Synopsis
Durkheim argues that religion is fundamentally social, that the sacred is society representing itself, and that ritual binds the community together.
Core passage idea
Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted workWhen people worship the sacred, they are unknowingly worshiping the power of their own society, whose unity ritual creates and renews.
It recasts religion as a mechanism of social cohesion rather than a set of supernatural beliefs about the world.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with William James, Varieties of Religious Experience.
Reading note
Read it through Durkheim's study of totemism, but draw the general theory of the sacred and collective effervescence.
Best paired with
William James, Varieties of Religious Experience