Protestantism

» pink101 - Duirkeim's View On Christianity

In response to Duirkeim's View On Christianity posted by pink101:
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Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
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http://www.emiledurkheim.com/
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Sociology is the study of man and his groups. As such, it takes no position one way or the other promoting one life style or the other; instead, its scholars seek understanding about our relationships with each other.
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Emile Durkheim is the father of Sociology--its thought and study. In one of his papers, he defines Christianity in the following way:
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"The merits of Christianity are praised and we are discreetly invited to embrace them. But are we to ignore the fact that the originality of Christianity consisted precisely in a remarkable development of the individualistic spirit? Whereas the religion of the ancient city-state was quite entirely made of external practices, form which the spiritual was absent. Christianity demonstrated in its inner faith, in the personal conviction of the individual, the essential condition of piety. First, it taught that the moral value of acts had to be measured according to the intention, a preeminently inward thing which by its very nature escapes all external judgments and which only the agent could competently appraise. The very center of moral life was thus transported from the external to the internal, and the individual was thus elevated to be sovereign judge of his own conduct, accountable only to himself and to his God. Finally, in consummating the definitive separation of the spiritual and the temporal, in abandoning the world to disputes of men. Christ delivered it at once to science and to free inquiry. This explains the rapid progress made for the scientific spirit from the day when Christian societies were established. Individualism should not, then, be denounced as the enemy which must be combated at any cost."
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The above was copied from Page 86 in Readings in Social Theory; fourth edition; edited with introduction by James Farganis, Vassar College--New School University; McGraw Hill; Copyright 2004, The Free Press.

-- posted by pink101