Borlandi, Massimo <br/><br/>
The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life as a Test for Durkheim's Method 

 -  2012.<br/>							 
<br/><br/> 52 
<br/><br/> Émile Durkheim explains religion in line with three of his Rules of Sociological Method. These assert that social phenomena stem from the moral densification of groups, that they are, throughout their development, the outcome of a process of individualization, and that they persist, as well, because of their utility. A fourth rule, requiring that the cause of social phenomena be determined by broad historical comparisons, is, on the other hand, modified by Durkheim in The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life . He, nevertheless, takes it as given that a social phenomenon can be fully understood only if one goes back to its beginnings.