A Comparative Study of the Functions of Religion according to the Perspective of Allameh Tabatabai and Max Weber

Religion is the most problematic and widespread social phenomenon. Many thinkers have studied this phenomenon in different dimensions. A functionalist view of religion can answer many new issues from the foundation of religion. Max Weber has been able to consider some of the functions of religion according to the functionalist view among sociologists. However, he has looked at religion with a reductionist view and has made the function of religion limited to the world and the physical dimension of man. In contrast, the Islamic thinker Allameh Tabatabai has examined it a wide view on religion its functional dimensions while explaining religion rationally. Although the theoretical foundations of these two thinkers in both ontology and anthropology are significantly different from each other, they consider religion as a response to the meaningless challenge of life according to the semantic approach. The common denominator of both thinkers is that religion can present a picture of existence that justifies suffering and reveals a just God to man. Another common function of religion, according to these two thinkers, is the effect of its propositions on economic growth.