I read this as preparation for AD317. I found it a very good and informative book that could have been a lot better.
Seven dimensions for examination and analysis of religion:
Which is the most helpful bit of the book
Nature of secular worldviews nationalism - powerful force in human affairs. Examining nation state on dimensions of religious analysis, has many attributes one would ascribe to religions. This leaves in a difficult position. He doesn't seem able to decide, for the rest of the book, whether to treat nationalism as a religion or not. He notes where the two become intertwined - Imperial Japan, the established church in England, the values of the USA, but his indecision prevents him from analysing these situations as deeply as he could.
applies his seven dimensional model inconsistently. Where he does apply it, it works very well, but sometimes he just doesn't bother using it. Essentially he goes round the world in two chunks, one up to approx 1500, and one from there. In the second half, when he gets to Asia, Russia, Africa and Latin America, he tells mostly what is essentially a series of secular national histories. He wants, I think, to narrate how religion changes and is used in various colonial contexts, but to me he doesn't seem to pull the threads together convincingly enough.