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Emile Durkheim: Religions
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Durkheim grew up in a Jewish family and it was assumed by his relatives that he would eventually become a rabbi. However, he displayed impressive intellectual capabilities and earned a position at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, the most prestigious teachers' college in France. Around this time he ... generally lost his religious faith, although he retained a strong desire for moral reform and moral studies. Instead of religion, he hoped that science - and in particular the scientific study of society - would help bring about moral reformation.
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Durkheim proceeds, on the basis of this definition, to refute other conceptions of religion. Animistic theories explain religion by reference to the worship of the soul which would be the result of dreams, of an illusion, of fantasy. This is nonsense since it is an individualistic interpretation, and because it cannot account for the fact that something which has sustained as long as religion it must have physical, concrete aspects. Likewise, naturalistic theories pose that religion comes from the fact that sacredness is attributed to sensuous experiences and the language by which reference is made to these phenomena. Again, this is nonsense since religion is again attributed to an illusion, namely the illusion of just names.
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Durkheim was born in the eastern French province of Lorraine. He studied at École Normale Supérieure. He made contributions to subjects such as education, crime, religion, suicide, and many other topics related to sociology.
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If religion in its essence is a transcendental representation of the powers of society, then, Durkheim argued, the disappearance of traditional religion need not herald the dissolution of society. All that is required is for modern men now to realize directly that dependence on society which before they had recognized only through the medium of religious representations. "We must discover the rational substitutes for these religious notions that for a long time have served as the vehicle for the most essential moral ideas." Society is the father of us all; therefore, it is to society we owe that profound debt of gratitude heretofore paid to the gods. The following passage, which in its rhetoric is rather uncharacteristic of Durkheim's usual analytical style, reveals some of his innermost feelings:
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For his own attempt to locate the source of the sacred and lay bare what religion is all about, Durkheim examines just one type of religion, Australian totemism, which he sees as the most basic type available for study. [5] In totemism, tribes are divided into clans whose solidarity derives not from kinship, but from a religious relationship between its members. As Durkheim understands it, this relationship is based on a sacred association between the clan, its members and a totemic entity, usually a local animal or plant species.
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One of the "social facts" which Durkheim regarded as particularly important was that of religion. According to Durkheim, religion is one of the most fundamental social phenomena which allows for the development of other forms of intellectual life. He did not approach religion as a set of dogmas; instead, he approached religion as a social activity and a means by which social groups express themselves. Thus, because all religions are expressions of a social reality and have important social functions, he argued that all religions are "true" in their own way.
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