Durkheim and Weber on the Origins of Social Bearing of Religion

Emile Durkheim, famous French sociologist and philosopher, spent a lot of his years trying to identify why religion was so important to people around the world. After studying religion for many years, he published his first book on the subject which was titled The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. The book was written with the sole purpose of analyzing the concept of religion and why it is such a huge social phenomenon which affects the life of millions of people around the world every day. The fundamental reason behind why Durkheim decided to write a book was so that he could identify where religion originated from and what its functions are in the society. He was of the opinion that religion was a source of fellowship and unanimity. He also wanted to study different religions around the world which lie in different cultures. The reason why he wanted to do was because he aimed to identify how each religion differed from the other and if possible, what aspects or elements of religion had consistency with each other. His primary aim, therefore, was to establish certain empirical data over how some social aspects of religion are common throughout the world and how they even go so far as to surpass the concept of an Almighty God.
In his book, Durkheim defined religion as being a unified set of beliefs and practices that share relations with sacred things. He also identified how some things in religion are set apart from others and are forbidden for its followers. It also includes the beliefs and practices that are shared by millions of other people who follow the same religion and speaks about how these beliefs and practices unite each of the many different people who follow the religion. Despite the fact that Durkheim went to great lengths to identify and explain the purpose of religion, there is one fundamental aspect of religion that he did not touch upon which includes references to the supernatural or the existence of God. He explained this by arguing the fact that the concept of God and supernatural things was fairly new and since science at the time was not so advanced, there were certain things that could not be rationally proved or explained. He said that for the early societies, anything that could not be rationally proved became something supernatural. Durkheim wrote at length about religions which give little or no importance to the existence of God which include Buddhism. He identified that in this religion, ensuring that the follower remains firm over the Four Noble Truths is something that is more important than any form of sin that they may become a part of. Durkheim worked with three concepts which included the concept of the sacred, beliefs and practices and the moral community.
Emile Durkheim is ranked among a number of famous French philosophers who have studied the problems associated with losing faith in a religion. Important examples of this include times when the Jacobins annihilated Catholicism from France and tried to replace it with an artificial religion that revolved around the concept of reason. Durkheim made it a mission to identify how modern societies can maintain morality without the presence of religious sanctions. He has argued that religion is the glue that holds society together and it is something that guides every of its followers away from the lure of material things and instead have them focus on a common devotion to sacred things. It also provides cohesion by promoting a sense of belonging and collective consciousness. One of his goals was to identify the effects on society as to what would happen in the case where the fundamental core of religion was taken out. He identified that religion is something that does not only bind the individual but it is something that affects the community as a whole. Durkheim was interested in studying the communal activities and bonds that give rise to religious activities. He argued that a religious phenomenon occurs when something from the normal everyday life is separated from something that is sacred and supernatural to the believers. He also pointed out that it is men that choose to consider an object sacred or common to everyday life and wrote about the concept of wine at mass as it represents the blood of Christ and not just a mere beverage. It is something that the religious community as a whole has given meaning to and made it a part of their worship. He also wrote that religion is society divinized and is not just a mere social creation. He said that when the masses of followers come together to worship, they are celebrating the power of their society as opposed to other religions in the world. He also stated that if religion is pulled out of society, it will not mean the end of society as he claims that society is the father of us all as it acts within us to elevate us to places where we dream to be.
Max Weber is a famous German sociologist and philosopher, and he is considered to be one of the three fathers of sociology. Like Durkheim, Weber too spent quite a chunk of his life to study the concept of religion. He started off his study by writing a number of different essays that focused on different religions all around the world. Over the course of his life, he had studied religions in China and India which led him to study religions like Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Ancient Judaism.
During his study of religion, Weber focused on three main elements. The first one included the effect of religion and its ideas on the economy of the society where the religion was being practiced. The second element included the relationship between social stratification and religion and the third element focused on the differing characteristics of the Western society. He identified religion as being part of the core forces of society. He wrote of the Calvinist and he explained how their religious ideas where fundamental in social innovation. He also held it responsible for the development of the Western economy. He also went on to study rationalism and compared it beliefs of religion. He identified that the main core of the sociology of religion was the fall of the belief in magic in the Western society.
