Primary forms of religious life

Section: Political Books

Number of pages: 608 pages

Durkheim, a pioneer of sociology and anthropology, was a professor of education and sociology at the Sorbonne in Paris. In this book, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, he develops a general theory of religion by analyzing the simplest primitive religious institutions. He argues that religion is a set of beliefs and customs that are interconnected and linked to sacred objects. He proposes a new conception of religion and the social forces that it produces. The book's two themes are: analyzing the simplest known religion with the aim of identifying the elementary forms of religious life, and the emergence of basic concepts in thought and the reasons for believing that they have a religious, and thus a social, origin. In the "Conclusion" of the book, Durkheim concludes that religion is based on a solid but not preferable experience, that the conflict between religion and science concerns only the contemplative function of religion, that abstract meaning is not confused with the general idea, and is characterized by its impersonality and its ability to be contagious, and that it has a collective origin.