Description
Book SynopsisA comprehensive and approachable introduction to social scientific theories of religion as they have developed in the twentieth century.
Trade ReviewThis introductory textbook is both challenging and rewarding. In summarising a great number of theories and interpretations of religion it covers in three parts a wider span of academic disciplines than is usually the case ! Not only is the book useful as an undergraduate text, available as a skeleton of reliable proportion on which class and teacher can work together but many a new postgraduate would do well to read it for an overview of religious studies. -- Douglas J. Davies, Professor in the Study of Religion, University of Durham This volume should serve as a splendid textbook for an undergraduate course in religion but Kunin's writing also makes it eminently accessible to the sophisticated lay reader. All in all this is a significant contribution to the field and a major contribution to the teaching of religion. -- Neil Gilman, Professor of Jewish Philosophy, Jewish Theological Seminary, New York This introductory textbook is both challenging and rewarding. In summarising a great number of theories and interpretations of religion it covers in three parts a wider span of academic disciplines than is usually the case ! Not only is the book useful as an undergraduate text, available as a skeleton of reliable proportion on which class and teacher can work together but many a new postgraduate would do well to read it for an overview of religious studies. This volume should serve as a splendid textbook for an undergraduate course in religion but Kunin's writing also makes it eminently accessible to the sophisticated lay reader. All in all this is a significant contribution to the field and a major contribution to the teaching of religion.
Table of ContentsIntroduction; Section One: Setting the Agenda; Chapter 1: Karl Marx and Cultural Materialism; Chapter 2: Emile Durkheim and Functionalism; Chapter 3: Max Weber and Joachim Wach; Chapter 4: Sigmund Freud and the Psychological Tradition; Carl Gustav Jung; Joseph Campbell; Chapter 5: Rudolf Otto: The Idea of the Holy; Section Two: Continuing the Discussion; Chapter 6: Sociology, Methodological Atheism and Secularization; Chapter 7: Psychological Approaches; Chapter 8: Phenomenology and History of Religion; Chapter 9: Feminism, Gender and Religion; Chapter 10: Anthropological Approaches to Religion; Chapter 11: Some Final Words (interim); Section Three: Taking the Discussion in Different Directions; Chapter 12: Ritual and Religious Experience; Chapter 13: Symbolism; Chapter 14: Myth; Chapter 15: Last Words; Bibliography.
