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The Brill dictionary of religion

The Brill Dictionary of Religion explicitly reflects the transformation that the academic study of religion has undergone within the last twenty years.

The rationale that underlies the selection of entries and their respective presentation is aimed at reflecting the many aspects of religious fields of discourse in modern societies. To succeed in this endeavor, two perspectives have to be combined: First, the public and communicative aspects of religion have to be addressed explicitly; entries such as “Media,” “Perception,” “Collective Representations,” or “Everyday Life” are examples of this attempt.

The large number of illustrations, sometimes tracing religion in unexpected places, likewise underscores this rationale. Second, the historical dimension is of crucial importance, because a proper understanding of modern religious discourses is impossible without knowledge of the past and a comparison with different periods and contexts. That is why the reader will also find historical overviews both of concepts and of religious traditions.