Semiotics of Religion: Signs of the Sacred in History

As Robert Yelle compellingly argues in his compact, meaty monograph, a semiotic approach to religion (magic, ritual, myth) requires attention to both semiotic form and semiotic ideology – the poetics of rhyme and repetition, but equally the underlying nominalist ideology that naming invokes the ghost … [T]he cogent ways in which he pulls together countless familiar piecemeal insights and well-known cases and debates in the anthropology of religion make his book worthwhile reading for linguistic anthropologists … In sum, this groundbreaking interdisciplinary work provides a compelling argument for the tools of our trade by someone firmly situated in a different discipline.
Linguistic Anthropology

This important work takes up the almost forgotten task of advancing the study of religion to a place of deeper comprehension in which the tasks of comparison and broad categorical analysis are possible. The means of advance, as the title indicates, is semiotics … [T]his [is a] carefully plotted argument, making Semiotics of Religion a highly recommended work of theory and method.
Religious Studies Review