Abstract
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life was Émile Durkheim's last published masterpiece. Its importance to Sociology, Anthropology and other related areas is unequivocal, what made the book a classical in the Social Sciences. This recognition came along with certain evaluations and interpretations, among which those that, either positively or negatively, deem The Elementary Forms as a turning point in the Durkheimian intellectual project. The present paper, drawing on the complete works of the French sociologist and reviewing the arguments of scholars that identify a new approach in the 1912's work, shows that religion has always been present in Durkheim's concerns - regarding social and scientific spheres. I argue that if, on the one hand, the approach to the religious phenomenon has gradually changed, on the other hand, the conception and elaboration of The Elementary Forms did not dispense with the theoretical and methodological resources formulated and operationalized in the precedent works. In other words, this paper will show that, instead of a watershed, there is actually a continuity between Durkheim's first works and that last one.
Keywords:
Durkheim; Positivism; Idealism; Sociology of religion.