Front Cover -- Title Page -- Durkheim's Sociology of Religion -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- References, notation, translations -- Abbreviations -- Introductory remarks -- PART ONE: Historical Perspectives -- Chapter One: Durkheim's religious quest. I: Adolescent changes, family life and personal beliefs -- (1) Introduction -- (2) Boyhood, youth and the rejection of Judaism -- (3) Psychoanalytic factors -- (4) The significance of Jewishness -- (5) Asceticism and family life -- (6) His religious quest -- (7) Patriotism, politics and war -- (8) The epilogue -- Chapter Two: Durkheim's religious quest. II: In professional achievement -- (1) To greater things -- (2) Disciples and the journal -- (3) Influence in the realm of education -- (4) 'More a priest than a scholar'? -- Chapter Three: The development of Durkheim's thought on religion. I: The early period -- (1) The search for lines of demarcation -- (2) Publications and substantive issues -- (3) The beginnings and early influences -- (4) Characteristics of the period -- Chapter Four: The development of Durkheim'sthought on religion. II: The middle period -- (1) The 'revelation' -- (2) Durkheim's reading of Robertson Smith -- (3) Feverish activity -- (4) Characteristics -- Chapter Five: The development of Durkheim'sthought on religion. III: The final formulation -- (1) The work continues with lectures, articles and thebook -- (2) The 1906-7 lectures: 'La Religion: les origines' -- (3) Les Formes elementaires -- (4) Its reception -- (5) Continued glory and demise -- PART TWO: Taking up positions -- Chapter Six: Procedures and assumptions -- (1) The religious beliefs of the sociologist -- (2) The careful experiment -- (3) The issue of totemism -- Chapter Seven: The sacred and the profane: the ground of religion. I: Defining the two poles -- (1) Introduction.

(2) Durkheim's development of the notion of the sacred -- (3) Not the sacred but the sacred-profane -- (4) Basic meanings -- Latin roots -- The French sacre and profane -- English meanings -- Durkheim's meanings -- (5) The sacred's own binary system -- (6) The origin and constitution of the sacred: the stamp of society -- (7) The profane -- (8) Trying to deal with the profane -- Chapter 8: The sacred and the profane: the ground of religion. II: The relations between them: further analysis -- (1) The relation between the sacred and the profane -- (2) The duality accepted and attacked -- (3) Further characteristics of the sacred -- (4) Conclusion -- Chapter 9: Commitment to a definition -- (1) Early and late attempts -- (2) Phenomena: wholes, parts and facts -- (3) Emphasis on coercive force: the attempt to be scientific -- (4) Individual religious phenomena: their exclusion -- (5) Change in definition and the consequences -- (6) Reasons for the change -- (7) The definition: consequences for the discipline -- Chapter 10: The problem of the social and the·individual in religion -- (1) Religion is a social phenomenon -- (2) The individual admitted, but disregarded: a point of criticism -- (3) Sociology has no option -- Chapter 11: 'All religions are false:all religions are true' -- (1) Truth is the issue -- (2) 'All religions are false' -- (3) Is religion then an illusion? -- (4) Force, the indicator of reality -- (5) 'All religions are true' -- (6) Some consequences of Durkheim's position -- Relativism -- The eternality of religion -- (7) All sociologists of religion start where Durkheim does -- 8 Conclusion -- PART THREE: Beliefs and Ideas -- Chapter Twelve: God's identity revealed -- (1) God's locus in society -- (2) God as society hypostasized -- (3) 'Proofs' -- (4) Criticisms -- (5) The enterprise assessed.

