Page 7, 23rd July 1976
Page 7
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Ear from heing-a study of Old Testament prophetic communities. or apostolic communes. or desert fathers and mothers, it is a survey of Australian aborigines and American Indians. an analysis of totemism as a primoo.e expression of man's religious instincts and so. to the :luthor's mind, the seed ground of all religion.
It %%as first published in 1915. One would have thought a contemporary publisher would know enough to do some t hing ;11-1010 the misleading
To [mile Durk heim, the essence of religion is not worship of a
Supreme Spirit so much as the distinction hetween sacred and profane. This makes you wonder MIMI sacred can mean. It seems to he a social :okareness expressed in ritual. leading easily to a conclusion that religion is vital to the preservation of sock: ty -even when Sttprenic Spirits get in to complicate I Ii i ii No doubt a contemporary Durkheim would think his point is heing savagely proved today. Forour parl, we have an explanation of tIi_ problem Of maintaining religion (Ii \ ()reed from :1 related Social expression culture.
I aseinated Fly the details of our n religious practice which clearly relate 10 privitive religious expressions he describes, one wonders how ■s ise +%e have been to dispose or so much. Al least you can see now it wasn't medieval. Durkheim would have judged the exercise perilous. On I he other hand, his perception of Christianity is shallow, and he regards it as a new but not ve st i ng eove
S. G. A. Luff
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