The discursive connections between religion and nationalism have long been recognized. Perhaps no one has explored their relationship as persistently as Carlton J. H. Hayes, a prolific historian of nationalism, who did his most important work during the inter-war years of the 1920s and 1930s. While Emile Durkheim is not noted for his reflections on nationalism, his theory of religion sheds light on the question of religion and nationalism. Between Hayes and Durkheim, we can account for most notions of how religion and nationalism are related. The conceptual territory that they have configured and carved-up between themselves has the form of a question: “Is religion the principle – motive, force, and secret-soul – of nationalism or is nationalism the principle of religion?” This question defines the intellectual ground on which Said strategically engages nationalism as a religious–cultural effect.