21st Century Theories of Religion

1. Auflage 2024
ISBN: 978-1-032-88933-7
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 308 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 232 mm, Gewicht: 464 g

What is religion and how does it originate? What are its functions and how does it work? These are some of the key questions addressed by theories of religion. Far from being a past concern, a series of new answers have been proposed since the beginning of our present millennium by evolutionary biologists and psychologists, philosophers, sociologists, and scholars of religion.

In 21st Century Theories of Religion, Michael Stausberg is joined by leading scholars from Europe and North America to present and critically discuss fifteen contemporary theories. Contributions introduce the theoreticians, unpack their arguments, review their reception, and engage in critical debates. The volume provides a cutting-edge point of entry into a key conversation that no student and scholar of religion/s can afford to ignore.

Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Chapter 3 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 license.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Stausberg, Michael

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsphilosophie, Philosophische Theologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. On theories of religion: Varieties, distinctions, questions; 2. A rational choice-based theory of religion: On Rodney Stark and Roger Finke, Acts of Faith (2000); 3. Religion as differentiated communication: On Niklas Luhmann, A Systems Theory of Religion ([2000] 2013); 4. Religion as the unintended product of brain functions in the ‘standard cognitive science of religion model’: On Pascal Boyer, Religion Explained (2001) and The fracture of an Illusion (2010); 5. The United States of Religion: On David Sloan Wilson, Darwin’s Cathedral (2002); 6. Religion as a costly but beneficial evolutionary by-product: On Scott Atran, In Gods We Trust (2002); 7. Routes, flow, and homemaking: On Thomas A. Tweed, Crossing and Dwelling (2006); 8. Practices and the promise of salvation: On Martin Riesebrodt, The Promise of Salvation (2007/2010); 9. Religion as anthropotechnics: On Peter Sloterdijk, You Must Change Your Life (2009); 10. Religion as world maker: On Robert Bellah, Religion in Human Evolution (2011); 11. Social practice as a holistic frame: On Stephen S. Bush, Visions of Religion (2014); 12. Real religion from the person up: On Christian Smith, Religion (2017); 13. Life in a strange world: On Gavin Flood, Religion and the Philosophy of Life (2019); 14. Orchids and ghosts, concrete and coal: On Paul-François Tremlett, Towards a New Theory of Religion and Social Change (2020); 15. The evolution of semiotic systems: On Volkhard Krech, Evolution der Religion (2021); 16. Davidsonian semantic holism as meta-theoretical framework: On Gabriel Levy (2022), Beyond Heaven and Earth (2022)

Über Autor(innen)

Michael Stausberg is Professor of Religion at the University of Bergen, Norway. He is a co-editor of the journal Religion and of The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in the Study of Religion (second edition, 2021).