Durkheim's Sociology of Religion

The Revd Dr William S.F. Pickering has been an Anglican priest since 1950, and for twenty years was a lecturer in Sociology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He is currently the General Secretary of the British Centre for Durkheimian Studies, which he helped to found in 1991. It is based in the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Oxford University. He has written and edited a number of books on Durkheim and his followers, as well as many articles. Among his other publications are Durkheim: Essays on Morals and Education (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978). Sociology and Theology: Alliance and Conflict (Harvester Press, 1980), A Social History of the Diocese of Newcastle 1882-1982 (Oriel Press, 1981) and The Hutterites (Ward Lock Educational, 1982).

• Durkheim's religious quest; Adolescent changes, family life and personal beliefs; Introduction; Boyhood, youth and the rejection of Judaism; Psychoanalytic factors; The significance of Jewishness; Asceticism and family life; His religious quest; Patriotism, politics and war; The epilogue; In professional achievement; To greater things; Disciples and the journal; Influence in the realm of education; 'More a priest than a scholar'?; The Development of Durkheim's thought on religion; The early period; The search for lines of demarcation; Publications and substantive issues; The beginnings and early influences; Characteristics of the period; The middle period; The revelation; Durkheim's reading of Robertson Smith; Feverish activity; Characteristics; The final formulation; The work continues with lectures, articles and the book; The 1906-7 lectures: 'La Religion: les originies'; Les Formes elementaires; Its reception; Continued glory and demise; Procedures and assumption; The religious beliefs of the sociologist; The careful experiment; The issue of totemism; The sacred and the profane; the ground of the religion; Defining the two poles; Introduction; Durkheim's development of the notion of the sacred; Not the sacred but the sacred-profane; Basic meanings; The sacred's own binary system; The origin and constitution of the sacred: the stamp of society; The profane; Trying to deal with the profane; The relation between the sacred and the profane; The duality accepted and attacked; Further characteristics of the sacred; Conclusion; Commitment to a definition; Early and late attempts; Phenomena: wholes, parts and facts; Emphasis on coercive force: the attempt to be scientific; Individual religious phenomena: the exclusion; Change in definition and the consequences for the discipline; The problem of the social and individual in religion; Religion is a social phenomenon; The individual admitted, but disregarded: a point of criticism; Sociology has no option; 'All religions are false: all religions are true'; Truth is the issue; 'All religions are false'; Is religion then an illusion?; Force, the indicator of reality; 'All religions are true'; Some consequences of Durkheim's position; All sociologists of religion start where Durkheim does; Conclusion; God's identity revealed; God's locus in society; God as society hypostasized; 'Proofs'; Criticisms; The enterprise assessed; Society: a divine being?; The other side of the coin; Indications of divine qualities; The nature of society: divine in what sense?; How original was Durkheim?; Criticism and evaluation; In the beginning: religion or society?; True to his own principles; All that is religious is social; The primacy of religion: all the is social is religious?; A meaningful paradox?; Further considerations; Representations, symbols and relaity; Introduction; What is reality?; Representations; The sociological search: a change in direction?; There are no unknown symbols; Things and symbols; Religious representations: what do they represent?; Conclusion; The functions of religion; a case of misunderstanding? An old theoretical rock; The two major functions; The bases of the two functions; Religion functions so as to stabilize and integrate society; Religion as an agent for control in a negative or ascetical mode; How many functions?; Therefore religion is eternal; Function, persistence and change; Ritual; Prolegomena; Introduction: prominence and neglect; Assumptions and method; Early ideas about ritual; The third period; Classification and function; Definitions and basic classification; Negative rites outlined: their function or effects; Positive rites outlined; their function or effects; Piacular rites; An evaluation of Durkheim's primary classification of ritual; Appraisal and the issue of one and many functions; Its relation to la vie serieuse; La vie serieus: la vie legere; Aspects of la vie legere; The dichotomy evaluated; Ritual and myth: primary or parity?; The two components; The primary of ritual; Primacy of myth and belief; Myth and ritual: parity of status; Parity of status: difficulties and problems; Effervescent assembly: the source of religious change and strength; The process; Religious and social change; Collective effervescence described; Effervescence examined: two types or functions; Further examples; Questions criticisms and evaluation; The psychological theory?; The influence of other thinkers Universality and limitation; Problems of differentiation from ritual; The source of religion?; Effervescence and representations; The problem of creativity; Durkheim's attitude to tradition religions; Introduction; Christianity praised; Roman Catholicism: Durkheim's admiration and disgust; Protestantism: did Durkheim understand it?; A liberal or a medievalist?; Secularization: the history of mankind; The inevitability of religious change; Words used by Durkheim relating to religious change and secularization; Age-long secularization; Recent secularization; The effects of secularization on society; Religious change, not secularization?; Some suggested explanations; The invasion of religion by science; Science, the real cause of secularization; The superiority of science as a source of knowledge; Science is not god!; Only a partial take-over?; Resultant confusion; Appraisal of Durkheim's analysis of secularization; The new religion: the cult of man or society?; Prognostication and the characteristics of a future religion; The source of religious revival: the working classes; The emergence of an old French religion?; The heresy of egotism; But who is god? Man or society?; Can the cult be justified? Its theology and ritual; Basically a system of morality; Sociologie religieuse: a hope that fades; Durkheim's vulnerability; The eclipse of Durkheim's sociologie religieuse; The storming of the teachers' training colleges; A case of exaggerated claims?; Religion as demiurge; The alleged destructiveness of Durkheim's sociologie religieuse; A final look; Notes; Bibliographies.

"...The book represents a comprehensive analysis of Durkheim's sociology of religion, which makes it a must-read for scholars and students of sociology and sociology of religion..." Margarita Simon Guillory, Religious Studies Review, Vol. 38, number 3, September 2012."Durkheim's works inspired by the scientific canons of sociological methodology, laid the foundation for the understanding of the multiple influences of community and society on individual behaviour and practices. Thus, it is understandable why it is exceptionally difficult to concentrate such a great legacy in a single study, which makes Dr Pickering's work considerably consistent and unique."Ramona Hosu Journal for the Study of Religious and Ideologies, vol.8, issue 25 (Spring)