CEVAP:

Durkheim saw religion as a source of social stability. On the other hand, German sociologist and political economist Max Weber believed religion was a precipitator of social change. Unlike Marx, Weber rejected the view that religion is always shaped by economic factors. Weber argued that, in some circumstances, religion can lead to social change: Although shared religious beliefs might integrate a social group, those same beliefs may have reflections which in the long term can produce changes in society. When comparing Weber and Durkheim, one might start simply by noting that whereas Durkheim was interested in the generic notion of religion (specifically the classification of the sacred and profane), Weber was concerned with the historical and comparative importance of religions. Durkheim famously observed it to consist of a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things. Weber, by contrast, declared in The Sociology of Religion that defining religion is not possible at the start of a presentation such as this. Weber’s writings on religion differ from those of Durkheim in that they concentrate on the connection between religion and social change, something to which Durkheim gave little attention. They contrast with the work of Marx, because Weber argues that religion is not necessarily a conservative force; on the contrary, religiously inspired movements have often produced dramatic social transformations. Thus, Protestanism (particularly Puritanism) was the source of the capitalistic outlook found in the modern West.