6.7 The Elementary Forms of Religious Life

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En provenance du cours de University of Amsterdam

Classical Sociological Theory

1017 notes

University of Amsterdam

Classical Sociological Theory

1017 notes

This Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) will offer the participants an introduction into the most important classical sociological readings between the 18th and 20th century. Highly influential social science scholars, such as Karl Marx, Max Weber and Emile Durkheim, will be discussed during 8 sessions. Combined with small tests, based on the video’s and recommended readings, the participants will be encouraged to dive deeply into the complex texts and get familiar with classical sociological concepts that are still very relevant today.

À partir de la leçon

Session 6: Émile Durkheim (1858-1917)

When thinking of Durkheim, one thinks of social facts. According to Durkheim these social facts are the social structures and cultural norms and values that are external to, and coercive over, individuals. Durkheim argues that two social facts, in particular, influence suicide rates: integration, and regulation. This session will cover the views of Durkheim on topics like solidarity, suicide, and religion.

6.1 Establishing a New Science5:50

6.2 Mechanic and Organic Solidarity6:25

6.3 Social Facts7:20

6.4 Suicide, a Sociological Study6:06

6.5 Egoistic and Altruistic Suicide5:51

6.6 Anomic and Fatalistic Suicide6:18

6.7 The Elementary Forms of Religious Life6:27

6.8 The Social Functions of Religion6:34

Rencontrer les enseignants

Bart van Heerikhuizen
Dr.
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences

Durkheim's most beautiful book appeared in 1912, The Elementary Forms of

Religious Life, Les formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse.

It is presented as a study about the most

distinct origins of religion beliefs in practices.

Durkheim used anthropological or ethnographic material.

He was, for example,

very interested in field studies about a tribe in Australian aboriginals

whose religion was supposed to be one of the oldest types to be found on the Earth.

Durkheim investigated those clan societies and

he tried to prove that this kind of totem religion must have been one

of the earliest primitive manifestations of religiosity in human societies.

But that is not why this is still such an illuminating masterpiece.

I think the book is especially relevant today because it touches on some other

core questions in the sociology of religion.

Let me begin with Durkheim's methodological principle that

the sociologist should always take the words

of the people he studies very seriously.

Even if they tell you about an experience that seems to be very irrational or

even crazy at first sight, do not doubt their honesty.

The experience that they tell you about is a deep reality for them.

So, if you notice for example, that somebody treats seemingly

very ordinary object with strange kind of awe and

reverence, try to understand what is going on there.

Don't mock the Aboriginal who seems to be strangely impressed

by what appears to be an ordinary stone on the ground.

Don't react with a smile when a Catholic prays to a small wooden statue.

Don't criticize a patriotic citizen who experiences genuine

pain when he sees that his flag is burned.

Try to understand them.

Try to imagine what their world must be like for them.

And then the first thing you may notice is that the stone, the statue,

the flag, are, in their eyes, no ordinary everyday object.

They are different.

They are set apart.

They are charged with a special energy.

Durkheim says that for those people there is a clear distinction

between the profane and the sacred, between the mundane, everyday world and

the religious world, between the ordinary and the extraordinary.

If you ask religious person what it is that she or

he experiences when they participate in a religious ritual, or

when they are confronted with an object that they believe to be sacred,

then they of course have to search for words first.

But then, they will eventually come up with an answer that they can feel a kind

of power, something that at the same time frightens them and also comforts them.

It can be frightening at times because it's a power that forces them to

do certain things and to refrain from other things.

And if you do not obey you may be punished.

So it's a coercive force, but it's also a source of strength

because in times of grief and distress it will support you and comfort you.

You can rely on it.

For example, when you mourn the loss of a loved one,

it will catch you when you have a sense of falling.

Durkheim says that somebody who has participated in a religious gathering will

often say that she or he feels strengthened, energized and

bold, empowered, and again, that's not something that they imagine he says.

It's something real.

Maybe it's a feeling that Durkheim himself remembered from the time

when he still went to the synagogue.

This power is so overwhelming that the believers are convinced

that it already existed before they were born and

that it will exist long after they have passed away.

It is something that is not inside them, it is external to them.

It is superior to everybody.

It envelops and unites their whole religious community.

Now Durkheim is convinced that the believers tell the researcher honestly

about what they feel, that he interprets those facts in a different way.

A way that's far removed from the interpretations

of the believers themselves.

This coercive and external power, he says,

can be nothing else than the power of society.

It is society, it is our own social network that supports and

comforts us in times of trouble and grief.

It is society that gives that special feeling of strength and energy.

It is society, it is the conscious collective that existed long before

your were born and that will continue to exist long after you have passed away.

It is society that is external to us,

that overarches our lives and at the same time, binds us together.

Religious imagery is seen here as a kind of proto-sociology, a metaphorical

way to speak about something that is very difficult to imagine and

to comprehend at a time when the science of sociology did not yet exist.

The idea that from the moment of our birth on,

we are inextricably woven into the tissues of society.

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