Religion has been important and influential in people’s lives for a long time. Emile Durkheim’s The Elementary Forms of Religious Life explores religion’s essence and role by studying its primitive form. The author chose the study of archaic religion because he believes it will best reveal people and their religious nature. Durkheim (1995) is confident that such a religion reflects the reality. The author put forward two requirements for choosing a religion: it must be present in a simple society, and when explaining it, there is no need to refer to earlier beliefs. Such religion and its rites should express the needs in people’s lives that they sought to fill through it. In later and more complex religions, the influence of many other beliefs and cultures is intertwined. Such an impact should not exist in a simple society; therefore, their religion should reflect the beginning and essence of religious thought. These ideas cover the study rationale and are presented in the introduction.
To achieve the goals set and avoid uncertainty in subsequent reflections, the author proposes a definition of religion in the first chapter. Durkheim (1995) emphasizes that religion is a social phenomenon that reflects collective realities in the book’s introduction. In chapter 1, gradually considering the concepts one can use to explain religion, the author reflects on its characteristics and components. For example, often, religions can be described as something supernatural or related to God. However, Durkheim (1995) concludes that the supernatural is not an original concept and notes that not all religions have gods. Focusing on other aspects, he identifies the definition of religion as a unified system of beliefs and practices within a moral society (Church) (Durkheim (1995). Thus, the introduction and the first chapter of The Elementary Forms of Religious Life provide the rationale and direction of the entire study and define its main subject – religion.
Reference
Durkheim, E. (1995). The elementary forms of religious life. (K. E. Fields, Trans). The Free Press. (Original work published 1912).