Religion
Subtitle: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Matters
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 296
ISBN-13: 9780691175416
Subjects: Religion
Description: "Drawing on the philosophy of critical realism and personalist social theory, Christian Smith answers key questions about the nature, powers, workings, appeal, and future of religion. He defines religion in a way that resolves myriad problems and ambiguities in past accounts, explains the kinds of causal influences religion exerts in the world, and examines the key cognitive process that makes religion possible. Smith explores why humans are religious in the first place--uniquely so as a species--and offers an account of secularization and religious innovation and persistence that breaks the logjam in which so many religion scholars have been stuck for so long." -- Provided by the publisher.