Reading into religion (from a sociological, psychological and political perspective) today i stumbled in Durkheim’s theory which is admirable and lovely and outdated. It is difficult trying to explain modern models of religious practice (see New Age etc.) by sticking with Durkheim who insists that what makes religion distinct, apart from myth, rites etc. – is the existence of a Church (a community).
Here is his definition of 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.â€
For Durkheim religion should be “an eminently collective thing†.
Durkheim accepts that magic also has myths, dogmas, rites and ceremonies but maintains that they are fundamentally different “because of the marked repugnance of religion for magic, and in return, the hostility of the second towards the first. Magic takes a sort of professional pleasure in profaning holy things; in its rites, it performs the contrary of the religious ceremony.†Religion binds a group together in a church but “there is no Church of magic†For Durkheim, religion “is inseparable from the idea of a Church†.
There are several problems here:
- There is a repugnance of religion for magic (see Bible as an example) but in recent magic theories there is little or non-existent hostility of practitioners towards organised religion. More than that some practitioners maintain that magic is a religion.
- Magic does not take any pleasure in profaning holy things. This was a practice followed by brotherhoods and ‘secret societies’ desperate to escape the grasp of organised religion and even then it was mostly an act or rebellion against rigid Church rules rather than a genuine hatred for religion in general (see Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon) Witchcraft practitioners today would most strongly object to the idea that they mock Christian rites for example. They have their own.
[All quotes from Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1915)]
