|
|
Article: Pericles and the plague: civil religion, anomie, and injustice in Thucydides.
- Article from:
- Sociology of Religion
- Article date:
- December 22, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Association for the Sociology of Religion. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
The concepts of "civil religion" and "anomie" are closely associated with the work of Emile Durkheim, although both have been subsequently developed in new directions by a host of writers, including Merton, Warner, Bellah, and others. From a systematic standpoint, the two concepts have a symmetrical quality. While "civil religion" points to the highest level of religio-political ritual and symbolism unifying a people, "anomie" reveals the fragility of social integration and asks us to examine the sources and manifestations of social dislocation and the collapse of the moral order. Indeed, the two concepts seem to work well when paired with one another.
This paper ...