David Émile Durkheim (15 April 1858 - 15 November 1917) was a
French sociologist. He developed functionalist theories of
cultural analysis and offered a reductionist account of
religion, based on the role that it plays in the various
societies in which it occurs. Many of Durkheim's accounts focus
on the religion of non-western cultures. His focus is on the
practice of religion, rather than the beliefs that individual
religious communities hold. His work The Elementary Forms of
Religious Life (1912) is considered a seminal work in religious
sociology.