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

Famous quotes containing the words theories and/or religion:

    In the course of a life devoted less to living than to reading, I have verified many times that literary intentions and theories are nothing more than stimuli and that the final work usually ignores or even contradicts them.
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    If ... we admit a divinity, why not divine worship? and if worship, why not religion to teach this worship? and if a religion, why not the Christian, if a better cannot be assigned, and it be already established by the laws of our country, and handed down to us from our forefathers?
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