ABSTRACT
Sociological classics are for sociologists what the Bible is for Christians. People go back frequently to such repositories of ideas for inspiration about human nature. Despite the almost infinite variety of interpretations that have been placed upon them, it would be a rash person who claimed to understand Christianity without examining the Bible or modern sociological research without examining the Greats. Just as the Bible has had an impact outside Christianity, so too the Greats of sociology have had an impact beyond the discipline's boundaries. This chapter sounds a note of caution for those examining research based on the Greats. There is a danger that when a person's works come to be classics, his ideas will become ends in themselves rather than a means to increasing the understanding. When sociologists adopt a ritual rather than critical attitude towards some thinker, then that theorist's ideas can be used as a means to the end of doing research and getting it published.
