Sacred and Profane

The sociological concepts of the sacred and the profane have their main roots in the theories of Émile Durkheim. The source of modern religion was one of the most important questions for Durkheim. However, a modern world that was highly secularized and characterized by competing ideologies made this a very difficult issue with which to deal. To overcome these difficulties, Durkheim studied primitive societies and the sources of religion within them. Given his core methodological orientation that only one social fact can cause another social fact, Durkheim reached the conclusion that primitive religion (and hence modern religion) was created by society itself. Society (through individuals) is able to create religion by differentiating between what is considered sacred, those things set apart from everyday life and deemed forbidden, and what is considered profane, or basically everything not so defined (the mundane, utilitarian). Those things that are profane, however, can be transformed into that which is sacred if they come to be viewed with an attitude of respect, reverence, mystery, and a general awe—in other words, if they come to be associated with the same attitudes as those linked to that which is sacred.

According to Durkheim, the differentiation between the sacred and the profane is the basis for the development of religion. Other conditions—beliefs, religious rites, and a church—are also necessary; however, the true essence of religion is found in what society deems sacred. Therefore, an extension of this argument would imply that what is sacred (the church, religious symbols, and even God) and what is society are one and the same. This view contributed to Durkheim's opposition to any form of social revolution and to his efforts to promote social reforms that would improve the functioning of society.

Durkheim believed that religion and God come from some superior moral power but that could not be a supernatural power. Rather, it is society that is the superior power at the base of these phenomena. Society is a power greater than we are that transcends us and makes demands on us. One of the ways that society exercises power over us is through its representations, and God and religion are such representations. Thus, to Durkheim, God is nothing more than society transfigured and expressed symbolically.