Sociology 310
Sociology of Religion
Spring 2003
Dr. Scott Schaffer

Week 3 Discussion Questions: Durkheim, Weber, Radcliffe-Brown, Yinger

Due Date: Fri Feb 14/2003 for discussion in class.

1. Durkheim’s concept of religion is intimately bound up with his concept of society. Outline the linkage between these two phenomena. What is Durkheim’s claim about the origin of religion? How do the benefits afforded to people by religion relate to or derive from the benefits provided by society? Can a society exist without religion?

2. Compare the discussions by Durkheim, Weber, Radcliffe-Brown, and Yinger of the experience of religion. How do their ideas about the experience of religion relate to their conceptions of society? How do they differ? Whose analysis do you find more compelling, and why?

3. Compare the following quotations from Marx and Durkheim, and discuss the relationship between the quotes and their respective larger remarks:

“This infinitely proceeding division of society into the most manifold races opposed to one another by petty antipathies, uneasy consciences and brutal mediocrity, and which, precisely because of their reciprocal ambiguous and distrustful attitude, are all, without exception although with various formalities, treated by their rulers as conceded existences. And they must recognize and acknowledge as a concession of heaven the very fact that they are mastered, ruled, possessed! And on the other side are the rulers themselves, whose greatness is inverse proportion to their number!” (Marx, Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, pp. 44-45; XP p. 37)

“From this point of view, it is readily seen how that group of regularly repeated acts which form the cult get their importance. In fact, whoever has really practised a religion knows very well that it is the cult which gives rise to these impressions of joy, of interior peace, of serenity, of enthusiasm which are, for the believer, an experimental proof of his beliefs. The cult is not simply a system of signs by which the faith is outwardly translated; it is a collection of the means by which this is created and recreated periodically. Whether it consists in material acts or mental operations, it is always this which is efficacious.” (Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life, p. 417; XP p. 63)

4. One of the critiques of functionalist thought (i.e., Durkheim, Radcliffe-Brown, and Yinger) is that it prioritizes the “observational” viewpoint over the “experiential” perspective. Highlight how each of the authors we’ve read to date deals with the tension between the observation and the experience of religion. To what extent do you find their solution compelling, and why?

5. Weber’s essential claim is that religion provides us with a meaning system on which we act in the world. Outline the development of this argument. What problems or gaps do you find in this argument?

6. Through the course, we’ve had two fundamental axes on which we’ve looked at religion: the observational/experiential axis, and the macro/micro axis. To the extent that you can, place each of the authors we’ve read so far this semester on this “graph.” Whose work could you combine in order to see a more complete picture of religion (to your mind)?