Write in 10 lines about religion of Durkheim
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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
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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