Journal articles on the topic 'Religion studies'
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Bulbulia, Joseph, Joseph Bulbulia, and Edward Slingerland. "Religious Studies as a Life Science." Numen 59, no. 5-6 (2012): 564–613. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341240.
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AbstractReligious studies assumes that religions are naturally occurring phenomena, yet what has scholarship uncovered about this fascinating dimension of the human condition? The manifold reports that classical scholars of religion have gathered extend knowledge, but such knowledge differs from that of scientific scholarship. Classical religious studies scholarship is expansive, but it is not cumulative and progressive. Bucking the expansionist trend, however, there are a small but growing number of researchers who approach religion using the methods and models of the life sciences. We use the biologist’s distinction between “proximate” and “ultimate” explanations to review a sample of such research. While initial results in the biology of religion are promising, current limitations suggest the need for greater collaboration with classically trained scholars of religion. It might appear that scientists of religion and scholars of religion are strange bedfellows; however, progress in the scholarly study of religions rests on the extent to which members of each camp find a common intellectual fate.
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Woodrum, Eric, and Catherine L. Albanese. "America, Religions and Religion." Review of Religious Research 34, no. 4 (June 1993): 372. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3511974.
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Stone, Jim. "A Theory of Religion." Religious Studies 27, no. 3 (September 1991): 337–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s003441250002103x.
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What is a religion? As Socrates might have asked: What feature do all and only religions share in virtue of which they are religions? This question may seem misguided. Confronted with the diversity of behaviour called ‘religious’, we may easily doubt the existence of a single feature that explains the religiosity of every religion. To use Wittgenstein's term, there may only be a `family resemblance’ between religions, a network of features generally shared, most of which belong to each religion, no one of which belongs to every religion. Efforts to produce the single defining feature tend to streng-then the doubt that one exists. Is a religion an attempt to approach God or appropriate the sacred? Then Theravada Buddhism is not a religion, for God and the sacred are irrelevancies in this tradition. Is a religion a practice that expresses and advances the ultimate concern of a large number of people? Then the stockmarket is a religion and so is the drug trade. Such accounts are typically too narrow or too general, unless they are circular. Perhaps religion has no essence.
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Danz, Christian. "Religious Diversity and the Concept of Religion." Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie 62, no. 1 (March 2, 2020): 101–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/nzsth-2020-0004.
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SummaryThe article deals with the concept of religion in the contemporary theology of religions. Many theologians in the current debate work with a general concept of religion. Such a conception of religion unifies the distinctive religious diversities. This article argues that against the background of the previous debate, a theology of religions must proceed from a concept of religion as communication. This concept emerges out of the Christian religious tradition: it carries a particular meaning and hence should not be treated as universally applicable. Starting with a concrete concept of religion, a theology of religion has the task neither to give a foundation for other “religions”, nor that of Christianity. Only this could be a basis for a real pluralistic conception. From this starting point follows the question on how other religions understand religion.
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Van Den Heever, Gerhard. "Diversity: Religions and the Study of Religion." Religion and Theology 11, no. 3-4 (2004): 199–218. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157430104x00096.
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AbstractIn this essay an overview of the theoretical issues pertaining to the collection of essays assembled is given. Addressing the issue of dizversity in religions and in the study of religion the argument is made that religions as lived phenomena constitute discursive formations in which diversity as a problem is an index of encounter. However it is especially the way this strategy of reducing the many to the one in the history of theorising religion that comes in view. In this context, the political nature of religion as discourse and the discourse of the study of religion is discussed with particular reference to the history of Christianisation of South Africa, religion in education, and the history of theorising religion.
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Krawcowicz, Barbara. "Religious Studies, Theology and the Sociopolitical." Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 30, no. 2 (March 19, 2018): 173–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341417.
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Altman, Michael J. "“Religion, Religions, Religious” in America: Toward a Smithian Account of “Evangelicalism”." Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 31, no. 1 (February 12, 2019): 71–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341454.
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Abstract Jonathan Z. Smith’s essay “Religion, Religions, Religious” is a foundational essay in the study of “religion” as a taxonomic category. The essay itself makes three interrelated arguments that situate religion in Western intellectual history and argue that “religion” is a term scholars define to suit their own intellectual purposes. Though the essay, and Smith’s work overall, have had a major influence in religious studies, that influence has not reached deeply into the study of American religious history. Using Smith’s essay as a guide, this essay offers a brief application of his arguments in “Religion, Religions, Religious” to American religious history and, specifically, to the category “evangelicalism.”
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Pye, Michael. "Religion: Shape and Shadow." Numen 41, no. 1 (1994): 51–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156852794x00030.
