The historical value of Hertz's writings is that they are a representative example of the culmination of two centuries of development of sociological thought in France, from Montesquieu to Durkheim and his pupils. This text was first published in English in 1960."

Classical Durkheimian Studies of Myth and the Sacred presents English translations of several important essays, some never before translated, by members of the famous Annee sociologique group around Emile Durkheim. These works by Marcel Mauss, Henri Hubert, and Robert Hertz are key contributions to today's growing interest in and reinterpretation of Durkheimian thought on culture, religion, and symbolism. The central thrust in this new interpretive effort uses the Durkheimian theory of the sacred to understand the symbolism and meanings of cultural structures and narratives more generally....

" ...Deux evenements dominent et contiennent, selon le christianisme, toute l'histoire du monde et de l'humanite: le peche du premier homme et la Passion redemptrice du Christ. En contrevenant a la defense divine, Adam s'est separe de Dieu; il a detruit sa propre saintete et sa beatitude; il s'est perdu lui-meme et tous ses descendants avec lui: oeuvre de mort, qui ne pouvait etre abolie que par un homme-dieu. Par son obeissance parfaite, par le sacrifice doulou-reux de sa chair, par l'effusion de son sang divin, Jesus a repare le monde que le peche avait trouble; il a reconcilie le createur...