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.