Sociology by Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber - Essay Example

 Karl Marx tried a scientific point of view to religion. This view was considered as an objective one. He said very little with regards to religion in his works, though. His works on religion are just but critiques on the forms of religion. According to him, religion is just but a form of expression with focus on economic injustice and material realities. Therefore, predicaments portrayed in religion are just but a reflection of those in the society in context. Religion is, thus, a mirror of what one expects in a society.

(Cline, 2011) Durkheim’s works on religion are with the inclusion of his work in year 1912 by the title The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. (uwaterloo.ca, 2011) His works were about seeking the origin of the societal religions that exist in the globe. He avoided the perspective of individualism. In the aforementioned article his argument is that religion is a matter of differentiating things which are profane and those that are sacred. Durkheim also demarcates religion from magic with the sentiments that magic is not at all religion despite the fact that it might involve sacred things.

This is since it is not from a societal level, but from the individual level. (uwaterloo.ca, 2011) Max Weber, on the other hand states in his work that religion is an instrument through which economic privilege and social strata. In the society, it is through religion that the ones who have high social strata try to legitimize their life patterns. Therefore, according to Durkheim, religion is required in society especially by the high social class to legitimize the situation in the globe as well as their own patterns.

(Parkin, 2002 p60) References:Cline, Austin. (2011). Religion as Opium of the People. Retrieved 23 October 2011 http://atheism.about.com/od/philosophyofreligion/a/marx.htmParkin, Frank. (2002). Max Weber. Edition 2, illustrated, revised. Routledge. p60.uwaterloo.ca (2011). Notes on Emile Durkheim's Theory of the Origin of Religion. Retrieved 23 October 2011 http://anthropology.uwaterloo.ca/courses/Anth311/durkheim.htm