Émile Durkheim
(1858-1917)
There may be no more influential figure in the study of religion than the late nineteenth-century French scholar, Emile Durkheim--considered to be one of the founders of the modern academic discipline of sociology. Although not all scholars today study religion sociologically, along with the political economist Karl Marx and the social psychologist Sigmund Freud, Durkheim is certainly among a very small group of writers who have had a tremendous impact on the modern field. Prior to scholars such as Durkheim, the now-taken-for-granted role that society plays in shaping individual consciousness and behavior was not so apparent to scholars. For this reason, his 1897 sociological study of the causes of European suicide helped considerably to legitimize sociology as a science. In that work, Durkheim argued that, unlike previous studies that argued that suicide resulted from individual decision or malady, the suicide rate was inversely correlated to the cohesiveness of a person's social group; that is, the higher rates of suicide among Protestants, as opposed to Roman Catholics and Jews, could be explained as a result of the former group's emphasis on the lone individual as opposed to the greater sense of social unity evident in the latter two (of which Jews were, for Durkheim, the strongest example since their communities in Europe were, historically speaking, set apart and, of strict necessaity, much more self-reliant and cohesive). This leads to a crucial sociological insight contributed by Durkheim, one that is still provocative of thought: religion, he concluded, functioned as a "prophylactic" against suicide not because of what it does or does not preach or teach to its adherents (in other words, not because of its content) but, instead, because of the role its all-consuming rituals and institutions play in bringing individuals together as a group, thereby providing them with not only a sense of belonging but also a sense of what it is to be a particular sort of individual.
Major Works
The Rules of Sociological Method (1895)
Suicide: A Study in Sociology (1897)
"On Some Primitive Forms of Classification: Contribution to the Study
of Collective Representations" (1903; published as Primitive Classification,
co-written with Marcel Mauss)
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life: The Totemic System in Australia
(1912)
Quotation
"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 community called a Church all
those to adhere to them. The second element thus holds a place in my definition
that is no less essential than the first: In showing that the idea of
religion is inseparable from the idea of a Church, it conveys the notion
that religion must be an eminently collective thing."
- from Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912)
Select Web Resources on Durkheim
Emile
Durkheim
The
Durkheim Page
The
Emile Durkheim Archive
Emile Durkheim and Religion: An Annotated Bibliography
Secondary Literature on Durkheim and Religion
Eric J. Sharpe, Comparative Religion: A History, pp.82-86. Open
Court, 1986.
Steven Lukes, Emile Durkheim: His Life and Work. Penguin, 1973.
Brian Morris, The Anthropological Study of Religion: An Introductory
Text, chapter 3. Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Karen Fields, "Religion as an Eminently Social Thing," translator's
introduction to The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. The Free
Press, 1995.
Walter Capps, Religious Studies: The Making of a Discipline, pp.
159-162. Fortress Press, 1995.
Daniel Pals, Seven Theories of Religion, chapter 3. Oxford University
Press, 1996.
Ivan Strenski, "Durkheim, Emile," The Encyclopedia of Religion,
2nd edition. vol. 4, pp. 2526-2530. Macmillan Reference USA, 2005.