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ODea, Thomas F. 1966. Excerpts from ch. 1, The Functionalist Approach in The

Sociology of Religion. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

. As a frame of reference for empirical research, functional theory sees society asan ongoing equilibrium of social institutions which pattern human activity in terms of shared

norms, held to be legitimate and binding by the human participants themselves. Thiscomplex of institutions, which as a whole constitutes the social system, is such that each part(each institutional element) is interdependent with all the other parts, and that changes in any

part affect the others, and the condition of the system as a whole . Hence the questions

arises: What is the contribution of each institutional complex to the maintenance of the

social system? Such contributions may be either obvious or subtle. They may be such thatthe human actors understand them, but they may also be beyond the actors awareness. That

is to say, a social institution has both manifestand latentfunctions as part of a total social

system [1]. With respect to our subject the question arises: What are the functions, manifestand latent, of [institutions] in maintaining the equilibrium of the social system as a whole?

Moreover, functional theory views culture as a more or less integrated body ofknowledge, pseudo-knowledge, beliefs, and values. These define the human situation and

the conditions of actions for the members of a society. Culture, understood in this way, is a

symbolic system of meanings, some of which define reality as it is believed to be, others of

which define normative expectations incumbent on humans. The elements making up thesystem of cultural meanings may be either implicit or explicit. A cultural system of

meanings displays some degree of meaningful integration and strain toward consistency.

Culture is integrated with the social system in that it enters into the definitions of means andends, of proscriptions and prescriptions, of the permitted and the forbidden, by defining roles

within which a societys members confront the established expectations of their socialsituation. Religion, with its transcendent reference to a beyond, is an important aspect of this

cultural phenomenon. Culture is the creation by man of a world of adjustment and meaning,

in the context of which human life can be significantly lived. Thus culture enters deeply intothe thinking and feeling of men and is central to the social forms which emerge from their

actions.

. Functional theory sees man in society as characterized by two types of needs and

two kinds of propensities to act. Men must act upon the environment, either adjusting to it or

mastering and controlling it, to insure their own survival. A human society with its culture is

the unit of human survival and societies often require the death of some of their members toinsure their own survival. The history of humanity reveals that men have progressively

increased their capacity to control their environment and influence the conditions of their

lives. But men are not simply makers of things and manipulators of environmentalconditions. Human activity is not simply adaptive and manipulative. Men also express

feelings, act out felt needs, respond to persons and things in non-utilitarian ways. As the

American sociologist George C. Homans has put it, men never confine themselves to thoseactivities, interactions and sentiments necessary for the survival of the group, but elaborate

these needs far beyond survival requirements [2].

[1] Robert K. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structure. (Glencoe, Ill: The Free Press, 1958), pp. 19-84.

[2] George C. Homans, The Human Group (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1950), p. 108.