Question

Write in 10 lines about religion of Durkheim

Answer 1

Answer:

If religion has given birth to all that is essential in society, it is because the idea of

society is the soul of religion. (Bellah, 1973, p. 191 [excerpt from The Elementary Forms of the

Religious Life])

For we know today that a religion does not necessarily imply symbols and rites,

properly speaking, or temples and priests. This whole exterior apparatus is only the

superficial part. Essentially, it is nothing other than a body of collective beliefs and

practices endowed with a certain authority. (1973, p. 51 [excerpt from Individualism and the

Intellectuals ])

The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, the last major work published by Durkheim,

five years before his death in 1917, is generally regarded as his best and most mature.

Where Suicide focused on a large amount of statistics from varying sources, The

Elementary Forms used one case study in depth, the Australian aborigines. Durkheim

chose this group because he felt they represented the most basic, elementary forms of

religion within a culture.

Durkheim's finding that religion was social can best be described by this excerpt from

The Elementary Forms:

The general conclusion of the book which the reader has before him is that religion is

something eminently social. Religious representations are collective representations

which express collective realities; the rites are a manner of acting which take rise in the

midst of assembled groups and which are destined to excite, maintain, or recreate certain

mental states in these groups. So if the categories are of religious origin, they ought to

participate in this nature common to all religious facts; they should be social affairs and

the product of collective thought. At least -- for in the actual condition of our knowledge

of these matters, one should be careful to avoid all radical and exclusive statements -- it is

allowable to suppose that they are rich in social elements.

(Thompson, 1982, p. 125 [excerpt from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life])

...sacred things are simply collective ideals that have fixed themselves on material

objects.

(1973, p. 159 [excerpt from The Dualism of Human Nature and its Social Conditions ])

Durkheim, concerned with social solidarity throughout his academic career, was

primarily concerned with religion as a functional source of social cohesion. As said

before, religion acts to pull people together (mentally and physically, in the form of

religious services or assemblies). By doing so, religion is able to reaffirm collective

morals and beliefs in the minds of all members of society. This is important, because if

left to their own for a long amount of time, the beliefs and convictions of individuals will

weaken in strength, and require reinforcement. Religion maintains the influence of

Answer 2

Durkheim's definition of religion, from Elementary Forms, is as follows: "A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden – beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them."

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