Understanding Theories of Religion: An Introduction

Understanding Theories of Religion explores the core methods and theorists in religion, through the works of classic and contemporary figures from the history of anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and theology. It offers a comprehensive study of the development of theories of religion, spanning the classics of early modern and Enlightenment Europe, to modern theories of the nineteenth– and twentieth–centuries, and through to postmodern theories of religion and the latest theoretical trends. The second edition expands coverage of religious theories from the 1960s through to the present day, exploring topics including religion and postmodernism; race, sex, and gender; and religion and postcolonialism. Updated throughout, the book offers illuminating insights into the questions that challenged various theorists, and how their successors then adapted and built upon their ideas. By integrating both critical and historical approaches, it reveals how the study of religion evolved in response to great cultural conflicts and major historical events. Individual chapters address the theory attached to a significant individual or school, and reveal how these ideas and methods were then brought into the study of religion. Offering a fresh perspective to conventional approaches which often seek only to demonstrate why theorists were wrong, this expanded new edition of Understanding Theories of Religion seeks to press the question of why these theorists so deeply believed that they were right . Student–friendly features are incorporated throughout, including chapter introductions and summaries, biographical vignettes, a timeline, a glossary, and many other learning aids.

Ivan Strenski is Holstein Family and Community Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside. He served as North American Editor–in–Chief of the international journal Religion from 1979–2004, and is the author of numerous books, including Contesting Sacrifice: Religion, Nationalism and Social Thought (2002), Theology and the First Theory of Sacrifice (2003), The New Durkheim: Essays on Philosophy, Religious Identity and the Politics of Knowledge (2006), and Why Politi cs Can’t Be Freed from Religion (Wiley–Blackwell, 2009). He is also editor of Émile Durkheim (2009), and Thinking about Religion: A Reader (Wiley–Blackwell, 2006).