13.6 Explain what Durkheim meant by sacred and profane and discuss the three elements of religion.

 Religion: Establishing Meaning Let’s look at the main characteristics of a second significant social institution. What Is Religion? 

13.6 Explain what Durkheim meant by sacred and profane and discuss the three elements of religion. Religion was one of Emile Durkheim’s major interests. For whatever reason—likely 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, Durkheim published his findings in his 1912 book, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. This book is complicated, but here are three of Durkheim’s main conclusions. The first is that there is no particular belief or practice common to all religions. The second is that despite their diversity, all religions develop a community that centers on their beliefs and practices. And third, all religions separate the sacred from the profane. By sacred, Durkheim meant things that have to do with the supernatural, things that inspire awe, reverence, deep respect, or even fear. By profane, he meant things that are not concerned with religion but, instead, are part of ordinary, everyday life. After he did his research, here is how Durkheim (1912/1965) defined religion: 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: Beliefs that some things are sacred (forbidden, set apart from the profane) Practices (rituals) centering on the things considered sacred A moral community (a church), which results from a group’s beliefs and practices Durkheim used the word church in an unusual sense, to refer to any “moral community” centered on a group’s 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 mean 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. Hearing from the Author: What Is Religion?