Braxton Percival

World Religions
September 10, 2016
What is Religion
Society has constantly tried to pinpoint what religion is by definition. Although, religion
is something changes over time and has many different variations, themes, aspects, and
complexities that make it extremely hard to define and understand it completely. It is really hard
to give religion a finite definition. The purpose of this essay is not to explain all aspects of
religion. The purpose of this essay is to define three basic perspectives there are of religion.
These three basic perspectives of religion covers the majority of religions. The three basic
perspectives of religion are a materialistic, functional, and faith perspective. Like I said
previously, these three perspectives cover majority of religions, not all religions. I will begin by
sharing with you what a materialistic perspective of religion is.
A materialistic perspective of religion disregards all spiritual aspects of religion and
focuses on the material things. Materialists believe that the supernatural world does not exist.
They focus on the material, physical things of the world. They also view religion as something
that was created and is used to control people. This perspective gained a lot of popularity in the
nineteenth and twentieth-centuries. A famous ninetieth century socialist philosopher named Karl
Marx said that man makes religion: religion does not make man. 1Karl Marx argued that religion
satisfies people falsely. Someone who has a functionalist perspective believes similar things.
A functionalists, like materialists, does not believe in the supernatural world. A functionalist view
religion as something that can be found all around the world as a positive things that helps a

1 Mary Fisher, Living Religion, New Jersey: Pearson, 2016, p.4

society function properly.2 Again, they do not believe in the super natural world. They believe in
the power that religion has to unify people as a society. Functionalists also believe that having
faith and having a religious practice is good for mental and physical health. A twentieth-century
psychoanalyst Erich Fromm stated that faith in God gives believers mental strength to confront
problems in life.3 Modern scientific research has also proved that having religious faith and
practices does help cope with stress and promotes overall better well being.
Contrary to both a materialistic perspective and a functionalist perspective, faith perspective does
believe in ultimate reality. They believe that the supernatural does exist. They believe this
supernatural reality cannot be completely understood nit perceived. There are many paths that
lead to this faith perspective. According to Martian Luther, one path to faith is through deep
questioning.4 Other ways to come to a faith perspective is though encounters with the unseen
reality. There are many names for these encounters with unseen reality such as, revelations,
visions, enlightenment, awakening, and many more. These encounters often happen
spontaneously or through methods such as prayer and meditation.
In conclusion, it is extremely hard to give religion one finite definition. There are many scholars
who have tried to define what religion is. The problem is there are so many different perspectives
and views of what religion is and what it does to individuals and societies, that you have to look
at all perspective definitions to get a good understanding of religion. From a materialistic
perspective there is no such thing as a supernatural world. They believe in what material physical
things only and base their life around it. From a functionalist perspective, there still is no belief
2 Ibid. p. 4
3 Ibid. p.5
4 Ibid. p. 7

in a supernatural world. Although, a functionalist believes religion is a good thing to help society
function well. Also, believe religious practice helps everyone function better. From a faith
perspective, they do believe in the supernatural world and feel the benefits of it in their life. The
faith based person feels a spiritual connection and enlightenment.
From my personal understanding and experience with religion, these three perspectives
can be found in all religions. I feel live everyone has personal beliefs that incorporate all of these
perspectives at different levels. For example, someone might be Christian and have a lot of belief
from a materialistic, or in other words, scientific proof of Jesus Christs life. On the other hand,
another Christian can have very little to no connection to the scientific proof of Jesus Christ, but
practices their belief focused on a faith perspective. You could also have someone that focuses on
the functional aspects of being a Christian. For example, they might not believe as much from a
faith perspective, but they acknowledge the benefits of religious practice and find it satisfying,
therefore they continue to practice Christianity. I served as a missionary for the LDS church in
Minnesota, and I met a lot of LDS people that all believed in the same religion, yet I noticed how
each of them focused on the religion from different combinations of all of these perspectives I
previously talked about.
Reflection
A reflection of the Living Religions coarse Fall of 2016 semester. Previous to this class I
was fairly familiar with Christianity and also Islam. I served as a missionary for The Church Of
Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints for 2 years and got to know/learn from many people from all
different faiths. I also had a lot of great friends from North and South Sudan who would teach
me more about Islam. This class enlightened me more on the eastern religions of Hinduism and
Buddhism. There are a lot of things I learned, but ultimately this class has enlightened me greatly

on the relationship between social structure, government, and religion. The Eastern civilizations
of the world are greatly found upon Hinduism and Buddhism teachings and philosophy. The
Hindu teaching of Dharma greatly impacted the social structure of places like India where
Hinduism is very large.
Also, my eastern site visit also enlightened me a lot more to eastern religion. Its one
thing to read and hear my professor talk about the way Hindus or Buddhists worship, but being
able to watch them worship gives you a whole new prospective. Previous to me eastern site visit,
I just saw Hinduism and Buddhism as a very strange way to be spiritual. After my site visit, I
realized that it is different, but its what works for them.
In summary, life is difficult and is filled with problems. Spirituality is a way for society to
deal with the difficulties and problems. I learned over this coarse that there are a lot of details
and things that go into religion. The most significant thing I learned is that even though there are
a lot of details and differences, it doesnt matter. All that matters is if people are happy and their
spirituality helps them be happy and deal with lifes problems and difficulties.