Page 447 - Essencials of Sociology

420 ChaPTEr 13 Education and religion

anyone’s faith. As was mentioned in Chapter 1,
sociologists have no tools for deciding that one course
of action is more moral than another, much less for
determining that one religion is “the” correct one.
Religion is a matter of faith—and sociologists deal
with empirical matters, things they can observe or
measure. When it comes to religion, then, sociolo-
gists study the effects of religious beliefs and practices
on people’s lives. They also analyze how religion is
related to stratification systems. Unlike theologians,
however, sociologists do not try to evaluate the truth
of a religion’s teachings.
Emile Durkheim was highly interested in religion,
probably because he was reared in a mixed-religion
family, by a Protestant mother and a Jewish father.
Durkheim decided to find out what all religions
have in common. After surveying religions around
the world, in 1912 he published his findings in The
Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. Here are
Durkheim’s three main findings. The first is that
Parents around the world teach the world’s religions are so varied that they have no
their children their religious beliefs specific belief or practice in common. The second is
and practices. This photo is of Sikh that all religions develop a community centering on their beliefs and practices. The
children in India. third is that all religions separate the sacred from the profane. By sacred, Durkheim
referred to aspects of life having to do with the supernatural that inspire awe, rever-
ence, deep respect, even fear. By profane, he meant aspects of life that are not con-
cerned with religion but, instead, are part of ordinary, everyday life.
Durkheim (1912/1965) summarized his conclusions by saying:
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 moral
community called a Church, all those who adhere to them.

Religion, then, has three elements:
One of the many functions of religion 1. Beliefs that some things are sacred (forbidden, set apart from the profane)
is providing emotional support. This 2. Practices (rituals) centering on the things considered sacred
photo was taken in Newark, New 3. A moral community (a church) resulting from a group’s beliefs and practices
Jersey.
Durkheim used the word church in an unusual
sense, to refer to any “moral community” centered
on beliefs and practices regarding the sacred. In
Durkheim’s sense, church refers to Buddhists
bowing before a shrine, Hindus dipping in the
Ganges River, and Confucians offering food to
their ancestors. Similarly, the term moral community
does not imply morality in the sense familiar to
most of us—of ethical conduct. Rather, a moral
community is simply a group of people who are
united by their religious practices—and that would
include sixteenth-century Aztec priests who each
day gathered around an altar to pluck out the
beating heart of a virgin.
To better understand the sociological approach
to religion, let’s see what pictures emerge when we
apply the three theoretical perspectives.