Durkheim's Sociology of Religion
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Religion is central to Durkheim's theory of society, and his work laid most of the foundations of the sociology of religion. Daring and brilliant though his analysis was, its bold claims and questionable premises has made it the subject of ongoing academic debate. Durkheim's work on the subject reached a peak with the publication in 1912 of what turned out to be a classic in its field, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. No other book has explained Durkheim's views on religion using the whole corpus of his writings. Dr Pickering shows how Durkheim's position developed and explains the themes and theories that run through Durkheim's work. This includes Durkheim's attitude towards secularisation and Christian churches, as well as his notion of the contemporary cult of the individual.
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).