The Durkheimians and Religious Studies in France

Abstract

French sociologist Emile Durkheim’s sociology of religion has had a great influence on religious studies (Honigsheim 1995, Pickering 1984, Allen, Pickering, and Miller, 1998).    This is partly because of the innovative approach to religion he championed throughout his career, culminating in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912).   It is also because he inspired a generation of researchers who built upon his theories in new and important ways.  Such researchers, including most notably Henri Hubert and Marcel Mauss, brought a sociological approach to the study of the religions of non-literate and early literate peoples that transformed the ways these subjects were conceived (Fournier 1994, Strenski 1985, Strenski 1987, Strenski 1997b).

However, until recently the relative influence of Durkheimian vs. non-Durkheimian approaches to religion has not been systematically assessed, even in France.  Two recent studies offer opposing interpretations of the relationship between Durkheimians and other secular French scholars of religion.  According to Laurent Mucchielli, the extensive contribution of Durkheimians to the leading professional journal of the day, the Revue de l’Histoire des Religions, suggests that Durkheimians had a constructive and positive relationship with other scholars in the field (Mucchielli 1998).   Ivan Strenski, in a response to Mucchielli, suggests that the relationship was marked by mutual suspicion, calculation, and conflict (Strenski 1999).  Mucchielli and Strenski both offer ample evidence—often the same evidence—to support their views.

In an attempt to resolve this issue, I have undertaken a study of the principal institutional setting for the secular study of religion in France—the Fifth Section of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes.  This Section, founded in 1886, was devoted to the “religious sciences” (Ecole Pratique 1968, Baubérot 1987).  It was the only state-supported center of religious studies in France, and it was home to Hubert, Mauss, and several other Durkheimian religious scholars.  It was also the home for religious scholars indifferent or hostile to the Durkheimian sociological approach.  In addition to the printed articles, letters, and reviews that appeared in the Revue de l’histoire des religions, I have consulted the Annuaire of the Fifth Section, which contains listings of all the courses taught at the institution, along with the numbers of students each course attracted.  I have also consulted the unpublished minutes of the meetings of the Faculty Council of the Fifth Section.  These minutes record among other items of business the discussions over the appointment of new members of the faculty.  By analyzing trends in the appointment of faculty and the movement of students, I have been able to add another dimension of empirical data to the discussion over the influence of Durkheim in French religious studies.

Durkheimian sociology scored an early and dramatic success with the appointment of Hubert and Mauss.  This was followed by a steady increase in the number of faculty and students identified with the Durkheimian cause.  Rather than signaling a general revolution in religious studies, however, this early success proved to be the exception rather than the rule.  A majority of religious scholars at the Fifth Section, attracting a majority of the students,  remained unmoved by the Durkheimian approach.  Moreover, Durkheimians gravitated toward the “exotic” religions—“uncivilized” peoples, Egypt, Assyria—but they made few inroads into the study of Christianity, Judaism, or the religions of Greece and Rome, the religions most closely identified with French cultural heritage. 

REFERENCES

Allen, N. J., W. F. S. Pickering, and W. Watts Miller, eds. 1998.  On Durkheim's Elementary Forms of Religious Life.  London: Routledge.

Annuaire de l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Section des Sciences Religieuses.  1894-1940.

Baubérot, Jean 1987.  Cent ans de sciences religieuses en France.  Paris: Cerf.

Despland, Michel.  1987.  La tradition française en sciences religieuses.  Quebec: Groupe de recherche en sciences de la religion.

Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Section des Sciences Religieuses.  Proces verbaux des seances du Conseil.  Bibliothèque de l’Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Ve Section.  Paris.  4 vols.  1886-1959.

Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Ve Section.  1968.  Problèmes et méthodes d'histoire des religions.  Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Fournier, Marcel.  1994.  Marcel Mauss.  Paris: Fayard.

Honigsheim, Paul.  1995.  The Influence of Durkheim and His School on the Study of Religion.  In Emile Durkheim: Critical Assessments, Second Series, 82-92,  Vol. 6.  London:  Routledge.

Mucchielli, Laurent.  1998.  Les durkheimiens et la Revue de l’histoire des religions (1898-1916): une zone d’influence méconnue.  Durkheimian Studies, n.s. 4: 51-72.

Pickering, W. F. S.  1984.  Durkheim's Sociology of Religion: Themes and Theories London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Strenski, Ivan.  1985.  What Structural Mythology Owes to Henri Hubert.  Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 21: 354-71.

___.  1987.  Henri Hubert, Racial Science, and Political Myth.  Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 23: 353-67.

___.  1997a.  Durkheim and the Jews of France.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

___.  1997b.  The Social and Intellectual Origins of Hubert and Mauss's Theory of Ritual Sacrifice.  In India and Beyond: Aspects of Literature, Meaning, Ritual, and Thought. Essays in Honour of Fritz Staal, 511-37.  Edited by Dick van der Meij.  New York: Kegan Paul.

___.  1999.  Durkheimians and Protestants in the École Pratique, Fifth Section: The Dark Side.  Durkheimian Studies n.s. 5: 29-34.

Created by John I. Brooks III. Last updated 01/01/04.
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