Religion, Theory, Critique is an essential tool for learning about theory and method in the study of religion. Leading experts engage with contemporary and classical theories as well as non-Western cultural contexts. Unlike other collections, this anthology emphasizes the dynamic relationship between "religion" as an object of study and different methodological approaches and openly addresses the question of the manifold ways in which "religion," "secular," and "culture" are imagined within different disciplinary horizons. This volume is the first textbook which seeks to engage discussion of classical approaches with contemporary cultural and critical theories.
Contributors write on the influence of the natural sciences in the study of religion; the role of European Christianity in modeling theories of religion; religious experience and the interface with cognitive science; the structure and function of religious language; the social-scientific study of religion; ritual in religion; the phenomenology of religion; critical theory and religion; embodiment and religion; the impact of colonialism and modernity; theorizing religion in terms of race and ethnicity; links among religion, nationalism, and globalization; the interplay of gender, sex, and religion; and religion and the environment. Each chapter introduces the topic, identifies key theorists and issues, and respects the pluralistic nature of the scholarship in the field. Altogether, this collection scrutinizes the explicit and implicit assumptions theorists make about religion as an object of analysis.
- Table of Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1. The Copernican Turn in the Study of Religion, by Richard King
- Part I: Historical Foundations/Genealogies
- 2. Nominalist “Judaism” and the Late-Ancient Invention of Religion, by Daniel Boyarin
- 3. Bible/Religion/Critique, by Ward Blanton and Yvonne Sherwood
- 4. Hegel: On Secularity and the Religion-Making Machine, by Arvind Mandair
- 5. Friedrich Max Müller and the Science of Religion, by Lourens van den Bosch
- 6. Classic Comparative Theology and the Study of Religion, by Hugh Nicholson
- 7. Religion, Religious Studies, and Shinto in Modern Japan, by Jun’ichi Isomae
- Part II: The Enlightenment Critique of Religion
- 8. David Hume on Religion, by Randall Styers
- 9. Feuerbach on Religion, by Jay Geller
- 10. Nietzsche: Life, Works, Reception, by Tyler Roberts
- 11. Sigmund Freud on Religion, by Volney Gay
- 12. Karl Marx on Religion, by Terry Rey
- 13. “Religion” in the Writings of the New Atheists, by Tina Beattie
- Part III: Religion Beyond the West
- 14. Indigenous African Traditions as Models for Theorizing Religion, by Edward P. Antonio
- 15. Zongjiao and the Category of Religion in China, by Ya-pei Kuo
- 16. Islamic Dīn as an Alternative to Western Models of “Religion”, by Ahmet T. Karamustafa
- 17. Translation, by Arvind Mandair
- Part IV: Religion as Experience
- 18. The Psychology of Religion, by Jeremy Carrette
- 19. William James and the Study of Religion: A Critical Reading, by Jeremy Carrette and David Lamberth
- 20. Rudolf Otto and the Idea of the Holy, by Gregory Alles
- 21. Jung on Religion, by Volney Gay
- 22. Religion and the Brain: Cognitive Science as a Basis for Theories of Religion, by Ilkka Pyysiäinen
- 23. A Critical Response to Cognitivist Theories of Religion, by Steven Engler and Mark Quentin Gardiner
- Part V: Religion, Language, and Myth
- 24. “Religion” in Anglo-American (Analytical) Philosophy of Religion, by Ludger Viefhues-Bailey
- 25. Structuralist Linguistics and Structuralist Theories of Religion, by Volney Gay
- 26. Imagining, Manufacturing, and Theorizing Myth: An Overview of Key Theories of Myth and Religion, by Daniel Dubuisson
- Part VI: Religion/Society/Culture
- 27. The Origins of the Sociology of Religion: The Problem of “Religion” and “Religions” in Classical Sociology, by Bryan S. Turner
- 28. Contemporary Social Theory and Religion: The Misconstrual of Religion in Theories of “Second” Modernity, by Simon Speck
- 29. Classical Anthropological Theories of Religion, by Randall Styers
- 30. Defining Religion: Geertz and Asad, by Jon P. Mitchell
- 31. Religion, Media, and Cultural Studies, by Richard Fox
- Part VII. Religion, Ritual, and Action
- 32. Classic Ritual Theories, by Ulrike Brunotte
- 33. The Myth-Ritual Debate, by Ulrike Brunotte
- 34. From Ritual to Ritualization, by Jon P. Mitchell
- 35. Religion and Theories of Action, by Kocku von Stuckrad
- Part VIII: The Phenomenology of Religion and Its Critics
- 36. Phenomenology of Religion: The Philosophical Background, by Charles E. Scott
- 37. The Phenomenology of Religion, by James L. Cox
- 38. Mircea Eliade, by Gregory Alles
- 39. Critical Responses to Phenomenological Theories of Religion: What Kind of Category Is “Religion”?, by William Arnal
- 40. Critical Religion: “Religion” Is Not a Stand-Alone Category, by Timothy Fitzgerald
- Part IX: Religion and Contemporary European Thought
- 41. Post-Marxism and Religion, by Nelson Maldonado-Torres
- 42. Pierre Bourdieu on Religion, by Terry Rey
- 43. Jacques Derrida on Religion, by Ellen Armour
- 44. Foucault and the Study of Religion, by Jeremy Carrette
- 45. Contemporary Continental Philosophy and the “Return of the Religious”, by Randall Styers
- Part X: Religion, Gender, and Sexuality
- 46. Feminist Approaches to the Study of Religion, by Darlene Juschka
- 47. French Feminism and Religion, by Morny Joy
- 48. Queer Theory Meets Critical Religion: Are We Starting to Think Yet?, by Naomi R. Goldenberg
- Part XI: Religion, Coloniality, and Race
- 49. Religion, Modernity, and Coloniality, by Nelson Maldonado-Torres
- 50. Apartheid Comparative Religion in South Africa, by David Chidester
- 51. Theorizing Race and Religion: Du Bois, Cox, and Fanon, by William David Hart
- 52. Black Cultural Criticism, the New Politics of Difference, and Religious Criticism, by Victor Anderson
- 53. Theorizing Black Religious Studies: A Genealogy, by Victor Anderson
- Part XII: Religion/Nation/Globalization
- 54. Religion and Violence, by William T. Cavanaugh
- 55. Religion and Economy, by Gregory Alles
- 56. Globalization and Religion, by Jeremy Carrette
- List of Contributors
- Index
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