Durkheim’s tradition treated god-belief as tangential to religion’s social function

Evidence

There is a short but illustrious history of thought in the social sciences, notably Emile Durkheim, Victor Turner, and Roy Rappaport. Durkheim, Rappaport, and others recognized the fundamentally cooperative functions of religion. But they focused on the social bonding functions of rituals, and downplayed belief in gods as tangential to religion’s capacity to cement communal life and create organic solidarity. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 48

Categorization

• DEFINE: Maps the intellectual landscape the Big Gods thesis integrates: ritual-centered vs. cognitive accounts of religion.