The self, religion and the sociological tradition

Professor Seigel's history of the idea of the self is a superb contribution to modern scholarship; it has a broad historical and comparative scope, but it is carefully defined by a precise theoretical paradigm; it is carefully and scrupulously grounded in key historical texts; and it attempts successfully to address issues in modern debates about the ‘death of the subject’. Although the book is essentially and unapologetically historical, it also addresses ideas and authors that are regarded as central to the sociological canon, in particular the work of Emile Durkheim. This study is therefore a contribution to the history of ideas, but I shall unsurprisingly review Seigel in terms of his actual and potential contribution to the sociology of the self.