Theories of Religion (1966-2024)
A Critical Primer
By (author) Michael Stausberg
Paperback (Published)
(March 2026)
ISBN: 9781800507920
5.51 x 8.5 inches
Price: $26.95
On back order
Hardback (Published)
(March 2026)
ISBN: 9781800507913
5.51 x 8.5 inches
Price: $80.00
On back order
The book starts by giving a brief synopsis of theories of religions advanced since 1966. The main part of the volume surveys 43 works by theorists of religion in chronological order. This book will serve as a unique resource for students and scholars alike.
This volume does not focus on “theory” in a broad sense, but specifically on theories of religion. Theories of religion are texts that seek to interpret or explain “religion”, attempting to account for its meaning of “religion”, its specificity and its ontological status. They typically discuss the origins, structure, and functions (or products) of “religion”. Hence, theories of religion differ from “theoretical approaches”, “theoretical frameworks”, “theoretical models”, “definition of religion”, “ideas”, or similar concepts. The volume explores “theories of religion” as a fundamental concept in the study of religion/s in a specific, albeit interdisciplinary sense. Notably, many of the key theorists of religion are anthropologists, cognitive and evolutionary theorists, philosophers, and sociologists, in addition to scholars of religion in a more disciplinary sense. The book starts by giving a brief synopsis of theories of religions advanced since 1966. This starting point is chosen because of the appearance of two theoretical manifestos-contemporary classics-by Clifford Geertz, and Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann, which have set the stage for subsequent theories of religion as points of references. The main part of the volume surveys over 40 works by the following theorists in chronological order: Clifford Geertz, Thomas Luckmann, Peter Berger, Pierre Bourdieu, Niklas Luhmann, Donald Crosby, Andrew Greeley, Ninian Smart, Martin Prozesky, Rodney Stark (with William Sims Bainbridge and Roger Finke respectively), Felicitas Goodman, John Hick, E. Thomas Lawson and Robert McCauley, Stewart Guthrie, Daniele Hervieu-Leger, Henri Hatzfeld, Jacques Derrida, Walter Burkert, Roy Rappaport, Pascal Boyer, Scott Atran, David Sloan Wilson, Lee Kirkpatrick, Loyal Rue, Daniel Dennett, Thomas Tweed, Martin Riesebrodt, Peter Sloterdijk, Robert Bellah, Gavin Flood, Jeppe Sinding Jensen, Ronald Dworkin, Jan-Ove Henriksen, Christian Smith, Paul-Francois Tremlett, Jonathan Turner with Alexandra Maryanski, Anders Klostergaard Petersen, and Armin Geertz, Volkhard Krech, Gabriel Levy and Stanley Stowers.
Table of Contents
Premlims
Acknowledgments
Part I Introduction
Part II The theories
1 Geertz: “Religion as a Cultural System” (1966)
2 Luckmann: The Invisible Religion (1967)
3 Berger: The Sacred Canopy (1967)
4 Bourdieu:“An Interpretation of the Theory of Religion According to Max Weber” &“Genesis and Structure of the Religious Field” (1971)
5 Luhmann: Function of Religion (1977)
6 Crosby: Interpretive Theories of Religion (1981)
7 Greeley: Religion, a Secular Theory (1982)
8 Prozesky: Religion and Ultimate Well-Being (1984)
9 Stark and Bainbridge: A Theory of Religion (1987)
10 Goodman: Ecstasy, Ritual, and Alternate Reality (1988)
11 Hick: An Interpretation of Religion (1989/2004)
12 Lawson and McCauley: Rethinking Religion (1990)
13 Guthrie: Faces in the Clouds (1993)
14 Hervieu-Léger: Religion as a Chain of Memory (1993)
15 Hatzfeld: The Roots of Religion (1993)
16 Boyer: The Naturalness of Religious Ideas (1994)
17 Derrida: “Faith and Knowledge” (1996)
18 Burkert: Creation of the Sacred (1996)
19 Rappaport: Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity (1999)
20 Luhmann: Die Religion der Gesellschaft (1997/2000)A Systems Theory of Religion (2013)
21 Fitzgerald: The Ideology of Religious Studies (2000)
22 Stark and Finke: Acts of Faith (2000)
23 Boyer: Religion Explained (2001) 10324 Pyysiäinen: How Religion Works (2001)
25 Atran: In Gods We Trust (2002)
26 Wilson: Darwin’s Cathedral (2002)
27 Kirkpatrick: Attachment, Evolution, and the Psychology of Religion (2005)
28 Rue: Religion Is Not about God (2005)
29 Dennett: Breaking the Spell (2006)
30 Tweed: Crossing and Dwelling (2006)
31 Riesebrodt: Cultus und Heilsversprechen (2007) /The Promise of Salvation (2010)
32 Lewis-Williams: Conceiving God (2010)
33 Vásquez: More Than Belief (2011)
34 Bellah: Religion in Human Evolution (2011)
35 Flood: The Importance of Religion (2012)
36 Dworkin: Religion without God (2013)
37 Smith: Religion (2017)
38 Henriksen: Religion as Orientation and Transformation (2017)
39 Turner, Maryanski, Petersen, Geertz: The Emergence and Evolution of Religion(2018)
40 Tremlett: Towards a new Theory of Religion and Social Change (2020)
41 Krech: Evolution of Religion (2021)
42 Levy: Beyond Heaven and Earth (2022)
43 Stowers: History and the Study of Religion (2024)
Part III Prospects
End Matter
Appendix
References
Index
- By (author) Michael Stausberg
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