Clears the ground for students who are setting out to understand, rather than just to practice, religion. It discusses, among other things, the relationship between commitment to a particular tradition and the quest for intellectual understanding of religion "in the round", "holiness" as an identifying aspect of religion, functional "modes" of religion, and finally some questions connected with the secularization process. Assuming throughout that theology and religious studies ought not to be seen as competing approaches, but as sources for complementary insights, it offers the student a fundamental introduction to an important area of inquiry. Admirably fitted for its role. Its easy handling of scholarship will be welcomed by those coming to the subject for the first time, yet there is no avioding the clear message that the study of religion is a serious academic matter.