ABSTRACT
Function, a term that was especially popular when the academic study of religion originated several generations ago, refers to a theoretical approach that is interested in explaining the work that religion, or being religious, is imagined to perform in society or for the individual. Functionalist approaches to religion are therefore interested neither in metaphysics nor in uncovering either the characteristic or the source of the experiential or the sacred, and, because of this, today such approaches are criticized by some in the field as reductionistic. Functionalism refers to the idea that all aspects of a society serve a discrete purpose and are each necessary for the survival of that society and, by extension, the integration and wellbeing of the individuals that comprise it. Functionalist theories of religion begin from the premise that practitioner accounts are not in competition with, nor a complement to, those accounts that are offered by the scholar.
