Explaining Religion: Criticism and Theory from Bodin to Freud (American Academy of Religion Texts and Translations Series, No 16)

Rating:
Summary: A Model of Careful Reading
Review: Preuss sets out in this book to describe a tradition of explaining religion, in naturalistic terms, beginning with the late Renaissance thinker Jean Bodin, he elegantly sets up a "symposium" of nine thinkers including representatives of from all corners of modern western thought. What is strongest about this book is Preuss ability to give a solid and accessible overview of each thinker, while attending to the depth and nuance of their texts. His operating thesis is that the explanation of religion begins with the criticism of religion, with the confrontation of religion as a "problem" to be explained. Any reader interested in the rise of secularism within the West would benefit from this book. Even more so, through the backdrop of religion, it highlights many of the key issues of Modernity and how thinkers have sought to confront the basic issues that occur in the breakdown of Christendom as a overarching narrative in the West.