One of the themes of the new novel I'm working on is syncretism, or humanity's tendency to attempt a reconciliation of contradictory beliefs as cultures collide.
I'm interested in the persistence of supernatural faith in the face of science (or simple objective refutation).
I'm also interested in comparative religion and the principals of cultural dispersion: sociological, historical, psychological, linguistic, etc. To this end, I spent the day looking at the aggregation and comparison of data surrounding the pantheons of northern Europe 2000-500 b.c. How do the Gaulish, Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Norse (er...and Roman, I suppose) religious frameworks from this period overlap? What are the major differences?