Reappraising Durkheim for the Study and Teaching of Religion Today (Studies in the History of Religions)

Reappraising Durkheim for the study and teaching of religion today......Page 4
Contents......Page 6
List of Contributors......Page 8
Preface......Page 10
1. Thomas A. Idinopulos: The Strengths and Weaknesses of Durkheim's Methodology for the Study and Teaching of Religion......Page 22
The Missing Object......Page 23
The Importance of Tylor and Mueller......Page 25
Religion is not a Lie......Page 27
The Life Force......Page 28
Sacred and Profane......Page 30
The Limits of our Knowledge......Page 31
Homo Religiosus......Page 32
Effervescence......Page 33
2. William E. Paden: The Creation of Human Behavior: Reconciling Durkheim and the Study of Religion......Page 36
Reconciling the Dichotomy of the Social and the Religious......Page 38
Convergences......Page 41
Beyond the Dürkheim/Eliade Dichotomy......Page 44
3. W. Watts Miller:  Secularism and the Sacred: Is There Really Something Called "Secular Religion"?......Page 48
The Modern Transfer of Sacrality......Page 49
Secularism and the Logic of the Sacred......Page 54
Conclusion......Page 64
Part One......Page 66
Part Two......Page 73
Conclusion......Page 79
Robertson Smith on Myth and Ritual......Page 80
Robert Smith's Influence on Durkheim's Theory of Ritual......Page 84
Durkheim's "De la Définition des phénomènes religieux"......Page 87
Durkheim's The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life......Page 89
6. Tony Edwards: Durkheim, Kant and the Social Construction of the Categories......Page 94
7. John I. Brooks III: The Durkheimians and the Fifth Section of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes: An Overview......Page 106
A Note on Method......Page 109
The Fifth Section in 1900......Page 112
Durkheimian Sociology of Religion......Page 118
Durkheimian Appointments to the Fifth Section......Page 124
Conclusion......Page 130
8. Ivan Strenski: Durkheim, Judaism and the Afterlife......Page 132
Was Durkheim a Jewish Thinker?......Page 133
Jewish Parallels? Sylvain Lévi and Jewish Historiography......Page 136
On Jewish Influences in Durkheim's Thought......Page 139
What Have "We" to Do With "Them"?......Page 145
Jewish Ideas of Immortality......Page 147
The Durkheimians, Spiritualism and the Supernatural......Page 150
Durkheim Between Spiritualism and Positivism......Page 152
Immortality is Neither Subjective nor Metaphom......Page 154
Spiritualism in the Third Republic......Page 156
Immortality for Positivists, Too......Page 159
Dürkheim and the Secular Religions of France......Page 161
Conclusion......Page 162
9. James Constantine Hanges: Durkheim and Early Christianity......Page 164
The Applicable Durkheimian Principles......Page 165
Durkheim and the Religions Expression of the Social Truth of Early Christianity......Page 170
Durkheim and the Fundamental Social Truth of Early Christianity......Page 179
10. Brian C. Wilson: Altars and Chalkstones: The Anomalous Case of Puritan Sacred Space in Light of Durkheim's Theory of Ritual......Page 184
Puritan "Sacred" Space in New England......Page 186
Durkheimian Ritual Theory and the Puritan Meetinghouse......Page 191
From Puritan to Yankee, from "Durkheimian " to Traditional Sacrality......Page 195
Conclusions......Page 200
Select Bibliography......Page 204
Index of Names......Page 208
Index of Subjects......Page 210