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AbstractThis paper gives the verbatim text of an inaugural lecture given at Lancaster University in May 1992. The first part distinguishes between the "shape" of religion as reflective observers seek to discern it and the shadow cast upon it by the assumptions of the various religions themselves. The second part offers a new view of the "shape" of contemporary Japanese religion, in order briefly to illustrate what is meant by discernment of the shape of religion. The third part sets out a view of Religious Studies for universities which takes account both of the plurality of religions and, without adopting any particular religious stance, of the complexity of questions which arise. A reliable characterization of the phenomena and a steady discernment of the shape of religion are seen as necessary prerequisites for the wider range of explanation, analysis and comment which also have their place. Any threat of control by religions themselves should however be averted.
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Intan, Benyamin. "Religious Violence and the Ministry of Religion: ‘Public Religion’ in the Pancasila-based State of Indonesia." International Journal of Public Theology 13, no. 2 (July 1, 2019): 227–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15697320-12341573.
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AbstractReligious violence in Indonesia has its origins mainly in factors that are external to religion. One factor in particular is the striving for political power initiated by the Ministry of Religion wherein religion and the state seek to subordinate the other. Within the Pancasila-based state religions have been enabled to live together in peace and harmony; opportunities have been created in which each religion can play an active role in the public sphere. This principle allows all religions and beliefs to function in public life. In a society like Indonesia a civil society—and how a particular religion functions—must begin with the reality of religious diversity. On this foundation a ‘public religion’ in the service of a civil society has the potential to be a transforming and liberating power necessary for democratic socio-political life.
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Schilderman, Hans. "Religion: empirical studies." Journal of Empirical Theology 20, no. 2 (2007): 281–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157092507x237453.
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Loubser, J. A. BOBBY. "Religious Diversity and the Forma1'Ion of Closed Cultural Systems, or When Does Religion Turn Bad?" Religion and Theology 11, no. 3-4 (2004): 256–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157430104x00122.
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AbstractThis programmatic article investigates a single aspect of culture that regulates religious expression and the construction of identity. A brief overviem of four types of religio found in South Africa serves to illustrate the significant role of the media of communication in religious expression. Indigenous traditional religions operate within a pure oral culture, the Ibandla Amanazeretha of Isaiah Shembe operates within a 're-discovered' oral culture and Islam has its roots in an oral-manuscript culture, while conventional Protestantism has the heritage of a religion that operates within the culture of the printed media. The article finally considers the question of how a better understanding of religious culture can help to prevent religion from developing into a hegerreonic ideology. The article contributes to interdisciplinary debate.
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Rennie, Bryan. "Religion after Religion, History after History: Postmodern Historiography and the Study of Religions." Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 15, no. 1 (2003): 68–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700680360549420.
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AbstractThe following essay reviews Steven Wasserstrom's Religion after Religion— a partial history of the History of Religions—and three theoretical works on historiography: Hayden White's Metahistory, Peter Novick's That Noble Dream, and Robert F. Berkhofer Jr.'s Beyond the Great Story. As well as introducing readers to the argument of these works, the essay uses Wasserstrom's book as an example of a "monovocal" style of the narration of the phenomenal past in opposition to the polyvocal style called for by the historiographers. The purpose of the essay is to indicate the degree to which monovocal representations can apparently justify singular viewpoints by concealing various agendas and lending authority to dubious conclusions. The essay challenges the elevation of a single authorial voice over the plurality of voices representing the plurality of phenomenal pasts and calls for a greater engagement with the pluralism and polyvocality of postmodern historiography.
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Laycock, Joseph P. "Approaching the Paranormal." Nova Religio 18, no. 1 (February 2013): 5–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/nr.2014.18.1.5.
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This issue of Nova Religio is devoted to “the paranormal,” focusing specifically on discourses rejected by mainstream religion and traditional science. The authors explore the historic and cultural significance of such topics as hauntings, séances, alien abductions, and more generally the concept of “paranormal” as a category of religious beliefs. These articles contribute to what may be a new focal area in the study of new and emerging religions.
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Strenski, Ivan. "Philosophy of (Lived) Religion." Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 41, no. 1 (March 2012): 5–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0008429811430052.
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The cohabitation of philosophy with the study of religion has such a long history that we have not been motivated to consider the terms of that relationship. This paper proposes that this relationship needs to be examined radically. That is to say it proposes to query the nature, or possible natures, of the relationship of philosophy to the study of religion by posing such questions as the following: What kind of philosophy belongs in the study of religion? Constructive? Critical? Does philosophy have an independent role in the study of religion or does it, rather, best play the role of ‘handmaiden’? To the extent that philosophy plays an integral part in the study of religion, how should philosophy reflect the global and cross-cultural nature of the study of religion? To what extent does a philosophy that is integral to the study of religion need to change in order to reflect the philosophical agendas integral to other religions than Christianity? La cohabitation de la philosophie avec l’étude de la religion a une si longue histoire que nous ne nous sommes pas penchés sur les termes de cette relation. Cet article montre le besoin d’un examen radical de cette relation. C’est-à-dire qu’il propose d’interroger la nature, ou les natures possibles, de la relation que la philosophie entretient avec l’étude de la religion à partir de plusieurs questions: Quels types de philosophie font partie de l’étude de la religion? Constructive? Critique? La philosophie a-t-elle un rôle indépendant dans l’étude de la religion ou est-elle plutôt dans le rôle de « servir » ? Dans la mesure où la philosophie est une partie intégrante de l’étude de la religion, comment la philosophie devrait-elle refléter la nature mondiale et culturellement croisée de l’étude de la religion ? Dans quelle mesure, une philosophie faisant partie intégrante de l’étude de la religion doit-elle être transformée de façon à rendre compte des programmes des religions autres que la Chrétienté?
