Critical Approaches to Religion

Critical Approaches to Religion

Author: Nicole Goulet

Publisher:

Published: 2017-12-31

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 9781516532339

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Critical Approaches to Religion: Race, Class, Sexuality, and Gender provides students with carefully selected readings that examine diverse cultural religious traditions, as well as the intersection of academic religious studies and the practice of religion throughout the world. The anthology explores both mainstream religious traditions and those that are marginalized, applying theories of feminism, sexuality, race, class, and gender across the board to offer readers a broad and comprehensive understanding of global religion. Through selections authored by prolific writers in the field, coupled with insights from the editors for additional context, students learn about critical approaches to religion, the various methods of studying religion, the concept of belief, the connection of myth to ritual, the idea of mysticism, how gender and sexuality factor into religious experiences, and more. Cross-disciplinary in nature, Critical Approaches to Religion is designed to serve as a supplementary text for foundational courses in religion, world religion, anthropology, sociology, and history. Nicole Goulet received her Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba, focusing her work on feminist and postcolonial approaches to colonial Hinduism. She is an assistant professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in the Department of Religious Studies. Nixon Cleophat earned his B.A. in English and educational studies from Salem State University, his M.Div. in biblical studies and political theology from Harvard Divinity School, and his Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary. He is an assistant professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.


Good and Bad Ways to Think about Religion and Politics

Good and Bad Ways to Think about Religion and Politics

Author: Robert Benne

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2010-09-23

Total Pages: 129

ISBN-13: 0802863647

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"There is nothing greater than indignation to stimulate a writer to write." says Robert Benne, "and my outrage has been stirred mightily by reading so many wrongheaded 'takes' on how religion and politics ought to be related." --


The Ideology of Religious Studies

The Ideology of Religious Studies

Author: Timothy Fitzgerald

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2003-10-16

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 0195347153

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In recent years there has been an intensifying debate within the religious studies community about the validity of religion as an analytical category. In this book Fitzgerald sides with those who argue that the concept of religion itself should be abandoned. On the basis of his own research in India and Japan, and through a detailed analysis of the use of religion in a wide range of scholarly texts, the author maintains that the comparative study of religion is really a form of liberal ecumenical theology. By pretending to be a science, religion significantly distorts socio-cultural analysis. He suggest, however, that religious studies can be re-represented in a way which opens up new and productive theoretical connections with anthropology and cultural and literary studies.


Religion, Theory, Critique

Religion, Theory, Critique

Author: Richard King

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2017-07-18

Total Pages: 558

ISBN-13: 0231518242

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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.


Thoreau's Religion

Thoreau's Religion

Author: Alda Balthrop-Lewis

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-01-21

Total Pages: 333

ISBN-13: 1108835104

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Boldly reconfigures Walden for contemporary ethics and politics by recovering Thoreau's theological vision of environmental justice.


Religion as a Category of Governance and Sovereignty

Religion as a Category of Governance and Sovereignty

Author:

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2015-05-26

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 9004290591

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Religious-secular distinctions have been crucial to the way in which modern governments have rationalised their governance and marked out their sovereignty – as crucial as the territorial boundaries that they have drawn around nations. The authors of this volume provide a multi-dimensional picture of how the category of religion has served the ends of modern government. They draw on perspectives from history, anthropology, moral philosophy, theology and religious studies, as well as empirical analysis of India, Japan, Mexico, the United States, Israel-Palestine, France and the United Kingdom. Contributors are: Maria Birnbaum, Brian Brock, Geraldine Finn, Timothy Fitzgerald, Naomi Goldenberg, Jeffrey Israel, David Liu, Arvind-Pal Mandair, Per-Erik Nilsson, Suzanne Owen, Trevor Stack, Teemu Taira, and Tisa Wenger.


