ABSTRACT
The most systematic application of Durkheim’s theory of religion and attempt to test it empirically using comparative data is that of Guy Swanson in his book The Birth of the Gods (1960).1 He takes up Durkheim’s basic idea that it is the experience of society which generates feelings of dependence expressed in symbolic form. He reasons that since it is experience of social life that generates religious belief, different types of social condition would give rise to different types of religious conception. It is the particular experience of people in differing social circumstances that produces their various concepts of supernatural and spiritual beings or entities.