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Rennie, Bryan. "The History (and Philosophy) of Religions." Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 41, no. 1 (March 2012): 24–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0008429811430055.
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In a paper given at a Roundtable at the American Academy of Religion (AAR) National Annual Conference in Montreal in November of 2009, jointly organized by the North American Association for the Study of Religion and the Critical Theory and Discourses in Religion Group of the AAR, I argued for the ineluctably philosophical nature of what is most commonly called ‘method and theory in the study of religion.’ That paper ( Rennie, 2010 ) also argues that what is conventionally referred to as ‘philosophy of religion’ does not, strictly speaking, warrant that name since it is in fact a form of theology that utilizes philosophical methodologies to consider principally, if not exclusively, Christian concerns. I also argued that a philosophy of religion(s) constituted along the lines of the philosophy of science would be a potential improvement in both ‘philosophy of religion’ and ‘method and theory in the study of religion.’ In this paper I would like to consider—with the help of a closer look at contemporary philosophy of science—precisely what a reconstituted history (and philosophy) of religions might look like, how it might differ from current scholarship, and what it might achieve. Dans une communication donnée lors d’une table ronde à l’American Academy of Religion (AAR) National Annual Conference à Montréal en novembre 2009, organisée conjointement par le North American Association for the Study of Religion et le groupe de Critical Theory and Discourses in Religion de l’AAR, j’avais argué la nature inéluctablement philosophique de ce qui est couramment appelé « Method and Theory in the Study of Religion ». Cet article ( Rennie, 2010 ) soutient également la thèse que ce qu’on appelle couramment « Philosophie de la religion » ne correspond pas stricto sensu à ce qu’une telle dénomination recouvre puisqu’il s’agit en fait d’une forme de théologie recourant à des méthodes philosophiques pour envisager des préoccupations principalement, sinon exclusivement, chrétiennes. Je soutiens aussi qu’une philosophie des religions constituée à partir des lignes de force de la philosophie des sciences pourrait apporter une amélioration potentielle de la philosophie de la religion, de la méthode et de la théorie dans l’étude des religions. Dans cet article, j’aimerais examiner précisément —par le biais des apports de la philosophie des sciences contemporaine— ce à quoi l’histoire (et la philosophie) des religions pourrait ressembler, les termes dans lesquels elle se distinguerait des approches actuelles et ce à quoi nous pourrions ainsi aspirer.
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MacLachlan, Heather. "Introduction to Special Issue, Music in World Religions: A Response to Isabel Laack." Religions 12, no. 12 (November 25, 2021): 1044. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel12121044.
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This article serves to introduce a special issue of Religions, titled Music in World Religions. A 2015 article by religion scholar Isabel Laack claimed that the study of music and religion has been neglected by Laack’s peers in the field of religions. Responding to Laack, I argue that scholars of music have been making important contributions to the study of music and religion and, indeed, have been addressing the twelve specific topics she highlights for decades. After summarizing academic works which respond to Laack’s twelve categories of inquiry, I introduce each of the articles in this special issue, showing that each of these also address the gap in the literature that Laack perceived. Ultimately, I argue that transdisciplinarity in the study of music and religion is alive and well, and is exemplified both by historic writings and by those contained in Music in World Religions.
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Gold, Daniel. "The Paradox in Writing on Religion." Harvard Theological Review 83, no. 3 (July 1990): 321–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0017816000005721.
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Paradox, a subject that has intrigued philosophers and scientists since ancient times, not long ago also captured the attention of many literary critics and historians of religion. A key analytic term among the old New Critics, paradox—along with irony and ambiguity—was for decades taken as central to poetic language, the force of which was understood to derive from the play of multiple, often contradictory meanings. In history of religions, a concept of paradox was essential in the monumental work of Mircea Eliade, who repeatedly pointed to the power of conjoined opposites in myth. To many scholars in both fields, these paradoxes of poetry and myth have by now become passe—taken for granted, perhaps, but no longer topics for further exploration. They gain new significance, however, with the increasing interest in the critical study of academic writing over the last few years. For despite the hard-minded academic stance found in much contemporary religio-historical writing, the paradoxes familiar from religion and literature still often come into play, indeed, sometimes to explore striking contradictions that are posed in the fashion of paradoxes from science.
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ZAMULINSKI, BRIAN. "Religion and the pursuit of truth." Religious Studies 39, no. 1 (March 2003): 43–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0034412502006339.
