Durkhiem was born in 1858 in the town of Epinal. His father was a rabbi and Durkhiem was also affected by a schoolteacher who was Roman Catholic. These influences which probably got him interested in religion. He was a professor at the University of Bordeaux. He wrote many books such as The Division of Labor, The rules of Sociological Method, Suicide, and many others.
Durkhiem had two fixed fundamental principles: (1) "that the nature of society is the most suitable and promising subject for systematic investigation, especially at the present moment in history, and (2) that all such "social facts" should be investigated by the most purely objective scientific methods attainable." .
Durkhiem also believed that there was a certain nature to society. People were born into groups such as clans, tribe and so fourth, then by living in these groups they would pick up language, beliefs, and other cultural habits. He believed that the only difference between ancient and modern societies was how the clan or tribe tried to achieve their groups unity. Many of his books dealt with his scientific study of society such as what was imposed on society, the functions within a society which lead to the sociological perspective into their political systems, class struggles, morals, education, and religion.
In The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life Durkhiem claims that primitive peoples do not think of two different worlds, one nature and the other supernatural. Modern people are influenced by assumptions of natural laws of science and primitive people are not. He comes up with the concept of sacred and profane. The sacred can be either good or evil but it ca not be profane. The profane can be good or evil but it can not be sacred. Durkhiem believes that religion did not come about to replace magic when magic fails because religion and magic are different. .
With previous theories Durkhiem proposes that we look back at all religion, "religions "elementary forms".
