What, How, and Why: The Geertzian Definition of Religion and Neurotheological Project on Meta and Megatheology.
Witold P. Wolny

Abstract
The discussion about the nature and essence of religion has been recently revitalized. Due to the magnitude and extent of this return, Geertz called it a “seismic event”. However, in spite of an impressive development in research on religion, there is still no common agreement about its definition and content. Common definitions are mainly responding to the questions “what” religion is, “why” it is there and “how” it works rather on the phenomenological level. The Humans Sciences (including theology) – have always jealously looked at the natural sciences and their methods in order to clarify the blurriness of concepts and simplify the unnecessary sophistication of theoretical discourse. Recent studies on the neurology of religious beliefs, together with Geertzian’ definition and analysis of religion bring new inspirations for what has been labeled as Mega and Metatheology.

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