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This is a new argument to the effect that religions are not truth-oriented. In other words, it is not a fundamental function of religion to represent the world accurately. I compare two hypotheses with respect to their likelihood (in A. W. F. Edwards's technical sense). The one which entails that religion is not truth-oriented is a better explanation than its competitor for a number of empirical observations about religion. It is also at least as probable. I point out that, once one has established that religions are not truth-oriented, it is possible to argue that religions are false and it is possible to run a sound ad hominem argument against religious believers who advance religious claims. I suggest that the results are early ones and that what matters is evaluating religion in the way I illustrate in this paper. The ad hominem argument shows that the question of whether religion is truth-oriented is particularly important.
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Sørensen, Jørgen Podemann. "I begyndelsen var snavset: Snavs, råddenskab og anomisk adfærd som forløsende i traditionelle (’præ-axiale’) religioner." Religionsvidenskabeligt Tidsskrift, no. 69 (March 5, 2019): 30–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.7146/rt.v0i69.112741.
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English Abstract: This paper deals with dirt, anomic behaviour, death and decay as productive and redemptive means within four very different traditional religions: Shinto, ancient Egyptian religion, classical Indian religion and Greek religion. In all four contexts, the motif is somehow anchored in mythology and makes sense first and foremost in ritualization, i.e. as part of the symbolic accompaniment of ritual metamorphosis. As others have demonstrated, the motif makes equally good sense in so-called post-axial religions, in which redemption is much more a matter of an inner, subjective breakthrough – but it is by no means a prerogative of such religions.
Dansk resumé: Artiklen behandler eksempler på snavs, anomisk adfærd, død og råddenskab som religiøst produktive og forløsende i fire vidt forskellige traditionelle religioner: Shinto, oldtidens ægyptiske religion, klassisk indisk religion og græsk religion. I alle fire sammenhænge er motivet mytologisk forankret, og det giver først og fremmest mening som et rituelt virkemiddel, en del af det symbolske akkompagnement til rituelle forvandlinger. Som andre har vist, giver motivet også god mening i såkaldt post-aksiale religioner, hvor forløsning i højere grad forstås som et indre, subjektivt gennembrud – men det er altså ikke forbeholdt disse.
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Harvey, Graham. "Respectfully eating or not eating: putting food at the centre of Religious Studies." Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis 26 (April 13, 2015): 32–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.30674/scripta.67445.
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With reference to data drawn from both ethnology and ethology, I argue that studying foodways does not merely add additional information about religions, but enables better understanding of religion. Rather than defining religion cognitively in relation to beliefs and believing (modernist tropes that have shaped the study of religion) I explore the effect of defining religion in relation to the questions, ‘what do you eat?’ and ‘with whom do you eat?’
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Siuda, Piotr. "Mapping Digital Religion: Exploring the Need for New Typologies." Religions 12, no. 6 (May 21, 2021): 373. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel12060373.
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Today, it is challenging to separate online and offline spaces and activities, and this is also true of digital religion as online and offline religious spaces become blended or blurred. With this background, the article explores the need for new typologies of what is religious on the Internet and proposes a conceptual framework for mapping digital religion. Four types of that which is religious on the Internet are presented based on influential classification by Helland. He introduced (1) religion online (sites that provide information without interactivity) and (2) online religion (interactivity and participation). Helland’s concept is developed by, among others, adding two types: (3) innovative religion (new religious movements, cults, etc.) and (4) traditional religion (e.g., Christianity or Islam). Each type is illustrated by selected examples and these are a result of a larger project. The examples are grouped into three areas: (1) religious influencers, (2) online rituals and (3) cyber-religions (parody religions). Additionally, the visual frame for mapping digital religion is presented including the examples mentioned. The presented framework attempts to improve Helland’s classification by considering a more dynamic nature of digital religion. The model is just one possible way for mapping digital religion and thus should be developed further. These and other future research threads are characterized.
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Allen, Diogenes. "IS Philosophy of Religion Enough?" Theology Today 44, no. 3 (October 1987): 311–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/004057368704400303.
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“The adaptation and extension of the philosophy of religion required for teaching in theological seminaries would not only give it greater value to theological students. It could also lead to significant improvement of contemporary philosophy of religion itself, by showing the value of philosophical reflection on actual religions.”
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Kato, Hisanori. "Religion and Locality." Fieldwork in Religion 13, no. 2 (December 20, 2018): 151–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/firn.37050.
