Durkheim’s Sociology of Religion: Themes and Theories

577 Pages·2009·14.99 MB·English

by  R. B. Pickering

Durkheim's
Sociology of Religion
Themes and Theories
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Durkheim’s Sociology of Religion:
Themes and Theories
ISBN: 9780227902554
C L
Durkheim's
Sociology of Religion
Themes and Theories
W.S.F. Pickering
~
James Clarke & Co Ltd
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James Clarke & Co
P.O. Box60
Cambridge
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United Kingdom
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ISBN: 978 0 227172971
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A record is available from the British Library
Copyright© W.S.F. Pickering, 1984
First Published in 1984 by Routledge & Kegan Paul
This edition first published by James Clarke & Co, 2009
All rights reserved. No part of this edition
may be reproduced, stored electronically
or in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without
prior written permission from the Publisher
[email protected].
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To the memory of my father, Frederick Charles
Pickering (1895-1967), who unwittingly introduced
me to Durkheim's last and greatest work.
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Contents
Acknowledgments · xiv
References, Notation, Translations xvi
Abbreviations · xviii
Introductory Remarks xix
Part I Historical Perspectives
1 Durkheim's religious quest I Adolescent changes,
family life and personal beliefs · 3
1 Introduction · 3
2 Boyhood, youth and the rejection of Judaism · 5
3 Psychoanalytic factors · 13
4 The significance of Jewishness · 14
5 Asceticism and family life · 18
6 His religious quest · 20
7 Patriotism, politics and war · 23
8 The epilogue · 27
2 Durkheim's religious quest II In professional
achievement · 30
1 To greater things · 30
2 Disciples and the journal · 31
3 Influence in the realm of education · 34
4 'More a priest than a scholar'? · 40
3 The development of Durkheim's thought on
religion I The early period · 47
1 The search for lines of demarcation · 47
2 Publications and substantive issues · 51
3 The beginnings and early influences · 55
4 Characteristics of the period · 58
vii
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CONTENTS
4 The development of Durkheim's thought on
religion 11 The middle period · 60
1 The 'revelation' · 60
2 Durkheim's reading of Robertson Smith · 62
3 Feverish activity · 70
4 Characteristics · 74
5 The development of Durkheim's thought on
religion Ill The final formulation · 77
1 The work continues with lectures, articles and the
book · 77
2 The 1906-7 lectures: 'La Religion: les origines' · 79
3 Les Formes elementaires · 82
4 Its reception · 86
5 Continued glory and demise · 90
Part 11 Taking up Positions
6 Procedures and assumptions · 95
1 The religious beliefs of the sociologist · 95
2 The careful experiment · 102
3 The issue of totemism · 109
7 The sacred and the profane: the ground of
religion I Defining the two poles · 115
1 Introduction · 115
2 Durkheim's development of the notion of the
sacred · 116
3 Not the sacred but the sacred-profane · 117
4 Basic meanings · 124
5 The sacred's own binary system · 126
6 The origin and constitution of the sacred: the
stamp of society · 130
7 The profane · 133
8 Trying to deal with the profane · 136
8 The sacred and the profane: the ground of
religion 11 The relations between them: further
analysis · 140
viii
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CONTENTS
1 The relation between the sacred and the profane · 140
2 The duality accepted and attacked · 143
3 Further characteristics of the sacred · 149
4 Conclusion · 159
9 Commitment to a definition · 163
1 Early and late attempts · 163
2 Phenomena: wholes, parts and facts · 165
3 Emphasis on coercive force: the attempt to be
scientific · 170
4 Individual religious phenomena: their exclusion 175
5 Change in definition and the consequences · 177
6 Reasons for the change · 187
7 The definition: consequences for the discipline · 189
10 The problem of the social and the individual in
religion · 193
1 Religion is a social phenomenon · 193
2 The individual admitted, but disregarded: a point
of criticism · 195
3 Sociology has no option · 201
11 'All religions are false: all religions are true' · 205
1 Truth is the issue · 205
2 'All religions are false' · 206
3 Is religion then an illusion? · 207
4 Force, the indicator of reality · 209
5 'All religions are true' · 215
6 Some consequences of Durkheim's position · 217
7 All sociologists of religion start where Durkheim
does · 220
8 Conclusion · 221
Part Ill Beliefs and Ideas
12 God's identity revealed · 227
1 God's locus in society · 227
2 God as society hypostasized · 231
3 'Proofs' · 235
ix
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CONTENTS
4 Criticisms · 239
5 The enterprise assessed · 242
13 Society: a divine being? · 244
1 The other side of the coin · 244
2 Indications of divine qualities · 245
3 The nature of society: divine in what sense? · 248
4 How original was Durkheim? · 257
5 Criticism and evaluation · 259
14 In the beginning: religion or society? · 262
1 True to his own principles · 262
2 All that is religious is social · 262
3 The primacy of religion: all that is social is
religious? · 264
4 A meaningless paradox? · 268
5 Further considerations · 272
15 Representations, symbols and reality · 275
1 Introduction · 275
2 What is reality? · 276
3 Representations · 279
4 The sociological search: a change in direction? · 283
5 There are no unknowable symbols · 290
6 Things and symbols · 292
7 Religious representations: what do they
represent? · 295
8 Conclusion · 297
16 The functions of religion: a case of
misunderstanding? · 300
1 An old theoretical rock · 300
2 The two major functions · 301
3 The bases of the two functions · 305
4 Religion functions so as to stabilize and integrate
society · 307
5 Religion as an agent for control in a negative or
ascetical mode · 310
6 How many functions? · 311
7 Therefore religion is eternal · 313
8 Function, persistence and change · 315
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