ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses an under-discussed aspect of Simmel’s thought and writings, namely his Essays on Religion. It argues that a reading of Simmel’s thought on religion represents a distinctive orientation for a sociological understanding of some contemporary forms of religiosity, arguing that existing conceptualisations of religious identity fail to capture its dynamics for some groups. To do so, the discussion develops in three main stages and draws on an empirical study of narratives of British converts to Islam. Firstly, this chapter discusses how Simmel’s notions of religiosity and religion provide an analytical understanding of the religious subjectivity emergent in these narratives that is elusive to other approaches. In the second stage, it then develops this with reference to Simmel’s View of Life, particularly his essay The Law of the Individual to address, in particular, how converts relate their sense of an ethical religious self to established Muslim communities and existing forms of religion. In the final stage, this chapter goes on to fold Simmel’s law of the individual back through his Essays on Religion in order to resituate and clarify Simmel’s thinking on religious identity. This is important not least because Simmel saw The View of Life as his testament through which his earlier work can and should be more fully understood. In so doing, it also suggests the limits as well as the capacity of Simmel’s thinking for understanding these contemporary expressions of religious identity.
