David Émile Durkheim

Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) was a French sociologist. Modern academic sociology began with the analysis of religion in Émile Durkheim's 1897 study of suicide rates amongst Catholic and Protestant populations, a foundational work of social research which served to distinguish sociology from other disciplines, such as psychology. The works of Karl Marx and Max Weber emphasized the relationship between religion and the economic or social structure of society. Contemporary debates have centered on issues such as secularization, civil religion, and the cohesiveness of religion in the context of globalization and multiculturalism. Contemporary sociology of religion also encompass the sociology of irreligion (eg, analysis of Secular Humanist belief systems).