ABSTRACT
In the course of a remarkably productive life, Douglas Davies has worked at the interface between sociology and anthropology, and theology and religious studies. He has also been interested in specifically theological notions like grace, humility and power in his recent book on religion and the emotions (Davies 2011). So I feel I have warrant for an exploration of the notion of power, including the power of the spirit, as that straddles the territory of theology and sociology, and also for introducing considerations that bear on Christian ideas like grace, humility, obedience to God rather than man, the distinction between God and Caesar, and the importance of sincerity or ‘the inward man’ rather than outward conformity to ritual and rule. I am addressing the issue of whether religion is powerful in its own right rather than as a ‘presenting symptom’ or epiphenomenon of social solidarity as understood in the Durkheimian tradition or of an alienated image of human hopes thrown up by class society in the Marxist tradition. I focus in particular on the kind of epiphenomenalism associated with Durkheim.