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Indonesia is known for its multicultural social setting, with approximately three hundred local ethnicities and five hundred local languages. Religions also have infiltrated into the life of Indonesia. Among six officially recognized religions, Islam occupies the majority religion in the country, and the total number of Muslims is almost two hundred million. That makes Indonesia the most populous Muslim country in the world. However, we also know that the legacy of pre-Islamic civilizations, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and indigenous religions, is still deeply rooted in Indonesian soil. With this socio-cultural background, Indonesian Islam has developed with the influence of local traditions. We see several Islamic rituals and practices that seem to have been "Indonesianized". Yet, this localized version of Islam is by no means favoured by more religiously strict Islamic groups. In 2015, Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest Islamic organization, launched the so-called Islam Nusantara movement, which upholds the essence of local culture in Islam. This newly-emerged religious movement also presents a profound question in relation to the authenticity of religion, that is, whether religions are able to maintain the "original" rituals and practices without historical, geographical and regional influences. We will explore the development of the Islam Nusantara movement with this question in mind.
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Pinn, Anthony B. "Introduction: African American Religion Symposium." Nova Religio 7, no. 1 (July 1, 2003): 7–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/nr.2003.7.1.7.
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This essay introduces five articles in a Nova Religio symposium focusing on African American Religion. The essays provide some means for re-imagining the study of African American religion in ways that allow for a much better understanding of African American participation in traditional and new religious movements.
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Reeh, Niels. "Inter-religious Relations as a New Foundation for Comparative Religion." Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 32, no. 1 (January 24, 2020): 47–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341468.
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Abstract This article argues that the problems that comparative religion encountered in the 1980s and onward did not arise from the comparative project as such, but rather from the fact that comparative religion was founded on an analytical strategy that relied on defining religion. In order to overcome these problems and critique of Jonathan Z. Smith, Talal Asad and others, it is proposed that the comparative study of religion could be re-established on the basis of a different analytical strategy and more specifically on the basis of a relational perspective, in which the crucial point of departure is the finding that religions in many periods and cultural settings seem to constitute themselves in relation to at least one significant other religion. In periods and cultural settings, where religions relate to each other, we do in fact have a commonality between all religions, namely the inter-religious relation. This relation can ensure that we are not comparing things that have nothing in common. If the inter-religious relation is the point of departure, the comparative study of religion can be transformed in such a way that it is not overturned by the social constructionism or post-modernism of J. Z. Smith, Talal Asad and others.
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Davaney, S. G. "Introduction: Contesting Religion and Religions Contested: The Study of Religion in a Global Context." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 73, no. 4 (December 1, 2005): 979–85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfi111.
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Kenji, Ishii. "The Stereotyping of Religion in Contemporary Japan." Journal of Religion in Japan 2, no. 1 (2013): 63–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22118349-12341245.
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Abstract This paper offers an analysis of the nature of information related to religion presented on television news programs in contemporary Japan. The author maintains that information coming from television programs plays an influential role in formulating people’s perception of religion. This includes not only incidents that have occurred in the case of new religions (e.g., Aum Shinrikyō and Hō no Hana Sanpōgyō), but also events related to well-established religious traditions, such as Buddhist and Shintō denominations, and religions outside of Japan, in particular Islam. Through the use of data on TV broadcasting compiled by a database-producing company, the author examines information about religion aired on the news programs of NHK (Nihon Hōsō Kyōkai) and Nihon TV. In this context, the author categorizes four types of religion-related programs that are aired on TV: (1) religious programs provided by religious organizations themselves; (2) general educational programs that feature religious elements; (3) news reporting on religion; and (4) religious programs as entertainment programs. The author concludes that news reporting on religion in Japan today follows predictable patterns, contributing to what he calls “the stereotyping of religion.”
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Stausberg, Michael. "The Demise, Dissolution and Elimination of Religions." Numen 68, no. 2-3 (March 15, 2021): 103–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15685276-12341617.
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Abstract While it is generally acknowledged that religions can “die” or go “extinct,” little research has been dedicated to the problem of the demise of religions. This text reviews earlier research on this topic and develops some reflections on two types of religion (ethno-specific and transcendental ones) and on the end of indigenous religions. The text stresses the importance of ruler conversions and indigenous agency in religion demise and transformation processes, introduces the category of “religiocide,” and proposes some criteria for identifying “religion death.” Finally, it introduces the articles of this special issue.
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Sosis, Richard. "Four advantages of a systemic approach to the study of religion." Archive for the Psychology of Religion 42, no. 1 (February 29, 2020): 142–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0084672420905019.
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There has been increasing interest in the evolutionary study of religion, but perfunctory fractionalization has limited our ability to explain how and why religion evolved, evaluate religion’s current adaptive value, and assess its role in contemporary decision-making. To move beyond piecemeal analyses of religion, I have recently offered an integrative evolutionary framework that approaches religions as adaptive systems. I argue that religions are an adaptive complex of traits consisting of cognitive, neurological, affective, behavioral, and developmental features that are organized into a self-regulating feedback system. Here I explore four advantages of this systemic approach to religion: it avoids definitional problems that have plagued the study of religion, affords a contextual understanding of religious belief, informs current debates within the evolutionary study of religion, and provides links to both the natural sciences and humanities. I argue that the systemic approach offers the strongest potential for real progress and broad application of evolutionary theory to the study of religion.
