ABSTRACT
The work of Max Weber (1864-1920) emphasizes a certain number of tensions inherent in any form of sociological thought. But its significance is not simply due to the rigour with which each of these central issues of sociology is discussed, if not resolved. For more than a half-century, the Weberian heritage has furnished a series of continually relevant landmarks to those researchers who have not given up the association of both a wide-ranging historical-comparative perspective with careful institutional analysis and personal commitment with methodological detachment. Through its contained violence and energy, its tone of condescension, combined with an empathy which at some points achieves almost the status of pure mimicry, by both its strong points and those which sound a more dissonant tone, the work of Weber leaves an impression of true aesthetic prowess or virtuosity (the virtuouso being a figure to whom, in the sociology of religion, Weber frequently returns). In this brief entry we can only point to some of the essential perspectives of this work, either Weberian solutions which have retained their pertinence to the present day, or the unresolved questions left to us which retain their provocative value.
