The Hegemony of Critique

2021 ◽  
pp. 241-264
Author(s):  
William Wood
Keyword(s):  
Religious Studies ◽  
Rational Behavior ◽  
Critical Inquiry ◽  
Crowd Out ◽  
Academic Study

Part IV turns to an extended engagement with the academic study of religion, which is often constitutively hostile to any form of theology. Chapter 13 concerns the role of “critique” in the academic study of religion, where “critique” is understood as a specific discourse—something more than mere criticism. Critique remains valuable, but in the contemporary religious studies academy, it has become hegemonic, to the point where it threatens to crowd out other equally legitimate methods of inquiry. Analytic theologians are well positioned to grasp the limitations of critique precisely because critique’s moves and methods are so different from those of analytic theology. I argue that the academic study of religion needs to supplement critical inquiry’s “epistemology of power” with a more analytic “epistemology of truth,” one that allows us to assess religious adherence as a form of rational behavior. At the same time, analytic theologians have much to learn from the tradition of critical inquiry.

Editor’s Corner: Critics or Caretakers?

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 38-39
Author(s):  
Philip Tite
Keyword(s):  
Religious Studies ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Short Piece ◽  
Short Essay ◽  
Academic Study

A short essay, in responding to an online roundtable (the Religious Studies Project), explores the role of progressive ideology in the academic study of religion, specifically with a focus on debates over Russell McCutcheon's distinction between scholars functioning as cultural critics or caretakers of religious traditions. This short piece is part of the "Editor's Corner" (an occasional section of the Bulletin where the editors offer provocative musings on theoretical challenges facing the discipline).

Neutrality in the Study of Religion

2022 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-76
Author(s):  
John H. Whittaker
Keyword(s):  
Department Chair ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
State University ◽  
Original Publication ◽  
Critical Inquiry ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Louisiana State University ◽  
Robert Bellah

The Archive is a feature of the Bulletin in which previous publications are reprinted to reinforce the modern relevance of archived arguments. “Neutrality in the Study of Religion,” originally published in 1981, comes from Dr. John H. Whittaker (1945-2019), who was the Department Chair of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Louisiana State University until 2006. This article is relevant 30 years after its original publication, as it explores an ongoing debate in the field: the limits of objectivity in religious studies. Whittaker critiques a claim made by sociologist Robert Bellah in order to argue that religion can and should be taught from what he terms a “neutral” standpoint that encourages critical inquiry. The role of the scholar of religion as a researcher, observer, and teacher is one that remains contended across the field of religious studies today.

The problem of periodization of the history of religion

1997 ◽  
pp. 3-8
Author(s):  
Borys Lobovyk
Keyword(s):  
Religious Studies ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Religious Development ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Role Of Religion

An important problem of religious studies, the history of religion as a branch of knowledge is the periodization process of the development of religious phenomenon. It is precisely here, as in focus, that the question of the essence and meaning of the religious development of the human being of the world, the origin of beliefs and cult, the reasons for the changes in them, the place and role of religion in the social and spiritual process, etc., are converging.

Responding to the Wendy Doniger Controversy

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-39
Author(s):  
Steven Ramey
Keyword(s):  
Religious Studies ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Robust Analysis ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Academic Study

The controversy over Penguin India withdrawing Wendy Doniger's book, announced in February 2014, provides an occasion to consider the problems and possibilities within the academic study of religion. As the controversy centered on representations of what both Doniger and her opponents termed Hinduism, the problems with adjudicating contested definitions of religions or the category religions becomes apparent. Rather than assuming that we can present a normative definition of any of these terms, I argue that scholars should avoid applying these contested labels themselves and recognize instead whose application of contested labels that they use. This approach facilitates a more robust analysis of the ways these terms enter the negotiation of various conflicts and the interests and assumptions behind them, making religious studies more relevant to contemporary society.

