ABSTRACT
Religion is used as a device to relieve the frustration and to comfort the disisfied individual who is not able to realize his aspirations. According to Talcott Parsons, who shared E. Durkheim's perspective, religion is a more or less integrated whole of beliefs about sacred or supernatural entities, which are extraordinary and thus can be manipulated. The critical exchange between Parsons and Pitirim A. Sorokin occupied a central place in the development of the sociology of religion, even though today many contemporary scholars do not recognize the importance of this scientific discussion between the two scholars. Parsons dedicated a long part of an essay to the differences between his vision of reality and Sorokin's. According to Sorokin, the passage from asceticism to activism marked a loss of strength on the part of religion, which found itself compelled to maintain its principles even by resorting to constrained forms.
