Sociological Theories of Religion

Abstract

From socio-economic explanations of religion discussed in the previous chapter we move to an examination of sociological accounts of the phenomenon. We concentrate on what is undoubtedly one of the richest of all such theories in terms of the insights it offers and the explanatory power of some of its ideas: that advanced by the French sociologist Emile Durkheim (1858–1917). It is equally one of the most controversial sociological accounts. Here again, as in Marxism, the essence of the whole theory is to be found in a single artefact. Marxist theory, as previously indicated, is encapsulated in the idea of the commodity; how something is produced, exchanged, attains its value is the key to understanding capitalism and, by implication, religion. In Durkheim’s theory of religion it is the Australian totem which constitutes the essence of the phenomenon.