Durkheim Contra Bergson? The Hidden Roots of Postmodern Theory and the Postmodern “Return” of the Sacred

Postmodern social theory is often seen as entirely distinct from and even antagonistic to modern sociological thought. This article endeavors to challenge this framing by tracing the emergence of postmodernist social thought to a historical development in Western societies intimately tied to the conditions of emergence of modern sociology, that is, to the crisis of the loss of the sacred for the modern intellectual class. Postmodern theory is linked to two purportedly opposed schools of modern social thought, Durkheimianism and Bergsonianism, by demonstrating the careful concern in each of these strands for a renovation of the sacred in the wake of the devastating effects Enlightenment and materialist thought had on traditional modes of the sacred for intellectuals (if not for larger segments of Western societies). Explicit textual evidence of this influence is also examined.