In this study, Paul S. Chung charts the history of social scientific study of religion from the axial age to the present day, and thereby lays a foundation for a new model of constructive theology in the comparative study of religion, culture and society. Analysing the thought of Max Weber, Alfred Schutz, Pierre Bourdieu, Michel Foucault, Edmund Husserl, Max Horkheimer and others, Chung deals effectively with material interests, power relations and the history of race, gender and sexuality. The result is a synthesis that is at once innovative, critical, and applicable to current methodology in theology and the social sciences.



by Paul S. Chung



Foreword by Ulrich Duchrow Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Sociological Enquiry and World Religion 2. Hermeneutics of Life-world, Religion, and Constructive Theology 3. Sociological Hermeneutics, Power Relations, and Immanent Critique 4. Phenomenology and Social Construction of Reality 5. Social Construction of Religion, Schleiermacher, and Constructive Theology 6. Sociological Enquiry into Hinduism and Comparative Theology Epilogue Bibliography Index