The modern Science of the History of Religion has attained conclusions which already possess an air of being firmly established. These conclusions may be briefly stated thus: Man derived the conception of 'spirit' or 'soul' from his reflections on the phenomena of sleep dreams death shadow and from the experiences of trance and hallucination.

This volume combines the perspective of religion as a constructed category of modernity with the analytic focus and empirical grounding of institutional social science to develop a new approach to the study of state and religion in modern and contemporary China.

We live in an age of skepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it’s easy to wonder: Why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives? In this thoughtful and inspiring new book, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller invites skeptics to consider that Christianity is more relevant now than ever. As human beings, we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice, and hope. Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet these needs. Written for both the ardent believer and the skeptic, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.

We live in a world with many religious traditions. People in these traditions believe that their religious view of life embodies what is important, true, and real. Their religious views of life, however, differ significantly. They can't all capture equally what is important, true, and real. This book seeks to unravel this dilemma. It rejects two approaches to address the problem: First, the view that one religious view of life is the absolute, unique product of revelation, and second, the view that the foundation of all religious views of life is the same--that they are all the product of religious experiences of the same religious ultimate. This ultimate is sometimes called Being-Itself, sometimes the One. Under the second view, the differences between them are considered cultural. Making Sense of Religion shows us that religious views of life are often radically different, and these differences are not just cultural, but substantive. This book explores the hidden logic beneath the surface of religious views of life that holds them together and helps explain their differences. What follows is a way presenting, comparing, defending, and criticizing religious views of life. This is a type of theology.

Making Religion, Making the State combines cutting-edge perspectives on religion with rich empirical data to offer a challenging new argument about the politics of religion in modern China. The volume goes beyond extant portrayals of the opposition of state and religion to emphasize their mutual constitution. It examines how the modern category of "religion" is enacted and implemented in specific locales and contexts by a variety of actors from the late nineteenth century until the present. With chapters written by experts on Buddhism, Protestantism, Catholicism, Daoism, Islam, and more, this volume will appeal across the social sciences and humanities to those interested in politics, religion, and modernity in China.