Theories of religion are generalizations about religion, traditionally stemming from the field of the social sciences and the humanities. Theorists maintain that they are in a position to account for religion wherever and whenever it appears by typically tracing its origins and/or function, although other constituent elements are also analyzed, such as structure, specificity, or subject matter. By origins typically theorists refer either to the historical (when, how, and why religion as a phenomenon first appeared in human history) or the recurrent origins (when, how, and why religion appears every time it does so in human history). By function, theorists address what religion does either to the/a person(s) or to society as a whole. Traditionally, scholars of religion tend to focus on the founding figures of the study of religion (e.g., Friedrich Max Müller, Edward B. Tylor, James G. Frazer, Mircea Eliade, and others), covering the period between the seventeenth and the twentieth centuries. Recently, however, scholars have indicated that a broad variety of theoretical approaches to religion have been developed and propagated from within a number of disciplines, from Women’s and Gender Studies to the Cognitive Study of Religion, all voicing new perspectives on religion as a phenomenon across time and space. Scholars collaborating in this cluster address this foundational topic in the academic study of religion from within an interdisciplinary outlook that is not hooked on modernist views alone but expands into and also employs postmodern perspectives broadly defined.

Affiliated and Contributing Scholars

Spokesperson:

• Nickolas P. Roubekas, Department of Religious Studies, University of Vienna

Advisory Board:

• Sarah J. Bloesch, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
• Aaron W. Hughes, Department of Religion and Classics, University of Rochester, USA
• M. Cooper Minister, Department of Religion, Shenandoah University, USA
• Lukas K. Pokorny, Department of Religious Studies, University of Vienna
• Kevin Schilbrack, Professor of Religious Studies, Appalachian State University, USA
• Will Sweetman, Professor of Asian Religions, University of Otago, New Zealand