The Academic Study of Sufism at American Universities

2007 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 24-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcia Hermansen
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Muslim World ◽  
Western Thought ◽  
Academic Institutions ◽  
Academic Context ◽  
American Universities ◽  
Islamic Studies ◽  
Academic Study

This article provides an overview of the history and current situation of the academic study of Sufism (Islamic mysticism) at American universities. It examines Sufism’s place within the broader curriculum of Islamic studies as well as some of the main themes and approaches employed by American scholars. In addition, it explains both the academic context in which Sufi studies are located and the role of contemporary positions in Islamic and western thought in shaping its academic study.1 Topics and issues of particular interest to a Muslim audience, as well as strictly academic observations, will be raised. In comparison to its role at academic institutions in the traditional Muslim world,2 Sufi studies has played a larger role within the western academic study of Islam during the twentieth century, especially the later decades. I will discuss the numerous reasons for this in the sections on the institutional, intellectual, and pedagogical contexts.

Theory and Method and the Stakes of a Fragmented Discipline: Or, What Economics Taught Me About the Study of Religion

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Religious Studies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Academic Study

Abstract As a discipline, the academic study of religion is strikingly fragmented, with little engagement or shared criteria of excellence across subfields. Although important recent developments have expanded the traditions and peoples studied as well as the methods used, the current extent of fragmentation limits the impact of this diversification and pluralization. At a moment when the global pandemic is catalyzing profound pressures on our universities and disciplines, this fragmentation makes it difficult to articulate to the public, to non-religious studies colleagues, and to students why the study of religion matters. We therefore too often fall back on platitudes. I argue for a revitalized methods and theories conversation that connects us even as it bears our arguments and disagreements about what we do and how. Courses in methods and theories in the study of religion represent the most viable basis we have for bringing the academic study of religion into the common conversation or argument that constitutes a discipline without sacrificing our pluralism.

Pearls From Bones: Relics, Chortens, Tertons and the Signs of Saintly Death in Tibet

Numen ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Martin
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Religious Culture ◽  
Tibetan Buddhist ◽  
Devotional Practice ◽  
Cultural Pattern ◽  
Other Substances ◽  
Critical Links ◽  
Point Of Departure

AbstractAlthough there has been much work, in recent years, on the sacrum of Christianity, and some important studies have appeared on Buddhist relic cults and related facets of Buddhism, so far very little has been written on Tibetan Buddhist relics. This paper, while offering some material for a historical perspective, mainly seeks to find a larger cultural pattern for understanding the interrelationships of a complex of factors active in Tibetan religious culture. Beginning with problems of relic-related terms and classifications, we then suggest a new assessment of the role of the Terton ('treasure revealer'). Then we discuss 'miracles' in Tibet, and the intersection of categories of 'signs of saintly death' and relics. Much of the remaining pages are devoted to those items that fall within both categories, specifically the 'pearls' that emerge miraculously from saintly remains and images that appear in bodily or other substances connected with cremations. After looking at a number of testimonials on these miraculous relics, we examine the possibility that these items might be 'deceitfully manufactured', looking at a few Tibetan polemical writings which raise this possibility. In the conclusion, we suggest that there are some critical links between three spheres of Tibetan religiosity: 1. sacrum which are not relics, 2. relics, and 3. signs of sainthood. Finally, we recommend an approach to religious studies that takes its point of departure in actual practices, and particularly the objects associated with popular devotional practice.

Agama Hindu Dharma Indonesia as a New Religious Movement: Hinduism Recreated in the Image of Islam

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
June McDaniel
Keyword(s):  
Civil Religion ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Religious Movement ◽  
Ancient Religion ◽  
Definition Of Religion ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Universal Ethic

This article describes the role of Hinduism in modern Indonesia and the ways in which it has been adapted to fit the government's definition of religion as a prophetic monotheism with revealed texts and a universal ethic. It gives a brief background on Indonesian history and analyzes the structure and theology of Agama Hindu Dharma Indonesia. It discusses whether a governmental reorganization of an ancient religion can be considered a new religious movement, and some approaches that might be useful from the field of religious studies. It suggests that the definition of new religious movement be changed to fit the case in which a modern religion considered to be a revealed religion also acts as a civil religion.

scholarly journals Theorizing Religion and the Role of Philosophy

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Schilbrack
Keyword(s):  
Religious Studies ◽  
Theory Method

This paper is a response to Patrick Hart’s “Theory, Method, and Madness in Religious Studies,” and it argues that philosophy is presupposed and therefore ineliminable when theorizing religions.

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