Theory of Religion by Emile Durkheim’s

Emile Durkheim’s last major book “The Elementary Forms of Religious Life” 1912 is often regarded as the most profound and the most original of these works. Religion is the ultimate non-material social fact and an examination of it allowed him to shed new light on this entire aspect of this theoretical system.

Durkheim thought that the model for the relationship between people and the supernatural was the relationship between the individual and the community. He is famous for suggesting that “God is society, writ large”. He believed that people ordered the physical world, the supernatural world, and the social world according to similar principles. 

His definition of religion favored by anthropologists of religion today was “A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, i.e. things set apart and forbidden beliefs and practices which unite in one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them. Durkheim had two purposes for this study

1. To identify the social origin of religion as he felt that religion was a source of camaraderie and solidarity.
2. To identify links between certain religions in different cultures finding a common denominator. 

The major sources of his data were to study religion within a primitive setting for several reasons. There are given below

1. It is much easier to gain insight into the essential nature of religion in a primitive setting than in a more modern society.
2. Primitive religion ideological systems are less well developed than those of modern religions, with the result that there is less obfuscation.
3. Whereas religion in modern society takes diverse forms, in primitive society there is “intellectual and moral conformity” 

Function 

Durkheim condensed religion into 4 major functions

1. Disciplinary: Forcing or administrating discipline.
2. Cohesive: Bringing people together, a strong band.
3. Vitalizing: To make more lively or vigorous, vitalize, and boost the spirit. 
4. Euphoric: A good feeling, of happiness, confidence, and well-being.

Durkheim believes that “Society has to be present within the individual. He saw religion as a mechanism that shored up or protected a threatened social order. He thought that religion had the element of society in the past but that the collapse of religion would not lead to a moral implosion. He was specifically interested in religion as a communal experience rather than an individual one. He also says that religious phenomena occur when a separation is made between the proofer and the sacred.  

Sacred and Profane

The ultimate question for Durkheim was the source of modern religion. Because specialization and the ideological smoke serum make it impossible to study directly the roots of religion in modern society. Durkheim addressed the issue in the context of primitive society. The question is where primitive and modern religion comes from operating from his basic methodological position that only one social fact causes another social fact. Durkheim concluded that society is the source of all religion. 

According to Durkheim, the essence of religion is a division of the world into two kinds of phenomena----

• Sacred: Sacred refers to things human beings set apart, including religious beliefs, rites, deities, or anything socially defined as requiring special religious treatment. Participation in the sacred order, such as in rituals or ceremonies, gives a special prestige, illustrating one of the social functions of religion. Durkheim wrote: The sacred thing is parred excellence that which the profane should not touch and cannot touch with impunity”
• Profane: Profane is the reverse of the sacred “The circle of sacred objects”, continued Durkheim, cannot be determined once and for all. Its existence varies infinitely, according to the different religions.

Three differences between the sacred the profane and the elevation of some aspects of social life to the sacred level are necessary but not sufficient conditions for the development of religion. Their other conditions are needed.  

First: There must be the development of a set of beliefs. These beliefs are “the representations which express the nature of sacred things and the relations which they sustain, either with each other or with profane things.

Second: A set of religious rites is necessary. These are “the rules of conduct which prescribe how a man should comport himself in the presence of these sacred objects”

Third: A religion requires a church or a single overarching moral community. The interrelationship among the sacred, beliefs, rites, and church led Durkheim to the following definition of a religion: “A religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them” (1912/1965:62).

Totemism: Durkheims view that society is the source of religion shaped his examination of Totemism in the Australian Arena. Totemism is a religious system in which certain things, particularly animals and plants come to be regarded as sacred and as emblems of the clan. Durkheim views terms as the simple, most primitive form of religion. It is parallel by a similarly primitive form of social organization, the clan. If Durkheim could have shown that the clan is the source of Totemism, he could have demonstrated his argument that society is at the root of religion.

According to Durkheim: “The essence of Totemism is the worship of an impersonal anonymous force at once immanent and transcendent. This anonymous, diffuse force which is superior to men and very close to them is, in reality, society itself” 

Although a clan may have a large number of totems, Durkheim was not inclined to view these as a series of separate, fragmentary beliefs about specific animals or plants. Instead, he tended to view them as an interrelated set of ideas that give the clan a more or less compute repressive of the world. The plant or animal is not the source of Totemism, it merely represents that source. The totems are the material representation of the immaterial force that is at their base. And that immaterial force is none other than the familiar collective conscience of society.

Totemism, and more generally religion is derived from the collective morality and becomes itself an impersonal force. It is not simply a series of mythical animals, plants, personalities, spirituals or gods. 

Collective Effervescence 

Collective Effervescence is the source of religion. In Durkheim's view, it comes from only one source-society. In the primitive case examined by Durkheim, this meant that the clear is the ultimate source of religion. Although we may agree that the clan is the source of Totemism, the question remains: How does the clan create Totemism? The answer lies in a central but little-discussed component of Durkheim's conceptual arsenal –collective Effervescence.

The notion of collective effervescence is not well spelled out in any of Durkheim’s works, including the elementary forms of Religious life. He seemed to have in mind, in a general sense, the great moments in history when a collectivity is able to achieve a new and heightened level of collective exaltation that in turn can lead to great changes in the structure of society. The Reformation and the Renaissance would be examples of historical periods when collective effervescence had a marked effect on the structure of society. During periods of collective effervescence, the clan members create Totemism. 

In sum, Totemism is the symbolic representation of the collective conscience, and the collective conscience, in turn, is derived from society. Therefore, society is the source of the collective commences religion, the concept of God, and ultimately everything that is sacred. In a very real sense, we can argue that the sacred and society are one and the same. This is fairly clear-cut in primitive society. It remains the today even though the relationship is greatly obscured by the complexities of modern society.