ABSTRACT
Emile Durkheim contributed to the growth of a whole current of socioreligious studies that had started long before him and that aimed at the establishment of the sociology of religion as an autonomous discipline. Durkheim's work was influenced by William Robertson Smith, and Fustel de Coulanges influenced him to consider religion as an essential part of social life. Coulanges studied Greek and Roman classic religions and identified the solidaristic character of the cult of the nature gods and of the dead. Durkheim was convinced that the most primitive religions, with respect to the Australian tribes, must not be studied with a Western outlook, but by keeping in mind concrete human needs. The clear-cut separation between sacred and profane, which probably derives from Durkheim's personal education, is one of the sociologist's least convincing statements. In this concise presentation of Durkheim's ideas on religion, the sacred and the profane, it is possible to see the main features of Parsons's interpretation of Durkheim.
