Theories of Religion

Theories Of Religion

Sociological and anthropological metatheories of religion generally attempt to answer at least two interrelated questions: what is the origin of religion and what is its function. This article is about metatheories (usually just called "theories") that explain the formation of religious beliefs as studied in the social sciences. These theories, for the most part, attempt to explain certain universal characteristics of religious belief and practice. It does not address theological explanations of religion nor the histories of specific religions or religion generally.

Read more about Theories Of Religion:  History, Classification of Theories of Religions, Methodologies, Karl Marx, Edward Burnett Tylor and James George Frazer, Émile Durkheim and Functionalism, Max Weber, Sigmund Freud, Rudolf Otto, Mircea Eliade, E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Clifford Geertz, Rational Choice Theory, Evolutionary Theories, See Also

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    Theories of child development and guidelines for parents are not cast in stone. They are constantly changing and adapting to new information and new pressures. There is no “right” way, just as there are no magic incantations that will always painlessly resolve a child’s problems.
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    The real trouble about women is that they must always go on trying to adapt themselves to men’s theories of women, as they always have done. When a woman is thoroughly herself, she is being what her type of man wants her to be. When a woman is hysterical it’s because she doesn’t quite know what to be, which pattern to follow, which man’s picture of woman to live up to.
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    Ethics and religion differ herein; that the one is the system of human duties commencing from man; the other, from God. Religion includes the personality of God; Ethics does not.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)