ABSTRACT
Karl Marx addressed the issue of religion and society, as well as the similarities of, and differences between, religion and philosophy. Emile Durkheim echoes Marx when he asserts that in earlier stages of social development moral and legal rules were indistinguishable from ritual prescriptions, and that most of the great social institutions have evolved out of religion. Durkheim runs into trouble with his central concept of collective representations. He argues that, by the simple fact of being collective, and of having maintained itself over time, it guarantees objectivity, because the people who accept it "verify it by their own experience". Max Weber and various other thinkers in the classical vein were largely concerned with matters arising in different historical stages of the same society, or with comparisons between different types of society. Weber expresses understanding, even sympathy, for those who are or become believers, because this requires "an intellectual sacrifice in favor of an unconditional religious devotion".
