Comprehensive exam reading started in earnest tonight.I have started Daniel Pals’ Eight Theories of Religion (Oxford, 2006), which is a handy and slim (at 340 pages) volume recounting how eight influential thinkers (Frazer, Freud, Durkheim, Marx, Weber, Eliade, Evans-Pritchard and Geertz – you can tell they are influential because they have lost their first names) have addressed the questions of how and why in terms of religion. As in: why do people believe?
It looks like a nice one-stop-shop for anyone looking for a foundational grasp on the major theories.
My schedule tells me that I have to get on to my next book by Friday night, so Pals gets as much attention as possible until then. At least 100 - 150 pages a night is the goal… That is, if I can manage to ignore the spazzy cat who is currently chasing imaginary (let’s hope) bugs all around my study right now…
The spirit is willing, but the physical plane seems to be working against me.
2 comments:
So one named people are influential. Does that mean Madonna is this generations answer to Marx and Freud?
Have fun with the read but it does sound interesting.
Certainly, except for me it goes the other way. I think there are people who are surprised that I have a last name.
And it is too sad and horrible to think of Madonna as this generation's Freud... So I will drop the idea before I cry and give up on education altogether.
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