Throughout much of the 20th century, sociology has sought to uncouple religious phenomena from any enduring or foundational relationship with patterns of human sociality. Nevertheless, in recent years, notions of a “return of the sacred” are now increasingly widespread. We suggest that such notions offer an opportunity to reflect again upon the character of modernity and, more broadly, the constitution of human societies by looking at the relationship between embodiment and the sacred in the work of Emile Durkheim. Durkheim perceived that the effervescent and sacred bonds which constitute the “fiery furnace” of society are rooted in the enduring homo duplex nature of humanity. The renewed vigour and visibility of sacred phenomena in the modern world, the “re-fuelling” of the “fiery furnace”, is a reminder to sociologists to consider again the importance of those bonds of companionship which not only constitute society, but are integrally related to the embodied constitution of humanity itself.
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