Elementary Forms Of The Religious Life Newly Translated By Karen E. Fields [Paperback]

Karen Fields has given us a splendid new translation of the greatest work of sociology ever written, one we will not be embarrassed to assign to our students. In addition she has written a brilliant and profound introduction. The publication of this translation is an occasion for general celebration, for a veritable 'collective effervescence.'
--Robert N. BellahCo-author ofHabits of the Heart,and editor ofEmile Durkheim on Morality and Society
This superb new translation finally allows non-French speaking American readers fully to appreciate Durkheim's genius. It is a labor of love for which all scholars must be grateful.
--Lewis A. CoserEmile Durkheim(1858-1917) founded the French school of sociology. In 1893 he created theAnnee Sociologique,which he edited until 1913, and he wrote seminal texts includingThe Division of Labor in Society, Suicide,andThe Rules of Sociological Method.CHAPTER ONE

DEFINITION OF RELIGIOUS PHENOMENA AND OF RELIGION

In order to identify the simplest and most primitive religion that observation can make known to us, we must first define what is properly understood as a religion. If we do not, we run the risk of either calling a system of ideas and practices religion that are in no way religious, or of passing by religious phenomena without detecting their true nature. A good indication that this danger is not imaginary, and the point by no means a concession to empty methodological formalism, is this: Having failed to take that precaution, M. Frazer, a scholar to whom the comparative science of religions is nevertheless greatly indebted, failed to recognize the profoundly religious character of the beliefs and rites that will be studied below -- beliefs and rites in which, I submit, the original seed of religious life in humanity is visible. In the matter of definition, then, there is a prejudicial question that must be treated before any other. It is nl/