'It is ironic that scholars usually cite their predecessors when discussing theories of religion, as if theories were a precious relic from a prior age. With Michael Stausberg's new volume this odd sort of ancestor worship comes to an end, for readers now have no excuse not to be familiar with theories of religions origin and function-theories that take well ... Read morebeyond the work of our ancestors. Contemporary Theories of Religion therefore makes evident that a natural science of religion was not merely a nineteenth-century ambition.' -Russell McCutcheon, University of Alabama, USA `The book as a whole makes very intriguing reading, and demonstrates well the vitality of the theoretical debate in the study of religion. The rise of the naturalistic paradigm over the past 20 years has clearly done good for the study of religion, and [...] the book at hand draws a fine picture of the contemporary state of the debate.' - Heikki Pesonen, University of Helsinki, Finland in Temenos: Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion Show Less