This article mainly employs a traditional approach of textual analysis to open up a relatively neglected topic, the question of creativity in Durkheim’s work, but especially in Les Formes élémentaires de la vie religieuse. It is also especially in a focus on his insistence on a sui generis social realm, while in the course of this exploring his use of terms such as “substratum”, “fusion”, and “synthesis”, as well as examining issues of duality, effervescence, rhythms of life and revolutions. It concludes with his worries over a modern crisis and with his hope in the creative energies of effervescence to try to overcome it.