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HASSELHOFF, GÖRGE K. "Huldrych Zwinglis Verständnis von religio („Religion“)." Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte 67, no. 2 (July 29, 2015): 120–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700739-90000162.
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Cudney, Shane R. "“Religion Without Religion”." Faith and Philosophy 16, no. 3 (1999): 390–404. http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/faithphil199916338.
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Turnbloom, David Farina. "Religion Outside of Religion." Liturgy 36, no. 4 (October 2, 2021): 1–3. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0458063x.2021.1990644.
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Schilbrack, Kevin. "Towards a Philosophy of Religious Studies: A Response to Critics." Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 28, no. 1 (December 2, 2016): 98–111. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341359.
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This paper responds to critiques of my Philosophy and the Study of Religions: A Manifesto (Blackwell, 2014) from Jeppe Jensen, Mark Gardiner, Bryan Rennie, and Kenneth MacKendrick. It aims to defend my book’s proposals in such a way as to nudge the discipline of philosophy of religion into a reflexive mode that might be called “philosophy of religion studies.”
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Seiwert, Hubert. "Theory of Religion and Historical Research. A Critical Realist Perspective on the Study of Religion as an Empirical Discipline." Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft 28, no. 2 (October 7, 2020): 207–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/zfr-2020-0001.
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AbstractThe article discusses the connection between theory formation and historical research in the study of religion. It presupposes that the study of religion is conceived of as an empirical discipline. The empirical basis of theories is provided primarily by historical research, including research in the very recent past, that is, the present time. Research in the history of religions, therefore, is an indispensable part of the study of religion. However, in recent discussions on the methods, aims, and theoretical presuppositions of the discipline, research in the history of religions largely is ignored. To shed some light on this blind spot, the article builds on the philosophy of science of Critical Realism. While the first part deals with the role of historical research in theoretical discourses of the discipline, the second part explains fundamental ontological and epistemological positions of Critical Realism and their implications for empirical research. On this basis, some methodological problems of theory formation in the study of religion are discussed in the third part. In particular, it is argued that it is impossible to validate empirically theories of religion that aim to explain what religion is. The concluding part sketches ways of theory formation in the study of religion that does not take religion as the explanandum but as the theoretical perspective that guides research.
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Pailin, David A. "British views on religion and religions in the age of William and Mary." Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 6, no. 1-4 (1994): 349–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157006894x00181.
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AbstractThe article provides a glimpse into the antecedents of the modern study of religion and religions by outlining the extent and variety of the different attitudes to other religions that are to be found in works published in Britain around the last decade of the seventeenth century. After noting the character of the contemporary debate about reason, religious belief and revelation that provides the background to many of the references to other religions and that significantly moulds their content, the article considers, in turn, the style and range of references to other religions, views on so-called "natural religion" and on the universality of religious belief, and the ways in which Judaism and Islam were treated. The article closes with some remarks on what this material suggests about the motive, source materials and method involved in the study of religion.
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Lannoy, Annelies, and Corinne Bonnet. "Narrating the Past and the Future: The Position of the religions orientales and the mystères païens in the Evolutionary Histories of Religion of Franz Cumont and Alfred Loisy." Archiv für Religionsgeschichte 20, no. 1 (March 28, 2018): 157–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/arege-2018-0010.
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Abstract:In their grand narratives on the ancient history of religions, the Belgian historian of religions, Franz Cumont (1868 – 1947) and his French colleague and correspondent, Alfred Loisy (1857 – 1940) both assigned a prominent place to the so-called pagan mystery religions. This paper seeks to identify the specific theories of religion and the deeper motivations underpinning Cumont’s and Loisy’s historiographical construction of the mystery cults as a distinct type of religion within their evolutionary accounts of the history of religions. Through a comparative analysis of their rich correspondence (1908 – 1940) and a selection of their publications, we demonstrate how their historical studies of the religious transformations in the Roman Empire, their in-depth dialogues in the troubled times in which they lived, and their philosophical views on the overall history and future of religion, were in fact mutually constitutive.
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Geertz, Armin W., and Laura Feldt. "Religion og medier i et religionsvidenskabeligt perspektiv." Religionsvidenskabeligt Tidsskrift, no. 70 (May 18, 2020): 6–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.7146/rt.v0i70.120397.
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ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The religion and media field has grown strongly as an academic subject in recent years, especially regarding studies of religion in contemporary mass media, TV, film, internet, social media etc., and in relation to popular culture. Scholars of religion have also begun to pay attention to the important role that media, mediation, and mediatization have played in the history of religions. It is this growing awareness that we wish to examine here. Our focus is not intended to signal the abandonment of interest in contemporary religion, media and popular culture; rather we wish to place this development in the deep and broad perspective of the study of religion. Media, mediation, and the more recent phenomenon of mediatization, are processes that are inseparable from the ways in which religion functions and is passed on from generation to generation. Thus, from a general study of religion perspective, we promote the argument that media and mediation processes are central aspects of how all religions function because all communication, including religious communication, can be seen as mediated. In this article, we reflect on and discuss the roles that media have played in the deep history of religions and continue to play in the present by bringing religion and media studies in conversation with cultural evolution and cognitive perspectives.
