"This is the most clear-eyed, level-headed interrogation or 'reconstruction' of the proper way to study religion this reviewer has read. In this book, Moore, who previously published the extraordinarily thought-provoking Where Are the Dead? Exploring the Idea of an Embodied Afterlife , flips many taken-for-granted notions about religion on their heads, offering readers enticingly novel views of what religion is all about. Moore begins with why it is important to launch into a book on religion without a firm definition of religion and continues with provocative investigations of religions as sets of 'ideas, practices, experiences and institutions,' what he considers the four basic 'dimensions of religion.' He examines religion as a complex, evolving assemblage of constructions--social, historical, individual, and accidental in origin--that together produce what is known as religion. Employing exquisite, finely wrought prose, the author's tour de force final chapter and epilogue are especially noteworthy. The book is simply sublime. Essential.".