ABSTRACT
Sociological studies of religion are no different in most respects from sociological studies of other social and cultural phenomena. They all try to make sense of phenomena that display change-as well as continuity-over time and space. Their target is a moving one. At the same time, sociological ways of thinking about religion also undergo change. The frameworks of theories, concepts and methods of investigation are constantly under critical review. In other words, the apparatus for examining religion as a social or cultural phenomenon is subject to just as much change as is religion itself. The question of whether the rate of change is similar for the apparatus and for the object of investigation is not only interesting in itself but also a digression from the central point of this chapter.