DANSK RESUMÉ: Religion og medier er blomstret stærkt op som emnefelt i de seneste år, særligt med fokus på religion i samtidens massemedier, tv, film, internet, sociale medier m.m. og i relation til populærkultur. Samtidigt er religionsforskere blevet opmærksomme på at medier og mediering har spillet vigtige roller for religionshistorien og det er dén udvikling vi her vil gribe fat i. Dermed ønsker vi ikke på nogen måde at signalere en opgiven af interessen for religion, medier og populærkultur i samtiden, men snarere at vi ønsker at indsætte denne udvikling i et langt og bredt religionsvidenskabeligt perspektiv. Medier og mediering er uadskilleligt fra hvordan religion fungerer og videreføres fra generation til generation. Derfor anlægger vi det overordnede perspektiv her, at medier og mediering udgør centrale aspekter af hvordan alle religioner fungerer, da al kommunikation, inklusiv religiøs kommunikation, kan anskues som medieret. I denne artikel reflekterer vi over og diskuterer den rolle medier, mediering og medialisering har spillet i religionshistorien og i samtiden bl.a. med inddragelse af kulturevolutionære og kognitive perspektiver.
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Smith, Katherine. "African Religions and Art in the Americas." Nova Religio 16, no. 1 (August 1, 2012): 5–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/nr.2012.16.1.5.
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This print symposium of Nova Religio is devoted to African religions and arts in the Americas, focusing specifically on devotional arts inspired by the Yoruba people of West Africa. The authors presented here privilege an emic approach to the study of art and religion, basing their work on extensive interviews with artists, religious practitioners, and consumers. These articles contribute an understanding of devotional arts that shows Africa, or the idea of Africa, remains a powerful political and aesthetic force in the religious imagination of the Americas.
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Lugira, Aloysius M. "Africism. a Response To the Onomastic Plight of African Religion." Religion and Theology 8, no. 1-2 (2001): 42–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157430101x00035.
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AbstractFor many centuries the autochthonal religion of African peoples have been subjected to a variety of misnomers. This has resulted in the fact of the marginalization of the religions ofAfricans. This paper aims at sensitizing the reader about the issue in order to help check the perpetuation of such marginalization of the religion ofAfrica. In our time, notable personalities and institutions interested in world religions and interreligious dialogue, have expressed the need of an appropriately consolidated and objective designation for the autochthonal religion of Africa. This paper submits that an objectively and creatively established name can be arrived at by a geo-ontological approach. As we turn a new leaf in a new millennium, Africism is hereby submitted as the appropriately consolidated and objective name of the essence and manifestations of the autochthonal religion of Africa.
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Schilbrack, Kevin. "New Directions for Philosophy of Religion: Four Proposals." Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 41, no. 1 (March 2012): 46–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0008429811430058.
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This set of papers explores the topic of “Possible Futures for Philosophy of Religion.” Though the field of philosophy of religion today has grown relatively narrow, these four papers seek to stretch it back out and all four are (as befitting our topic) forward-looking. Although the papers cover several different issues, I am going to shoehorn them into that pre-conceived category—the future of philosophy of religion—and then focus on the parts of the papers central to that category and ignore the other parts that don’t fit that template. This will not do justice to the complexity of the reality I am describing, but this procrustean practice is not unusual in philosophy of religion. Cette palette d’articles explore la thématique des ‘futurs possibles pour la philosophie des religions’. Bien que le champ de la philosophie des religions se soit aujourd’hui relativement rétréci, ces quatre articles tentent de l’élargir à nouveau et tous les quatre sont (au bénéfice de la thématique) tournés vers son devenir. Bien qu’ils couvrent des aspects différents de cette thématique, je vais les faire entrer dans cette catégorie préconçue —le futur de la philosophie des religions— et me focaliserai sur les parties des textes qui sont essentielles à cette catégorie pour en ignorer celles qui n’entrent pas dans ce cadre précis. Une telle approche ne saurait rendre compte de la complexité de la réalité que je décris, mais cette pratique de Procuste n’est point inhabituelle en philosophie des religions.
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Koussens, David, Jean-François Laniel, and Jean-Philippe Perreault. "SQER: Establishing the sciences of religion in Quebec: A work still in progress1." Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 50, no. 3 (September 2021): 375–87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00084298211036450.
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This article identifies and problematizes the institutional and epistemological issues of the study of religion in Quebec. Its thesis is the unfinished foundation of the discipline that is primarily devoted to it, the social sciences of religion. The first section traces the institutional evolution of the field of study of religion in Quebec, from theology to the social sciences of religion, from faculties and departments to centers and institutes. The second section measures the progress made in the social sciences of religion since the first programs and assessments devoted to it. The authors note a growing difficulty in understanding the religion of the “center”, that of the majority of Quebecers. The third section deepens this point by drawing up a panorama of the main religious trends observed in contemporary social sciences of religions. Three related trends are identified: advanced secularization, increasing diversity and the unexpected survival of religion. In conclusion, the authors argue for the consolidation of the social sciences of religion in Quebec.
