As we enter the 21st century, it becomes increasingly difficult to
envisage a world detached from religion or an anthropology blind to its
study. Yet, how people become religious is still poorly studied. This
volume gathers some of the most distinguished scholars in the field to
offer a new perspective for the study of religion, one that examines the
works of transmission and innovation through the prism of learning. They
argue that religious culture is socially and dynamically constructed by
agents who are not mere passive recipients but engaged in active
learning processes. Finding a middle way between the social and the
cognitive, they see learning religions not as a mechanism of
"downloading" but also as a social process with its relational
dimension.