Which simply has some repeated pattern of human action, which has some religious significance or connection. For example, marriage ceremonies in churches, baptism, prayer, confession, confirmation are all rituals. With Marxism and Functionalism theories both take the Structuralist approach and both take the macro World view, meaning they both are interested in studying the frameworks of society and how society shapes our behaviour. Both sociological perspectives were developed in the 19th Century as response to the rapid social change of the Industrial revolution. Also both sociological perspectives pursue a functionalist logic. Both perspectives are interested on the social forces and pressures of society meaning that they are deterministic. Functionalists believe that Religion is an agency of socialisation, and the role of socialisation Religion plays is that of cultural learning. Functionalists believe society represents an external constraint as norms and values regulate and limit our behaviour. Without socialisation, where people are integrated and regulated by society, social chaos would result. Social order and stability is therefore based upon individuals sharing norms and values. Pattern maintainence (latency) therefore needs to maintain the value consensus. Marxists believe that Religion is an agency of social control and that Religion uses its social control to suppress the masses through the development of false consciousness. The Functionalist perspective takes Religion at face value according to the Marxist perspective and does not recognise its underlying features whereas the Marxists uses Religion to explain social order. Conversely both theories explain social order but they differ of who benefits from them. In the Marxist perspective it describes those who benefit from social order as the ruling class; this is because there position is maintained because Religion makes people accept the status quo.
