Rethinking Religion

This book is an ambitious attempt to develop a cognitive approach to religion. Focusing particularly on ritual action it borrows analytical methods from linguistics and other cognitive sciences. The theory's central feature is a set of universal principles of religious ritual structure. The authors a philosopher of science and a scholar of comparative religion provide a lucid critical review of established approaches to religion and make a strong plea for the combination of interpretation and explanation. Often represented as competitive approaches they are rather complementary equally vital to the study of symbolic systems.