Defining Religion/Religious Studies

Online - The issue of how to define "religion" is controversial.  The following are some links that address the question:

Russell T. McCutcheon, "Religion," [forthcoming in the New Dictionary of the History of Ideas. Maryanne Cline Horowitz (ed.in chief, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004] at http://www.as.ua.edu/rel/pdf/rel237definitionofreligion.pdf

Studying Religion Website at http://www.as.ua.edu/rel/studyingreligion.html

"Definition of Religion" - Encyclopedia of Religion and Society at http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/defreligion.htm

American Academy of Religion - introduction to the study of religion website at   http://www.studyreligion.org/start/index.html

Offline

Asad, Tal, 1993. Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Jonathan Z. Smith, "Religion, Religions, Religious," in Critical Terms for Religious Studies.  ed. Mark C. Taylor. (Chicago:  University of Chicago Press, 1998), pp. 269-84. ISBN: 0226791572

Jan G. Platvoet and Arie L. Molendijk, ed. The Pragmatics of Defining Religion.  Numen Book Series, 84.  Leiden: Brill, 1999.  ISBN 90 04 11544 7

Tim Murphy, ed. Defining Religion:  A Reader. Equinox, 2006.   Paperback ISBN1845530306  View Table of Contents at http://www.equinoxpub.com/books/showbook.asp?bkid=92

Arthur L. Greil, and David Bromley, eds. Defining Religion:  Investigating the Boundaries Between the Sacred and Secular.  Hardbound, ISBN: 0-7623-0976-8, Elsevier, 2003.  Table of Contents at Elsevier.com - Defining Religion, 10

Daniel L. Pals, Eight Theories of Religion (Hardcover)  Oxford University Press; 2 edition (December 30, 2005)ISBN: 0195304586; earlier edition Seven Theories of Religion

Ivan Strenski, Thinking about Religion:  An Historical Introduction to Theories of Religion.  Blackwell Publishing, 2006.  ISBN1-4051-2012-6