ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a forced detour to consider the "secularization theory" that religion is declining, a theory that stands in the way of persuading sociologists that religion is still worth studying. It suggests that it is useful in helping the sociologist to explore the complexities of human religion because it provides perspectives on religion that other theories might not provide. The chapter considers first the classical theories of the sociology of religion. It explores how the use of religion as a poetic predictor variable opens up the possibility of deeper understanding of the effect of religion on human life, an understanding based on empirical evidence that in the absence of the theory would have been harder to fashion. Clifford Geertz's definition: A religion is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful and long—lasting moods in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods.
