Then suddenly the news of an unimaginable loss; Massimo was no longer with us. We had not yet finalized the title for this series of seminars. Massimo, Durkheimian by education, (he curated the Italian edition of Elementary Forms of Religious Life), placed great emphasis on the phenomenon’s socially cohesive factors, certainly without ignoring other aspects. In August of last year he had written a very moving obituary for the great American sociologist Robert Bellah, the theorist of civil religion, to whom he felt very close in many ways. He translated Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life, a book he cared deeply about and that presented a strong example of a moral analysis of American society and of its disintegrating and cohesive factors, bringing to light the importance of remembrance, traditions and their revisited versions. That book and those ideas were among the many elements that filled Massimo’s intellect as a teacher and a researcher who experienced his work in a dimension of constant planning. He had seriously considered the post-secular ideas presented by Habermas in recent years, and, at Tor Vergata University, had organised a Study and Documentation Centre on ‘Religion and the Political institutions in post-secular society.’  Massimo had already produced and published a great deal of work in his intense professional life, but he was still, as was natural at his age, in the stages at which one envisages that most work remains yet to be done.

Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations, its Scientific Committee, its directors, news staff and co-workers offer their condolences to his wife Barbara and their daughter Anna.

Biography
Massimo Rosati was born in Pescara (Italy) in 1969. He grew up and did his schooling and undergraduate studies in Rome, where he currently lives. In 1993 he took his degree in Sociology at the University “La Sapienza” of Rome, with a thesis on Habermas’ “Theory of Communicative Action”, that in 1994 became, under the title Consenso e razionalità (Armando editore), the first Italian monograph on Habermas’ book. In 1998 he took a Doctorate in Political Sociology, University of Florence. He was based first at University of Perugia and then at the University of Salerno, until 2008. Until his death he was Associate Professor at University of Rome Tor Vergata, where he taught Sociology. In Italian he also published Il patriottismo italiano. Culture politiche e identità nazionale (Laterza 2000), and Solidarietà e sacro (Laterza 2002), a theoretical investigation on the role of the concept of the sacred in classical and contemporary social theory. In English he published articles on Durkheim and contemporary social theory in The Journal of Classical Sociology, Durkheimian Studies, Philosophy and Social Criticism. He edited the new Italian edition of Durkheim’s The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (Meltemi 2005). With Alessandro Ferrara he wrote Affreschi della modernità. Crocevia della teoria sociale (Carocci 2005), and with W.S.F. Pickering he co-edited Suffering and Evil. The Durkheimian Legacy (Berghan Books 2008). His last book is Ritual and the Sacred. A Neo-Durkheimian Analysis of Politics, Religion and the Self (Ashgate 2009); his last co-editorship (with Kristina Stoeckl) is the volume titled Multiple Modernities and Postsecular Societies (Ashgate 2012). His main interests were in classical sociology, social theory and current debates on the role of religions, ritual and the sacred in contemporary societies.

Bibliography
ROSATI M., (2007). Unici ma non esemplari. I limiti del modello di laicità europea. In: SANTAMBROGIO, A. A CURA DI. I cattolici e l’Europa. Laicità, religione e sfera pubblica. vol. 1, p. 53-62, SOVERIA MANNELLI: Rubettino, ISBN/ISSN: 978-88-498-1757-7

ROSATI M. (2007). Strenski’s Unfinished Work: Durkheim, Modernity and Doubts. DURKEIMIAN STUDIES, vol. 13; p. 130-138, ISSN: 1362-024X

ROSATI M. (2007). Recovering Durkheim’s ‘Second Program of Research’: Roy Rappaport and Jeffrey C. Alexander. DURKEIMIAN STUDIES, vol. 13; p. 105-121, ISSN: 1362-024X

ROSATI M. (2008). Evil in the Elementary Forms. In: W.S. PICKERING, M. ROSATI EDITED BY. Suffering & Evil. The Durkheimian Legacy. , ISBN/ISSN: 978-1-84545-519-4

ROSATI M. (2008). Evil and Responsibility. The Durkheimian Legacy and Contemporary Debates. In: W.S. F. PICJERING M. ROSATI EDS. Suffering and Evil. The Durkheimian Legacy. OXFORD: Berghahn Books, ISBN/ISSN: 978-1-84545-519-4

ROSATI M. (2008). Cibernetica del sacro ed eteronomia. Per una apertura antropologica della politica. In: SEMINARIO PERMANENTE DI TEORIA CRITICA. Cos’è la politica. p. 166-186, ROMA: Meltemi Editore, ISBN/ISSN: 9788883536366

ROSATI M. (2008). Sacro e spazio pubblico. QUADERNI DI TEORIA SOCIALE, vol. 8; p. 273-289, ISSN: 1824-4750

ROSATI M. (a cura di) (2008). Suffering and Evil. The Durkheimian Legacy. Di W.S.F. PICKERING, M. ROSATI, S. JANKELEVITCH, G. PAOLETTI, M. S. CLADIS, R. PARKIN, W. RAMP, J.B. ALLCOCK., OXFORD: Berghahn Books, ISBN: 9781845455194

