askchapo

There's really nothing off hand I can offer that answers your specific question, unfortunately. I can look through some stuff and see where I got my ideas, but that'll take more time than I have tonight.

for books on thinking about religion and athropology more generally, i have to recommend Existential Anthropology by Michael Jackson (no relation hee hee) - despite not being specifically about religion, i feel it... really is helpful in creating a useful mindset for approaching religion & human society-centric topics in an academic and scholarly manner - tbqh it gets frustrating that this kind of education isn't a more important part of marxist studies, because it would radically alter the left's ability to engage with people for whom religion is often the dividing line between us and them.

i can possibly assemble a few others. I'll see what I can do - DM me so i don't forget about this and i'll throw some stuff your way when i have time.

In the mean time, i can at least point you to educational (non polemical/apologetic and backed up with real data) videos.

I highly recommend Religion For Breakfast and Let's Talk Religion. The former has a doctorate and is a pretty serious scholar. His videos often invite the view to comport themselves to a more academic understanding of the material before explaining things.

I would be careful to rely overly on materials that are speculative or are kinda... normie facing? the stuff that's made for sale as something you might readily find at barnes & noble or half-price books - as that stuff will not be trying to teach you how to think about and approach religious topics in a neutral, truth-seeking manner.

This is a Religion For Breakfast video about the parallels between modern fandoms & similar phenomena, and classical religion, and iirc to make sure the distinctions are understood he tries to read the viewer in to a more helpful mindset to think about these things in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU8w4KxoyRk

Let's Talk Religion is also ace stuff, but is more Islam-focused, and is, imo, really quite valuable in a very similar way.

I do read, but this stuff is a lot better to put in my head than entertainment slop, so i tend to favor it when i'm trying to distract myself. Lets me learn while being lazy.

They post their sources, back up their claims and analysis, and are generally a good starting point for deconstructing religious matters.