About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about another central aspect of Durkheim’s definition of religion – that it unites all its adherents “into one single moral community”, focusing in particular on: (i) Durkheim’s idea of a moral community as a social group which is unified by collective rituals and shared beliefs; (ii) Durkheim’s ideas about religion as “Functionalist” – by producing the practices through which individuals come together and formulating common beliefs, religions serve a fundamental purpose in the formation of societies; (iii) the role of religion in the production of social solidarity, or the feeling of shared identity amongst a society’s members.

About the lecturer

Professor Sondra Hausner is Professor of Anthropology of Religion and Director of the British Centre for Durkheimian Studies at the University of Oxford. She specialises in the anthropology of religion and culture in South Asia and the thought of Émile Durkheim. Her publications include Wandering with Sadhus: Ascetics in the Hindu Himalayas (2007), The Spirits of Crossbones Graveyard: Time, Ritual, and Sexual Commerce in London (2016), and Durkheim in Dialogue: A Centenary Celebration of The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (2013, editor). She has published numerous articles on Durkheim's work, including for the Oxford Bibliographies in Sociology, and she is on the International Board of Durkheimian Studies.