Ivan Strenski is Holstein Family and Community Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside. He is the author of numerous books, including:  Contesting Sacrifice: Religion, Nationalism and Social Thought (2002), Theology and the First Theory of Sacrifice (2003), The New Durkheim: Essays on Philosophy, Religious Identity and the Politics of Knowledge (2006), Thinking About Religion: An Historical Introduction to Theories of Religion, and Thinking About Religion: A Reader (both Wiley-Blackwell, 2006). See his website on “spontaneous shrines” at http://www.shrines.ucr.edu/.