Society, Spatiality, and the Sacred

2022 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-60
Author(s):  
Umur Koşal
Keyword(s):  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Complex Relation ◽  
Spatial Approach ◽  
Discourse Formation ◽  
Western Wall ◽  
Academic Study

The Essay provides space for scholars to present peerreviewed research in a manner that uses data studies and critical reflection as occasions for advancing currents in the broader academic study of religion. In this issue, we have two contributions. Umur Ko?al revisits Jerusalem’s Western Wall and submits that a spatial approach can help scholars reconsider the complex relation of sites classified as sacred. And Matteo Di Placido takes yoga studies as an example of a Foucauldian discourse formation and considers the historical and political textures that appear when examined under the light of recent research in the discursive study of religion.  

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.

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).

Continuous Decisions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seng Bum Michael Yoo ◽  
Benjamin Hayden ◽  
John Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Control Theory ◽  
Hierarchical Structure ◽  
Action Planning ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
Microeconomic Theory ◽  
Engineering Control ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Academic Study

Humans and other animals evolved to make decisions that extend over time with continuous and ever-changing options. Nonetheless, the academic study of decision-making is mostly limited to the simple case of choice between two options. Here we advocate that the study of choice should expand to include continuous decisions. Continuous decisions, by our definition, involve a continuum of possible responses and take place over an extended period of time during which the response is continuously subject to modification. In most continuous decisions, the range of options can fluctuate and is affected by recent responses, making consideration of reciprocal feedback between choices and the environment essential. The study of continuous decisions raises new questions, such as how abstract processes of valuation and comparison are co-implemented with action planning and execution, how we simulate the large number of possible futures our choices lead to, and how our brains employ hierarchical structure to make choices more efficiently. While microeconomic theory has proven invaluable for discrete decisions, we propose that engineering control theory may serve as a better foundation for continuous ones. And while the concept of value has proven foundational for discrete decisions, goal states and policies may prove more useful for continuous ones.

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