"Eight Theories of Religion" offers summary, analysis, and appraisal of a number of landmark modern efforts to explain the origin and function of religion. Beginning in the middle decades of the nineteenth century, it considers the Victorian anthropology of E.B. Tylor and James Frazer, the "reductio[...]

What is religion? How is it to be explained? Why do human beings believe in divinities? Why do the beliefs and behaviors we typically describe as religious so deeply affect the human personality and so subtly weave their way through human society? Introducing Religion: Readings from the Classic Theo[...]