Why did Emile Durkheim see religion as society worship? How did he define religion? What did he see as its purpose in life?

‰mile
Durkheims view of religion is primarily social. He attempted to understand why people in any
collectivity develop a cohesive set of perspectives. Rather than understand religion as any one
persons attempts to understand the supernatural or as given through divine revelations, he
looked at the common bonds between people that are expressed through religion. The norms and
practices within any organized religion, including what was then called primitive religion,
became requirements for all members of a given society. In this regard, it was society itself
that became the object of devotion. Seeing that adherence to rules and ritualsboth those that
prescribed and that forbade certain activitieswas deemed necessary for social participation and
community membership, Durkheim concluded that what people were worshiping, rather than or
another manifestation of the divine, was society itself.

In
Elementary Forms of Religious Life, Durkheim defines religion as

a unified...