ROSATI M. (2008). Inhabiting no-mans land: Durkheim and Modernity. JOURNAL OF CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGY, vol. 8; p. 233-261, ISSN: 1468-795X

ROSATI M. (2008). Suffering and Evil in the Elementary Forms. In: W. S. F. PICKERING AND M. ROSATI EDS. Suffering and Evil. The Durkheimian Legacy. p. 49-62, OXFORD: Berghahn Books, ISBN/ISSN: 978-1-84545-519-4

ROSATI M. (2008). Evil and Collective Responsibility: The Durkheimian Legacy and Contemporary Debates. In: W. S. F. PICKERING AND M. ROSATI EDS. Suffering and Evil. The Durkheimian Legacy. p. 136-147, OXFORD: Berghahn Books, ISBN/ISSN: 978-1-84545-519-4

ROSATI M. (2009). Ritual and the Sacred. A Neo-Durkheimian Analysis of Politics, Religion and the Self. FARNHAM: Ashgate, ISBN: 978-0-7546-7640-9

ROSATI M. (2009). Risalire la china: il rito e i frammenti. In: ROBERTO TAGLIAFERRI. La tazza rotta. Il rito: risorsa dimenticata dell’umanità. p. 499-507, PADOVA: Edizioni Messaggero, ISBN/ISSN: 978-88-250-2406

ROSATI M. (2009). I molti ordinarsi del sociale. Civilizzazioni e pluralismo giuridico. POLITICA & SOCIETÀ, vol. 4; p. 77-91

ROSATI M. (2009). Rito, trauma e solidarietà europea. In: RI.LES.S A CURA DI. Rammemorare la Shoah. 27 gennaio e identità europea. p. 69-85, SOVERIA MANNELLI: Rubettino, ISBN/ISSN: 978-88-498-2614-2

ROSATI M. (2009). Le rappresentazioni sociali della Shoah in Italia. In: RI.LE.S. A CURA DI. Rammemorare la Shoah. 27 Gennaio e identità europea. p. 103-122, SOVERIA MANNELLI: Rubettino, ISBN/ISSN: 978-88-498-2614-2

ROSATI M. (2009). Memoria della Shoah, identità europea e comunità religiose. In: RI.LE.S A CURA DI. Rammemorare la Shoah. 27 Gennaio e identità europea. p. 247-264, SOVERIA MANNELLI: Rubettino, ISBN/ISSN: 978-88-498-2614-2

ROSATI M. (2009). Roma domani. La memoria del 16 ottobre 1943 nel futuro della città. In: RI.LE.S. Rammemorare la Shoah. 27 Gennaio e identità europea. p. 309-322, SOVERIA MANNELLI: Rubettino, ISBN/ISSN: 978-88-498-2614-2

ROSATI M. (2010). “Kinds of Ritual and the Place of Transcendence”. PHILOSOPHY & SOCIAL CRITICISM, vol. 36; p. 45-48, ISSN: 0191-45370191-4537, doi: 10.1177/019145370934841

ROSATI M. (2010). Post-secular society, transnational religious civilizations and legal pluralism. PHILOSOPHY & SOCIAL CRITICISM, vol. 36; p. 1-11, ISSN: 0191-45370191-4537, doi: 10.1177/0191453709358845

ROSATI M., M (2010). Pluralismo religioso e pluralismo giuridico: il caso della ‘controversia sulla Shari’a’. In: A CURA DI V. COTESTA, A. FEBBRAJO, E. PACE, R. SEGATORI. Il pluralismo religioso tra politica, diritto e società. p. 123-138, SOVERIA MANNELLI, ISBN/ISSN: 9788849827644

ROSATI M. (2011). Intellettuali durkheimiani. Atteggiamenti verso il mondo, tipi di Self e network micro-sociologici. QUADERNI DI TEORIA SOCIALE, vol. 11; p. 451-464, ISSN: 1824-4750

ROSATI M. (2011). Ritual and Reflexivity in the Sociological Discourse on Modernity. In: EDITED BY U. SIMON. Ritual and Reflexivity. vol. IV, p. 163-173, WIESBADEN: Harrassowitz, ISBN/ISSN: 978-3-44706204-6

ROSATI M. (2012). Solidarity and Difference: Reflections on the Enigma of Durkheim and Judaism. RELIGION, vol. 42; p. 21-40, ISSN: 0048-721X

ROSATI M. (2012). The Turkish Laboratory. Local Modernity and the Postsecular in Turkey. Multiple Modernities and Postsecular Societies. FARNHAM: Ashgate, ISBN/ISSN: 9781409444121

ROSATI M. (2012) Le Forme elementari della vita religiosa 100 anni dopo: nuove prospettive e vecchi cliché. RA, vol. 1; p. 11-24, ISSN: 2038-5048

ROSATI, M. (2012) Postsecular Sanctuaries. Towards a Neo-Durkheimian Grammar of Sacred Places, in “Etnografia e ricerca qualitativa”, 3, pp. 365-392, ISBN 9788815235787

ROSATI M. (a cura di) (2012). Multiple Modernities and Postsecular Societies. Fahrnam: Ashgate, ISBN: 9781409444121