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The Early reception of The Elementary Forms (1912-1917)

The Origin of Belief in a God

The Athenaeum (Londres, 3 août 1912)
Andrew Lang

Editor’s note

Source primaire :
Lang Andrew, « The Origin of Belief in a God », The Athenaeum (London), 4423, August 3, 1912, p.119b-c

Source(s) numérique(s) identifiée(s) :
ProQuest (accès réservé)

Full text

  • 1 [« La notion d’esprit et de dieux », Durkheim 1912, livre 2, chap. 9, p. 414-415]
  • 2 [« La notion d’esprit et de dieux », Durkheim 1912, livre 2, chap. 9, p. 414]
  • 3 [Durkheim se réfère bien à la première édition, Cf. Andrew Lang, The Making of Religion, London / N (...)
  • 4 [Andrew Lang, The Making of Religion, London / New York / Bombay, Longmans, Green, and Co, 1898, 38 (...)
  • 5 [Andrew Lang, « Preface to the Second Edition », The Making of Religion, Third Edition, London / Ne (...)
  • 6 [« La notion d’esprit et de dieux », Durkheim 1912, livre 2, chap. 9, p. 415]
  • 7 [Andrew Lang, « Preface to the Second Edition », The Making of Religion, Third Edition, London / Ne (...)
  • 8 [« Origine de ces croyances [totémiques] - Examen critique des théories », Durkheim 1912, livre 2, (...)

Dr. Durkheim’s new book, ‘Les Formes Élémentaires de la Vie Religieuse’ (Paris, Alcan), has come into my hands. I am anxious to protest briefly against Dr. Durkheim’s statement (pp. 414-5)[1] that, in my opinion, some savage peoples have arrived at their idea of an All Father “par une sorte d’intuition sur la nature de laquelle on refuse de s’expliquer.” [2] For this “sort of intuition” Dr. Durkheim quotes my ‘Making of Religion’ p. 331[3]. That page, in the second edition (1900), is concerned with the Poltergeist! The first edition (1898)[4] I have not at hand, but in the second and third (pp.ix-xii)[5] I protested that I had never advocated any idea of a primitive revelation such as critics had attributed to me. I also gave what to me seems the most probable theory of the origin of the All Father belief. It is not “une interpretation théologique,”[6] as Dr. Durkheim declares it to be (p. 415). Moreover, I “hastened to add that another theory might be entertained”[7] – no more theological than the first – and Dr. Durkheim has a third. I do not take much interest in any of these theories: it is enough for me that Dr. Durkheim accepts the evidence for the All Father belief in Australia. But when Dr. Durkheim (p. 267, note 1) says that, in my opinion, “elle serait due… à une sorte de révélation primitive,”[8] he credits me with a view which I never expressed, and which I have repeatedly disclaimed.

A. Lang

[The above was received shortly before the writer's death.]

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Bibliography

Lang (Andrew), The Making of Religion, London / New York / Bombay, Longmans, Green, and Co, 1898, 380 p.

Lang (Andrew), « Preface to the Second Edition » et « Preface to the Third Edition (May 1909) », The Making of Religion, Third Edition, London / New York / Bombay / Calcutta, Longmans, Green, and Co, 1909, p.vii-viii et p. ix-xxiv

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Notes

1 [« La notion d’esprit et de dieux », Durkheim 1912, livre 2, chap. 9, p. 414-415]

2 [« La notion d’esprit et de dieux », Durkheim 1912, livre 2, chap. 9, p. 414]

3 [Durkheim se réfère bien à la première édition, Cf. Andrew Lang, The Making of Religion, London / New York / Bombay, Longmans, Green, and Co, 1898, p. 331]

4 [Andrew Lang, The Making of Religion, London / New York / Bombay, Longmans, Green, and Co, 1898, 380 p.

5 [Andrew Lang, « Preface to the Second Edition », The Making of Religion, Third Edition, London / New York / Bombay / Calcutta, Longmans, Green, and Co, 1909, p.ix-xii]

6 [« La notion d’esprit et de dieux », Durkheim 1912, livre 2, chap. 9, p. 415]

7 [Andrew Lang, « Preface to the Second Edition », The Making of Religion, Third Edition, London / New York / Bombay / Calcutta, Longmans, Green, and Co, 1909, p. xii]

8 [« Origine de ces croyances [totémiques] - Examen critique des théories », Durkheim 1912, livre 2, chap. 5, p. 267 n. 1. Durkheim ajoute cependant, dans la même note, que « Lang ne fait pas intervenir cette idée dans son explication du totémisme »]

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References

Bibliographical reference

Lang Andrew, « The Origin of Belief in a God », The Athenaeum (London), 4423, August 3, 1912, p. 119b-c

Electronic reference

Andrew Lang, « The Origin of Belief in a God  », Archives de sciences sociales des religions [Online], The Early reception of The Elementary Forms (1912-1917), I, Online since 27 February 2013, connection on 28 March 2024. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/assr/24468

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About the author

Andrew Lang

By this author

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Copyright

The text and other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.

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