Although Durkheim’s theory of religion was based on a limited number of examples, it was Max Weber who went on to study different religions around the world. It was truly a large scale study as opposed to the one conducted by Durkheim. Weber’s primary focus was to study religions that had a global impact and as such, had millions of believes stationed all over different parts of the world. In his first essay which was titled The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, he was noted to study the impact of the religion of Christianity on the Western civilization, more specifically, on their thinking as well as their cultural beliefs. Weber worked very hard to discover how religion effected social change in a society. He pointed out an example by referencing Protestantism belief and how it brought forward the work ethic followed by its believers. He identified this as the roots which bred Capitalism in the world. On the other hand, he spoke about Hinduism as well and explained how this religion teaches its followers to forget about the material things of everyday life and stressed upon making its believers attain higher levels of spirituality. This allows Hindus to escape the grasp of the requirements of today’s materialistic society and instead focus upon pleasing the requirements of the spiritual world. This concept, therefore, refrains followers of Hinduism from spending their lives making and spending money as their primary motive. Weber then moves forward and discusses the religion of Christianity and labels it as the salvation religion. By this, he talks about the claims set forward which explain how people who have been followers of other religions and have divulged in sin can be saved from all of their ignorant behaviors of the past. This can only be done when they convert to certain beliefs and start abiding by their moral and ethical codes of living. Christianity, for example, speaks about sin and about people who commit these sinful activities. The primary belief behind the concepts laid forward by Christianity include that followers that have committed sin can ask for God’s forgiveness and it is God who is all forgiving and merciful. This concept plays a fundamental role for Christianity and its followers as it brings in the concept of forgiveness in religion and also allows people of other faiths to switch to it from their own religions, bringing forward a more unified religion around the world. This is also the fundamental reason why religions like Christianity are deemed as Active religions as opposed to Eastern religions which are more passive in nature. Christianity is a religion, therefore, that makes its followers continuously strive towards struggles against sin as well as any other negative aspects present in the society. Followers are given more freedom and are ensured that there is a second chance for everyone if they chose to mend their ways by living piously in the future.
Although the works by both Durkheim and Weber are different in nature considering both of them set out to study the concept of religion, each of them studied it using different frameworks. Excerpts from both of these sociologists works hold truth. Durkheim said that religion is a glue which holds society together which is true as it provides people in the same religion with a sense of belonging and togetherness. It is also true that men give more importance to things that have been declared as sacred as opposed to things that are a material part of everyday life. Religion is also something that not only affects a certain individual, but any form of issue in the beliefs would affect societies as a whole. Although numerous things mentioned by Durkheim are true, certain things however cannot be justified. He argues over how societies can still manage to function in the case where the religion has seen a loss of faith. In a case like this, societies can come down upon themselves if there are not set rules and codes to guide them. This is something that religion provides to society. Religion is also a source of great justice for its followers as it provides them with a complete guide as to what they are allowed to do and what they should not do. Removing that element can be disastrous. He speaks about society as being the father of us but a society without religion guiding it would not bring fairness and justice to all living in it. Weber’s studies revolved around many different religions and he was able to distinguish one religion from the other. His studies are quite accurate in depicting the social and ethical requirements of different religions. He speaks at length about Hinduism and Christianity. He also distinguishes between the two of them by identifying how they provide a moral code of life for their followers. Durkheim, on the other hand, took a more conceptual approach in identifying the need for religion in society and some of his observations were very accurate indeed while Weber focused on specific religions and made deductions about how they vary from one another. His depictions are also accurate considering he explained the major points of significance that each religion holds. It is, however, some of Durkheim’s theories that I believe are more persuasive as they discuss the concept of religion by deducing what each different religion pertains and how it effects the society. Weber explains each different religion and his takings on religion are also very true.