The next theory of religion from Pals’ Eight Theories of Religion comes from Emile Durkheim, a sociologist born in 1858 in Strasbourg, France. Durkheim provided a powerful and influential theory.
An advocate of the scientific method, he wanted the study of society to be as scientific as possible. He approached the question as a nonbeliever, although his father had been a rabbi, and he had been greatly influenced by a Roman Catholic school teacher in his youth.
The study of the human being had to be done scientifically, which Durkheim called sociology, whose purpose was to uncover the social facts of humanity. Social facts are the fundamental and collective elements that shape and influence our lives. A social fact, although intangible, is a real mass phenomenon manifested by the whole that affects individual consciousness. People always belong to something and this social identity precedes individual identity. A person cannot simply be reduced to biological instinct, individual psychology, or personal interests. We are far more the products of society than of our individual choices. The fact that this idea sounds so mundane today is just an indicator of how influential and successful this point of view has become.
In looking at religion in terms of its social impacts, Durkheim asked why is religion so important and prevalent in human affairs? What function does it play in the life of the individual and in the workings of society?
In his work The Elementary form of Religious Life (1912), Durkheim concludes that religion is more than just the separation of the natural and the supernatural. Rather, religion is the institution that divides things between the sacred and the profane. Sacred things merit our respect because they are set aside as superior, powerful and forbidden to normal contact. The profane is the mundane, everyday, and practical. Sacred things always concern the group while profane things are less important, smaller, often individual matters. Religion resides within the sacred. Durkheim defines religion as “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden.” The purpose of the sacred is to “unite into one moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them” (Durkheim).
Durkheim dismisses the idea that religion has its origins in magic. Magic is a private matter. Religious rituals and beliefs manifest when people invoke the group or collectivity. A magician might have clients, but he or she does not have a congregation. Durkheim suggests that theories about magic and animism misunderstood the function of religion. Further, he critiques the theory of religion by Tyler for being insufficiently scientific. Rather than giving a conjecture about how people invented the gods in the time before the historical record, as Tylor did, Durkheim stated we should look at the evidence available now for the “ever present causes” and find its “elementary forms.”
He did this by looking at studies of people living in hunting and gathering societies. His theory of religion is based on anthropological research of the communities in Australia, who practiced a totem religion. The native Australian people divided themselves into clans that each had an individual animal, plant or object as their totem. The totem animal was sacred and forbidden to eat. The clan was also sacred as it was united with the totem. This was religion in its most elementary form and still in existence in his day. We cannot know what caused the origin of religion in the past because there is no evidence; therefore, science must then take totemism, the simplest, most basic, original form of religion, as the basis for religion in general and from which all other religions arise.
In totemism, the clans do not actually worship the mundane animal itself, but rather an anonymous and impersonal force that stands beyond the totem and has enormous power. The totem has a physical and moral force over the clan that inspires respect and moral obligation to observe its ceremonies, and most importantly, through the totem, the clan feels a deeply connecting bond and abiding loyalty.
The totem is a symbol of the god and of the clan. Thus, they are really one and the same. Durkheim’s insight was that devotion to the totem was really the way primitive peoples express and reinforce their devotion to the social organism. The function of religion is to provide and reinforce social belonging. Society is an abstraction that exists in the individual consciousness. Religion penetrates our consciousness and provides the social glue for the individual to the group, which is manifested and reinforced in important ceremonies. In the ecstasy of the ritual, they unite and feel connected to the group.
The totem remains the fixed and permanent symbol of the clan. From this the other phenomena of religion follow. For example, the belief in spirits or souls comes from the totemic spiritual force that is spread out into each individual. As the totem is spread among the group, each individual portion becomes the “soul.” The soul is thus the voice and conscience of the clan, separate from our personal bodies. Likewise, the growth and importance of the clan and the totem make the guardian spirit more and more powerful until they acquire “mythical personalities of a superior order.” Indeed, the aborigines also had a notion of a high god that united and stood above the totem gods– a kind of creator god.
Religion fills a primary role in uniting people to a community. When people worship, they are really worshiping the collectivity that reminds them of the importance of the group over the individual. Beliefs are only the speculative side of religion that allow for theological distinctions but make little functional difference. What is important is ritual practice and ceremony for social unity.
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