“Critically examine the relevance of Durkheim’s views on religion in contemporary society.” (2022)
In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), Émile Durkheim argued that religion divides the world into sacred and profane, that its real object is society itself, and that ritual renews social solidarity. He predicted not the end of religion but its transformation: “there is something eternal in religion”.
Where the theory remains relevant
- Collective ritual and mass religiosity: the 2025 Maha Kumbh at Prayagraj drew what organisers put at over 66 crore visits in 45 days (an estimate questioned as implausibly high). The Ram temple consecration at Ayodhya on 22 January 2024 was watched and celebrated across the country. Both show ritual producing an intense sense of collective belonging.
- Civil religion: Robert N. Bellah (“Civil Religion in America”, 1967) showed that nations sacralise flags, constitutions, martyrs and memorials. Republic Day parades and Constitution Day in India are civil rites of this kind.
- The secular sacred: cricket, film stars and political leaders are treated as set apart. The crush outside Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium during the June 2025 IPL victory celebrations, which killed 11 people, showed how intense such collective devotion can become.
- Cult of the individual: Durkheim foresaw human dignity as the sacred of modern society, visible today in human-rights discourse.
- Persistence of belief: the Pew Research Center’s 2021 survey found 97% of Indians believe in God. Peter L. Berger (The Desecularization of the World, 1999) withdrew his earlier secularisation thesis.
Critical examination
- Integration or conflict? Durkheim’s model assumes one faith per society. In plural societies religion also divides; Robert K. Merton called this dysfunction. Communal violence and fundamentalism show religion uniting “us” against “them”.
- Power ignored: Marxists see the sacred symbols of nation or faith as open to mobilisation by elites. The theory has no account of who defines the sacred.
- Secularisation and privatisation: Bryan Wilson traced a decline of religious authority. Grace Davie found Europeans “believing without belonging”, which cuts the link between belief and collective ritual. Yet José Casanova (Public Religions in the Modern World, 1994) traced religion’s return to public life.
- Stretched concept: if nationalism and sport count as religion, the definition may become too broad to test.
- Weak data base: it generalises from secondary reports on Australian totemism.
Conclusion
Durkheim’s functional definition fits contemporary society better than his claim of harmony. Religion today integrates, but it also mobilises and excludes. His lasting insight is that every society, secular or religious, creates sacred objects through which it worships itself.