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O'Mahony, Eoin. "Queering religion, religious queers (Routledge Studies in Religion)." Social & Cultural Geography 16, no. 7 (October 14, 2014): 867–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2014.968995.
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Schmidt, Leigh E., and Susan L. Mizruchi. "Religion and Cultural Studies." Journal of American History 89, no. 1 (June 2002): 326. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2700942.
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Davie, Grace. "Religion and Cultural Studies." Theology 106, no. 830 (March 2003): 148–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0040571x0310600229.
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Hughes, Richard A. "Schicksalsanalyse and Religion Studies." Journal of Religion 87, no. 1 (January 2007): 59–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/508388.
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Kramer, M. P. "Religion and Cultural Studies." Common Knowledge 9, no. 2 (April 1, 2003): 351. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/0961754x-9-2-351.
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Brintnall, Kent L. "Queer studies and religion." Critical Research on Religion 1, no. 1 (April 2013): 51–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2050303213476111.
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Engler, Steven. "‘Religion,’ ‘the Secular’ and the Critical Study of Religion." Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses 40, no. 4 (September 14, 2011): 419–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0008429811420406.
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This essay critically engages Timothy Fitzgerald’s Discourse on Civility and Barbarity (2007), arguing that it takes an important step beyond Fitzgerald’s first book, The Ideology of Religious Studies ( 2000 ), in diagnosing a current malaise of the academic study of religion and in modelling a way past this malaise. Highlighting this valuable aspect of the book, I argue, requires correcting certain problems with its argument. Specifically, there is a tension between two overarching goals: writing “a critical history of ‘religion’ as a category,” and criticizing “modern discourses on generic religion.” Once these genealogical and critical projects are brought into more effective alignment, the book models an approach where a properly critical study of religion begins with a contingently and strategically theorized domain of ‘religion’ and explores its relation to other domains—not only ‘the secular.’ Cet essai reconsidère d’un œil critique le livre Discourse on Civility and Barbarity (2007), de Timothy Fitzgerald. Il soutien qu’il donne un pas important au-delà du premier livre de Fitzgerald, The Ideology of Religious Studies ( 2000 ), dans les faits de diagnostiquer une malaise actuelle de l’étude des religions et de modeler une piste alternative. Pourtant, pour accentuer cet aspect important du livre, on doit corriger des problèmes logiques avec son argument. Spécialement, il y a une tension problématique entre les deux buts du livre : l’écriture « d’une histoire critique de ‘religion’ comme une catégorie »; et la critique « des discours modernes sur la religion générique ». Dès que ces projets généalogiques et critiques sont apportés dans une meilleure alignement, le livre modèle une approche de grande valeur : c’est le travail d’une étude proprement critique du concept ‘de religion’ de le suivre où il mène, et d’analyser ses relations avec des autres concepts.
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Beyer, Peter. "The Religious System of Global Society: A Sociological Look at Contemporary Religion and Religions." Numen 45, no. 1 (1998): 1–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1568527981644419.
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AbstractControversies within religious studies over the categories of religion and religions are reflective of changes in religion that correspond to the historical development of global society in recent centuries. The globalization of society has created social conditions that encourage the differentiation of religion as a distinct modality of social communication based on binary codes and centred on institutionalized programmes that flow from these. The result has been the gradual construction and imagining of an ambiguous but nonetheless observable and operative global religious system. From its beginnings in early modern Western Christianity, the system has spread haltingly and gradually to the rest of the world. Similar to the way the spread of the global political system brought about the discovery and construction of nations, the development of the religious system has resulted in the crystallization of ‘religions’, especially but not exclusively what we now call the world religions. The examples of Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Chinese religion are discussed briefly as illustration.
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Tafjord, Bjørn Ola. "Indigenous Religion(s) as an Analytical Category." Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 25, no. 3 (2013): 221–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341258.
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Abstract Today the most common uses of “indigenous religion(s)” as an analytical category and as a class in the study of religions are intimately linked to discourses on “indigenous peoples.” The article argues that this often creates problems for critical scholarship. It contributes to the reproduction of stereotypes about particular kinds of religions among particular kinds of peoples; it nurtures ideas about religious similarities across vast spans of time and space; and it blurs boundaries between scholarship and politics and religionising. A different analytical use of “indigenous religion(s)” that sometimes proves more rewarding is identified in some historical and anthropological case studies, where the category is employed contextually as a relational concept, as the opposite of “foreign religion(s),” and not restricted to indigenous peoples. To counter the biases produced by the current primacy of one taxonomic scheme, it is necessary to engage a greater variety of ways and orders of classification.