The Elementary Forms as Political (A)theology

Authors

  • William Ramp The University of Lethbridge

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29173/cjs19122

Keywords:

Durkheim, Sovereignty, Political Sociology, Revolution, Sacred, Representation

Abstract

Durkheim’s Elementary Forms of Religious Life examines a fundamental intercalation of selfhood, sociality and cosmology, but as a response to a particular political context, it may also speak to contemporary issues of sovereignty and democracy. Reading the Elementary Forms in this context, and in light of Durkheim’s references to monarchy, absolutism and revolution, is suggestive of an approach to such issues which resists sacrifice of the social to the sovereign, whether hierarchical or popular.

Author Biography

William Ramp, The University of Lethbridge

Associate professor, Department of Sociology

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Published

2014-12-30