Semiotics of Religion: A Map 1 Massimo Leone Shanghai University, China, and University of Turin, Italy Abstract: The essay proposes a concise map of some of the current research trends in the semiotics of religion. Within the theoretical framework of Peirce’s philosophy of semiosis as interpreted and developed by Umberto Eco, the essay situates the semiotic study of religion at the crossroad of nature and culture and singles out as its main task studying both the abstract level of religious ideologies of signification and the empirical level of religious systems of expression and communication. Keywords: religion, semiotics, Charles S. Peirce, Umberto Eco, semiotic philosophy of religion, semiotic anthropology E debbasi considerare come non è cosa più difcile a trattare, né più dubia a riuscire, né più pericolosa a maneggiare, che farsi capo a introdurre nuovi ordini. 2 (Niccolò Machiavelli 3 c. 1527: Il Principe, VI) Semiotics of Religion Between Nature and Culture R eligion is a phenomenon to be studied at the crossroad of nature and culture. 4 Te most general hypothesis of the present essay is that language—conceived as the dimension and the arena in which 1 Tis essay is a synthesis of the frst part of the conclusions of my two-volume work Grammars of Infnity, forthcoming in the series “Semiotics of Religion”, which I co-direct at Walter de Gruyter. For a more detailed “map”, please refer to such conclusions, as well as to my previously published two-volume work, in Italian, Annunciazioni (Leone 2014a). I thank the two anonymous reviewers of the frst version of the present essay for their valuable suggestions. 2 “And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difcult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the in- troduction of a new order of things” (Machiavelli c.1527: trans. William K. Marriott, 1910). 3 Florence, 3 May 1469–1527 June 21. 4 “Nature” and “culture” here must not be understood as monadic counterparts of a binary dialectics but rather as polarizations at the extremities of a spectrum, opposing, as The American Journal of Semiotics ISSN 0277-7126 © Semiotic Society of America doi: Online First: