Elementary Forms Of Religious Life Analysis

The Elementary Forms of Religious Life is a well known book written by Emile Durkheim in which he describes the connection between religion and social life. In order to depict religion in a social matter, he defines religious ceremonies as events that worship social life. He states that society is the driving force in a religion and that religious gatherings function to bring people together. It is important to understand that social life is inherently religious and as long as there are societies, religion will exist and it will allow individuals to give meaning to life in a communal way (Appelrouth and Edles 2016:123). Durkheim clarifies that individuals come together as a group to reaffirm their moral values and beliefs. A belief system, …show more content…
The image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is a great example of a symbol that –with belief in the understood meaning behind it—becomes a sacred object. In the Catholic faith, the Virgin of Guadalupe signifies the mother of Christ and becomes part of an individual’s identity, which ultimately unites Catholics that share that belief. This symbolic object helps ingrain the morals and values of the Catholic faith because of what it stands for. While symbols are considered sacred because of the power that individuals associate them with, they are part of a profane world. A Jewish community doesn’t see the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe as sacred because they don’t associate the same meaning to it as Catholics do. The image has shown to be a part of a profane world, even in the community where the symbol originated from. The Virgin of Guadalupe image is used as an accessory and tattooed on people that don’t come together in religious gatherings that are associated with that image. A symbol is a representation that requires communal ideas of meanings. Durkheim believed that ritualizing a symbol and socially magnifying it is what gives it meaning (Appelrouth and Edles 2016) (Durkheim in Appelrouth and Edles