Chapter Thirteen: Society: a divine being? -- (1) The other side of the coin -- (2) Indications of divine qualities -- (3) The nature of society: divine in what sense? -- (4) How original was Durkheim? -- (5) Criticism and evaluation -- Chapter Fourteen: In the beginning: religion or society? -- (1) True to his own principles -- (2) All that is religious is social -- (3) The primacy of religion: all that is social is religious? -- (4) A meaningless paradox? -- (5) Further considerations -- Chapter Fifteen: Representations, symbols and reality -- (1) Introduction -- (2) What is reality? -- (3) Representations -- (4) The sociological search: a change in direction? -- (5) There are no unknowable symbols -- (6) Things and symbols -- (7) Religious representations. what do they represent? -- (8) Conclusion -- Chapter Sixteen: The functions of religion: a case of misunderstanding? -- (1) An old theoretical rock -- (2) The two major functions -- (3) The bases of the two functions -- (4) Religion functions so as to stabilize and integrate society -- (5) Religion as an agent for control in a negative or ascetical mode -- (6) How many functions? -- (7) Therefore religion is eternal -- (8) Function, persistence and change -- PART FOUR: Ritual and Effervescent Assembly -- Chapter Seventeen: I: Prolegomena -- (1) Introduction: prominence and neglect -- (2) Assumptions and method -- (3) Early ideas about ritual -- (4) The third period -- Chapter Eighteen: Ritual II: Classification and function -- (1) Definitions and basic classification -- (2) Negative rites outlined: their function or effects -- (3) Positive rites outlined: their function or effects -- Recall -- Euphoria -- (4) Piacular rites -- (5) An evaluation of Durkheim's primary classification of ritual -- (6) Appraisal and the issue of one and many functions.

Chapter Nineteen: Ritual III: Its relation to la vie serieuse -- (1) La vie serieuse: la vie legere -- (2) Aspects of la vie legere -- (3) The dichotomy evaluated -- Chapter Twenty: Ritual and myth: primacy or parity? -- (1) The two components -- (2) The primacy of ritual -- (3) Primacy of myth and belief -- (4) Myth and ritual: parity of status -- (5) Parity of status: difficulties and problems -- Chapter Twenty-One: Effervescent assembly: the source of religious change and strength: I: The process -- (1) Religious and social change -- (2) Collective effervescence described -- (3) Effervescence examined: two types or functions -- Creative function -- The re-creative function -- The conquest of the anti-climax -- (4) Further examples -- Chapter Twenty-Two: Effervescent assembly: the source of religious change and strength: II: Questions, criticisms and evaluation -- (1) A psychological theory? -- (2) The influence of other thinkers -- (3) Universality and limitations -- (4) Problems of differentiation from ritual -- (5) The source of religion? -- (6) Effervescence and representations -- (7) The problem of creativity -- PART FIVE: Contemporary Religion -- Chapter Twenty-Three: Durkheim's attitude to traditional religions -- (1) Introduction -- (2) Christianity praised -- (3) Roman Catholicism: Durkheim's admiration and disgust -- (4) Protestantism: did Durkheim understand it? -- (5) A liberal or a medievalist? -- Chapter Twenty-Four: Secularization: the history of mankind -- (1) The inevitability of religious change -- (2) Words used by Durkheim relating to religious change and secularization -- (3) Age-long secularization -- (4) Recent secularization -- (5) The effects of secularization on society -- (6) Religious change, not secularization? -- (7) Some suggested explanations -- Chapter Twenty-Five: The invasion of religion by science.

(1) Science, the real cause of secularization -- (2) The superiority of science as a source of knowledge -- (3) Science is not god! -- (4) Only a partial take-over? -- (5) Resultant confusion -- (6) Appraisal of Durkheim's analysis of secularization -- Chapter Twenty-Six: The new religion: the cult of manor society? -- (1) Prognostication and the characteristics of a future religion -- (2) The source of religious revival: the working classes -- (3) The emergence of an old French religion? -- (4) The heresy of egoism -- (5) But who is god? Man or society? -- (6) Can the cult be justified? Its theology and ritual -- (7) Basically a system of morality -- PART SIX: Postscript -- Chapter Twenty-Seven: Sociologie religieuse: a hope that quickly fades -- (1) Durkheim's vulnerability -- (2) The eclipse of Durkheim's sociologie religieuse -- (3) The storming of teachers' training colleges -- Chapter Twenty-Eight: Sociologie religieuse: a case of exaggerated claims? -- (1) Religion as demiurge -- (2) The alleged destructiveness of Durkheim's sociologie religieuse -- (3) A final look -- Notes -- Bibliographies -- (1) Durkheim and religion -- (2) On Durkheim and religion -- Back Cover.