Durkheim

I am taking a religion class and we have a read and discussed the article "The Elementary Forms of Religious Life" by Durkheim. The professor mentioned an article he wrote about the possibility of religion going away. In the article we discussed in my religion class, he defines religion as "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" The moral community is quite complex to Durkheim. Throughout his essay he stresses the idea of community. He seems to think that once you are part of a group, you do what is best for the group even in the neglect of your conscious. Also, he mentions how important religion is to morality. We concluded in class that they are basically inseparable. Therefore, as long as there is morality, there will be religion.