Thomas A. Idinopulos and Brian C. Wilson (eds). Reappraising Durkheim for the Study and Teaching of Religion Today. Leiden, Brill, 2002, xix+192 pp., €62/US$72 ISBN 90 04 12339 3.
✍ Scribed by Timothy Jenkins
- Book ID
- 104269986
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2003
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 47 KB
- Volume
- 33
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0048-721X
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
As Jones demonstrates with reference to Aristotle, among others, many of the problems that concerned Durkheim are not entirely specific to the Third Republic but are of general human significance. This is why Durkheim struggled so hard to balance the socially constructivist dimensions of his own theories with a desire to establish notions of the true and the real, and why he sought to develop an account of the historical development of different social forms alongside a concern for the elementary processes through which all social phenomena arise. Jones claims that his approach does not leave Durkheim stranded entirely in the contingencies of the Third Republic, since the very difference of the Durkheim revealed by the historicist method challenges our own taken-for-granted assumptions about the world. Nonetheless, it does tend to limit Durkheim's contemporary relevance since it robs his project of a moral foundation: rather than grappling with enduring human dilemmas about society, nature, religion and morality, Durkheim is merely employing 'rhetorical strategies' appropriate to an increasingly distant culture.
In general, however, this book displays the impressive breadth and depth of Jones's scholarship. It is a scholarly, well-written and valuable contribution to Durkheimian studies that will be of considerable interest to other researchers in the field.