns and other weapons, so they have power and use it to control the people. But there are also places like the united states which has a huge military but the military does not control the people. Weber says that people who have power have a legitimate right to use that power, and this is what he calls authority.
Weber made an attempt to categorize types of power and came up with three different kinds. These are: traditional authority, legal-rational authority, and charismatic authority. Traditional authority is an authority that is legitimated by the historical beliefs and practices of a society. The authority is seen as a sort of sacred position. An example of traditional authority would be The pre-WWII beliefs that Japan had of their emperor. He was seen as god-like and

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