COMMUNAL THEORY. - Theory of the "creative collectivity" formulated by the "sociological school," founded by E. Durkheim, heir to the positivism of A. Comte, who made use of the data of the "psychology of the masses" of W. Wundt. Society, the supreme phenomenal reality, is not only a reality sui generis (H. Spencer, W. Wundt), but an entity in itself, with a soul, a force of its own, called by Durkheim "collective consciousness." This is formed from the individual consciousnesses fused among themselves and absorbed into the collectivity; it is outside and above them; an environmental force, it creates and imposes upon the individual the ideas, beliefs, morality, rites, etc., which are all "social phenomena or facts." The evolution of these values created and imposed by the collectivity: religion, law, morality, logical categories, must therefore be explained socially, as a consequence of variations in the form of society. Religion, fruit and creation of the environment, varies with it.
The system was applied directly to the Old Testament by H. Hubert, M. Mauss, and by J. G. Fraser; it is followed by A. Lods, A. Loisy, especially A. Causse. These authors maintain the following evolution: collectivistic religion of the period of nomadism, Mosaic religion (Yahwism), syncretistic religion in Canaan, religion of the monarchical period, moral religion of the prophets, post-exilic religion, first individual and then universalistic. It is also the logical, indispensable foundation of the opinion of K. L. Schmidt, R. Bultmann, G. Bertram, M. Dibelius (proponents of Formengeschichte) and of all those (A. Loisy) who admit with them that the Christian community (particularly that of Antioch), as such, was the creator of Christian ideas and values.
The G., based on an untenable metaphysics, fruit of misunderstandings, has against it the certain data of history and ethnology, which demonstrate the eminent place of the individual person, the elevated moral sense, the idea of the Supreme Being, of personal responsibility, in force among ancient peoples and among those who today are called "primitive."
Bibliography6 works
2) Confutations: S. Deploige, Le conflit de la morale et de la sociologie, ibid. 1912; 1st ed. ibid. 1927; H. Pinard de la Boulaye, L'étude comparée des religions, I, ibid. 1925, pp. 431-50; L. De Grandmaison, Jésus-Christ, I, ibid. 1928, pp. 105-200; II, ibid. 1928, pp. 474-79; E. Magnin, Religion, in DThC, XIII, coll. 2206-2227; E. Florit, Il metodo della storia delle forme, Rome 1935, p. 19 ff.; A. Causse, Du groupe ethnique à la communauté religieuse, Le problème sociologique de la religion d'Israël, Paris 1937; R. Jolivet, Ethique personnaliste, in Archives de philosophie, 14 (1938), pp. 112-17; G. Gurvitch, Essais de sociologie, ibid. 1938; F. M. Braun, Formengeschichte, in DBs, III, coll. 312-17.