Jonathan Z. Smith on Religion

Jonathan Z. Smith (1938–2017) was unquestionably one of the most important and influential voices of critical reflection within the academic study of religion in the last century. His work explored the nature and history of religious phenomena across cultures—from ancient Jewish practices to Maori cults, from early Christianity to mass suicide in the twentieth century—while critiquing the assumptions underlying the very category of "religion." This important volume offers the first full critical