Description
Book SynopsisWhat are the global and cross-cultural phenomena of religion anyway? They are not things-in-the-world, not things "in themselves," and yet we know they are very real because they constitute the means by which we make up our lives. As thought, language, society and culture are not illusions, neither is religion. This book is about the present plight -- and future possibility -- of a general and comparative study of religion as a field of inquiry in the human sciences. Jensen proposes a different look at the phenomenon of religion, and perhaps so much of a re-interpretation that it may appear to be a different phenomenon altogether. In his "new key," Jensen shifts the attention from metaphysical "givens" and psychological experiences to the social, symbolic and linguistic constructions of human habitats. Jensen's fundamental ambition is to illustrate how and on what conditions it is possible to study not just specific religions as ethnographic or historical facts, but also to study relig
