This title was first published in 2001. This work presents a sociological theory of religion.

Contents: Introduction; The social construction of the primitive; The primitive unconscious: the dream as a source of sedition; Searching for the collective unconscious: the return of the primitive crime; Recovering the primitive: Dante's descent into hell; Experiencing the primitive; Overcoming the primitive self: perennial spiritual journeys; The descent into the unconscious as unauthorized self-possession: the recovery of the lost and dying self; Preventing the death of the soul: Freud's descent into the realm of the unconscious; The secular pilgrim's progress through hell.

Richard K. Fenn is Professor of Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, USA. His book The Return of the Primitive: A New Sociological Theory of Religion was published by Ashgate in 2001.