Religion Defined and Explained

This book looks at the large-scale theories of religion characteristics of nineteenth- and twentieth-century approaches to the study of religion. The philosophical assumptions behind the alleged need to produce a theory of religion are examined in Part I. The aims and means of defining religion are treated as part of this examination. The discussion of method in the theory of religion is then illustrated in detailed treatments of five major forms of large-scale theory of religion in Part II: religious, philosophical, sociological, socioeconomic and psychological. Major thinkers in the theory of religion such as Marx, Freud, Durkheim, Hegel and Feuerbach are discussed. The book aims to reveal the difficulties in demonstrating the necessity and validity of any large-scale theory of religion. It argues for less extensive aims for the study of religion, contending in particular that religion should be defined in family-resemblance terms, and explained piecemeal and through historical forms of understanding.