Why Politics Can't Be Freed From Religion

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/.