The paper is an extended review of the book "Contemporary theories of religion", 2009, which brought together critical articles about relatively recent theories appeared within the last twenty years. In spite of the lasting impact of postmodernist skepticism toward theories and the deconstruction of «religion» as a modern narrative, the period of 1990-2000s gave birth to a wide range of new theories. The main trend was a new interest to the methods and explanatory strategies of the natural sciences. However, this trend did not mean a simple return to old positivism but rather has been a search of integrating religious studies into a new field of cognitive research.