The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (Oxford World's Classics) - Softcover

Durkheim, Émile

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192832557 ISBN 13: 9780192832559

Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks, 2001

Synopsis

'If religion generated everything that is essential in society, this is because the idea of society is the soul of religion.' In The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), Émile Durkheim set himself the task of discovering the enduring source of human social identity. He investigated what he considered to be the simplest form of documented religion - totemism among the Aborigines of Australia. Aboriginal religion was an avenue 'to yield an understanding of the religious nature of man, by showing us an essential and permanent aspect of humanity'. The need and capacity of men and women to relate socially lies at the heart of Durkheim's exploration, in which religion embodies the beliefs that shape our moral universe. The Elementary Forms has been applauded and debated by sociologists, anthropologists, ethnographers, philosophers, and theologians, and continues to speak to new generations about the origin and nature of religion and society. This new, lightly abridged edition provides an excellent introduction to Durkheim's ideas.

About this title

About the Author

Carol Cosman has translated works by Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Balzac and Yasmina Reza Mark Cladis is the author of A Communitarian Defense of Liberalim: Emile Durkheim and Contemporary Social Theory (Stanford, 1992) and editor of Durkheim and Foucault: Perspectives on Education and Punishment (1999).

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0192832557
• ISBN 13: 9780192832559
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416
• Editor: Cladis Mark S.