Theories of Religion/%c3%89mile Durkheim and Functionalism

Famous quotes containing the words theories, religion and/or durkheim:

    The egoism which enters into our theories does not affect their sincerity; rather, the more our egoism is satisfied, the more robust is our belief.
    George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)

    Every sect is a moral check on its neighbour. Competition is as wholesome in religion as in commerce.
    Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864)

    Man’s characteristic privilege is that the bond he accepts is not physical but moral; that is, social. He is governed not by a material environment brutally imposed on him, but by a conscience superior to his own, the superiority of which he feels. Because the greater, better part of his existence transcends the body, he escapes the body’s yoke, but is subject to that of society.
    —Emile Durkheim (1858–1917)