Max Weber's Argument For Making Sense Of Religious Action

QUESTION 3:

Max Weber argues for making sense of religious action on its own terms. A religious group or individual is influenced by all kinds of things, he says, but if they claim to be acting in the name of religion, we should attempt to understand their perspective on religious grounds first. Weber gives religion credit for shaping a person's image of the world, and this image of the world can affect their view of their interests, and ultimately how they decide to take action. For Weber`s religion is best understood as it responds to the human need for theodicy and soteriology. Human beings are troubled, he says, with the question of theodicy the question of how the extraordinary power of a divine god may be reconciled with the imperfection

In other words, religion is the self-consciousness and self feeling of man who has either not yet found himself or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man, the state, and society. Religion helps man to forget the real world. Persons having vested interests use religion for the attainment of their parochial and limited interests. Marx makes all these remarks about religion in the background of the role religion played in all the periods before

He saw religion as a reflection of the concern for society. He based his view on recent research regarding totemism among the Australian aboriginals. With totemism he meant that each of the many clans had a different object, plant, or animal that they held sacred and that symbolizes the clan. Durkheim saw totemism as the original and simplest form of religion (pg.148). According to Durkheim, the analysis of this simple form of religion could provide the building blocks for more complex religions. He asserted that moralism cannot be separated from religion. Durkheim says, "If religion has given birth to all that is essential in society, it is because the idea of society is the soul of religion. Religious forces are therefore human force, moral forces." Here he means, religion and society are parallel in their nature and that they feed off of one another in terms of morality and society (pg. 151). Teachings of religion form a society and in return, the society comes together in the name of religion. The sacred i.e. religion reinforces group interest that clash very often with individual interests. Durkheim held the view that the function of religion is group cohesion often performed by collectively attended rituals. He asserted that these group meeting provided a special kind of energy, which he called effervescence, that made group members lose their