Georg Simmels Religionstheorie

Throughout his life, Georg Simmel concerned himself with religious questions. However do his complete works also contain a consistent theory of religion? Whereas researchers have generally concentrated either on the philosophical or the sociological aspects of his work, Volkhard Krech studies, in the context of the entire body of his writings, those texts written by Simmel on religious themes. He comes to the conclusion that Simmel did in fact develop a theory of religion which, even if merely implied in his works, was however completely and logically consistent. Based on this reconstruction, the author places Simmel's approach in a religious studies context around 1900 and examines its contribution to the solution of current problems in the sociology of religion.