The Impossibility of Religious Freedom

The Impossibility of Religious Freedom

Author: Winnifred Fallers Sullivan

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2018-04-24

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 0691180954

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The Constitution may guarantee it. But religious freedom in America is, in fact, impossible. So argues this timely and iconoclastic work by law and religion scholar Winnifred Sullivan. Sullivan uses as the backdrop for the book the trial of Warner vs. Boca Raton, a recent case concerning the laws that protect the free exercise of religion in America. The trial, for which the author served as an expert witness, concerned regulations banning certain memorials from a multiconfessional nondenominational cemetery in Boca Raton, Florida. The book portrays the unsuccessful struggle of Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish families in Boca Raton to preserve the practice of placing such religious artifacts as crosses and stars of David on the graves of the city-owned burial ground. Sullivan demonstrates how, during the course of the proceeding, citizens from all walks of life and religious backgrounds were harassed to define just what their religion is. She argues that their plight points up a shocking truth: religion cannot be coherently defined for the purposes of American law, because everyone has different definitions of what religion is. Indeed, while religious freedom as a political idea was arguably once a force for tolerance, it has now become a force for intolerance, she maintains. A clear-eyed look at the laws created to protect religious freedom, this vigorously argued book offers a new take on a right deemed by many to be necessary for a free democratic society. It will have broad appeal not only for religion scholars, but also for anyone interested in law and the Constitution. Featuring a new preface by the author, The Impossibility of Religious Freedom offers a new take on a right deemed by many to be necessary for a free democratic society.


The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism

The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism

Author: Erica Chenoweth

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-03-14

Total Pages: 824

ISBN-13: 0191047139

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The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism systematically integrates the substantial body of scholarship on terrorism and counterterrorism before and after 9/11. In doing so, it introduces scholars and practitioners to state of the art approaches, methods, and issues in studying and teaching these vital phenomena. This Handbook goes further than most existing collections by giving structure and direction to the fast-growing but somewhat disjointed field of terrorism studies. The volume locates terrorism within the wider spectrum of political violence instead of engaging in the widespread tendency towards treating terrorism as an exceptional act. Moreover, the volume makes a case for studying terrorism within its socio-historical context. Finally, the volume addresses the critique that the study of terrorism suffers from lack of theory by reviewing and extending the theoretical insights contributed by several fields - including political science, political economy, history, sociology, anthropology, criminology, law, geography, and psychology. In doing so, the volume showcases the analytical advancements and reflects on the challenges that remain since the emergence of the field in the early 1970s.


Critical Terms for Religious Studies

Critical Terms for Religious Studies

Author: Mark C. Taylor

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1998-08-15

Total Pages: 446

ISBN-13: 9780226791562

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Following in the very successful tradition of Critical Terms for Literary Studies and Critical Terms for Art History, this book attempts to provide a revitalized, self-aware vocabulary with which this bewildering religious diversity can be accurately described and responsibly discussed. Leading scholars working in a variety of traditions demonstrate through their incisive discussions that even our most basic terms for understanding religion are not neutral but carry specific historical and conceptual freight.


An Introduction to Religion and Politics

An Introduction to Religion and Politics

Author: Jonathan Fox

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-05-07

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1136206914

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An Introduction to Religion and Politics offers a comprehensive overview of the many theories of religion and politics, and provides students with an accessible but in-depth account of the most significant debates, issues and methodologies. Fox examines the ways in which religion influences politics, analyses the current key issues and provides a state of the art account of religion and politics, highlighting the diversity in state religion policies around the world. Topics covered include: Secularism and secularization Religious identity Religious worldviews, beliefs, doctrines and theologies Religious legitimacy Religious institutions and mobilization Rational and functional religion Religious fundamentalism Conflict, violence and terror This work combines theoretical analysis with data on the religion policies of 177 governments, showing that while most of the world's government support religion and many restrict it; true neutrality on the issue of religion is extremely rare. Religion is becoming an inescapable issue in politics. This work will be essential reading for all students of religion and politics, and will also be of great interest to those studying related subjects such as comparative politics, international relations and war and conflict studies.