Prepared in honor of E. Thomas Lawson, the essays in "Religion as a Human Capacity" offer a broad range of cognitivist theoretical explorations of religion, as well as cutting-edge applications of cognitive and other contemporary theories to religious data.

Timothy Light, Ph.D. (1974) in Linguistics from Cornell University, is Professor of Comparative Religion at Western Michigan University. His fields are Chinese religions and theory and method in the academic study of religion. Most recently he has published on the phenomenon of syncretism.
Brian C. Wilson, Ph.D. (1996) in Religious Studies from UC Santa Barbara, is Associate Professor and Chair of Comparative Religion at Western Michigan University. His most recent book is Reappraising Durkheim for the Study and Teaching of Religion Today (Brill, 2002), edited with Thomas A. Idinopulos.