Strenski argues that public discourse about religious notions, like sacrifice, cannot be theological in our modern societies. Theological notions of sacrifice and theological approaches to it should be replaced by those like that developed by the Durkheimians because theological discourse cannot but help being religiously biased.

Ivan Strenski, Ph.D. (1969) Religious Studies, Birmingham University (UK) is the Holstein Family and Community Professor or Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside. He has authored five previous books and over 50 articles on various subjects such as myth, sacrifice, ritual, nationalism, and contemporary theories of religion.