Download or read book The Study of Religion written by George D. Chryssides and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-12-05 with total page 707 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This updated textbook unravels the complex issues related to methodology and theory in the study of religion. It equips students with the knowledge needed for the academic study of religion, explaining the history of the methodology, including ideas of key theorists, and discusses key issues in the field, such as gender, phenomenology, and the insider/outsider discourse. Updated throughout, additional material includes: -New chapter on colonialism and post-colonialism -New chapter on insider/outsider discourse -Coverage of 'cyber-religion' and the internet as a research tool in religious studies Study and classroom features in each chapter include: -Chapter outlines -Case studies -Boxed key concepts -Discussion questions -Chapter bibliographies The text is illustrated throughout with 35 images, and extra resources can be found online, including additional coverage of 'levels of religion'.
Download or read book Religion Enters the Academy written by James Turner and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religious studies—also known as comparative religion or history of religions—emerged as a field of study in colleges and universities on both sides of the Atlantic during the late nineteenth century. In Europe, as previous historians have demonstrated, the discipline grew from long-established traditions of university-based philological scholarship. But in the United States, James Turner argues, religious studies developed outside the academy. Until about 1820, Turner contends, even learned Americans showed little interest in non-European religions—a subject that had fascinated their counterparts in Europe since the end of the seventeenth century. Growing concerns about the status of Christianity generated American interest in comparing it to other great religions, and the resulting writings eventually produced the academic discipline of religious studies in U.S. universities. Fostered especially by learned Protestant ministers, this new discipline focused on canonical texts—the “bibles”—of other great world religions. This rather narrow approach provoked the philosopher and psychologist William James to challenge academic religious studies in 1902 with his celebrated and groundbreaking Varieties of Religious Experience.
Download or read book The Proper Study of Religion After Jonathan Z Smith written by Sam D. Gill and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2021-02-24 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Proper Study of Religion, Sam Gill charts an innovative course of development for the academic study of religion by engaging the legacy of Jonathan Z. Smith, Gill's teacher and mentor for fifty years. Building on Smith's foundational legacy through creative encounters, Gill explores an extensive range of absorbing topics including: comparison as essential to academic technique and to human knowledge itself; play, philosophically understood, as a coredynamic of Smith's entire program; the relationship of academic document-based studies to the sensory-rich real world of religions; and self-moving as providing a biological and philosophical foundation on which to develop and expand upon a proper academic study of religion.
Download or read book A Critical Introduction to the Study of Religion written by Craig Martin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-04-21 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Critical Introduction to the Study of Religion introduces the key concepts and theories from religious studies that are necessary for a full understanding of the complex relations between religion and society. The aim is to provide readers with an arsenal of critical concepts for studying religious ideologies, practices, and communities. This thoroughly revised second edition has been restructured to clearly emphasize key topics including: Essentialism Functionalism Authority Domination. All ideas and theories are clearly illustrated, with new and engaging examples and case studies throughout, making this the ideal textbook for students approaching the subject area for the first time.
Download or read book Introduction to the Study of Religion written by Hillary P. Rodrigues and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2008-08-20 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do people study religion? How have they studied it in the past? How do we study religion today? Is the academic study of religion the same as religious education? These and many other questions are addressed in this engaging introduction to the discipline of religious studies, written by two experienced university teachers. The authors have crafted this book to familiarize novice students with key concepts and terminology in the study of religion. More advanced students will find a varied array of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches to the field. Topics include: definitions of religion perspectives in the study and teaching of religion how religion began to be studied: traditional perspectives – philosophical and theological how people experience religion: perspectives in the study of religious consciousness and perception – phenomenological and psychological studying religion within communities: Social and cultural perspectives – anthropological, sociological, political and economic judging religion: critical perspectives –feminist approaches, the interaction of popular literature and religion contextual perspectives – historical and comparative. The book encourages students to think critically about the theories and methods presented. Students will find arguments for the strengths and limitations of these approaches, understand connections among religious studies and other intellectual movements, and develop their own ideas of how they might want to go about the study of religion. Summary boxes, a timeline, a glossary and other pedagogic aids help students grasp key concepts, along with a companion website at www.sastor.com.
Download or read book The Ideology of Religious Studies written by Timothy Fitzgerald and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2003-10-16 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Religious Worlds written by William E. Paden and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2015-10-27 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Gods, to ritual observance to the language of myth and the distinction between the sacred and the profane, Religious Worlds explores the structures common to all spiritual traditions.
Download or read book A Beginner s Guide to the Study of Religion written by Bradley L. Herling and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-03-10 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How should we understand and interpret the strange but familiar thing that we call “religion”? What are the foundations of a methodical approach to this subject, and what theoretical tools are available to students who are new to this area of inquiry? A Beginner's Guide to the Study of Religion provides an accessible, wide-ranging introduction to theories and basic methodology in the field. Now in its second edition and updated throughout, this concise but comprehensive book includes:- - A case for the urgency and relevance of studying religion today - Discussion of the role and perspective of the student of religion - Description of the nature of theory and its function - An accessible survey of classic theorists in the modern study of religion - Feature boxes highlighting essential quotations and guiding principles for application of theories An expanded consideration of contemporary issues in the field, including gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, globalization, violence, science, and new media. - Recommended further reading A Beginner's Guide to the Study of Religion offers a thorough but concise body of material suitable for introductory courses on the study of religion, or to provide theoretical context for survey courses. Study questions and worksheets can be found on the book's webpage.
Download or read book Anthropological Studies of Religion written by Brian Morris and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1987-02-27 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A lucid outline of explanations of religious phenomena offered by such great thinkers as Hegel, Marx, and Weber.
Download or read book The Study of Religion written by John S. Harding and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Reader introduces students of religion to its most common current perspectives and approaches, and provides an understanding of how the discipline developed.
Download or read book Vocabulary for the study of religion written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Guide to the Study of Religion written by Willi Braun and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 573 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is religion? Can it be defined at all? Or is it too easily defined in far too many ways so as to make a "religion" a drifting signifier or whatever one's pleasure is? Does the study of religion require special, perhaps religious, tools of analysis and explanation? What is the difference between a knowledge of religion derived from practicing it and a knowledge about religion derived from nonreligious modes of inquiry? Sooner or later, any serious student of religion must face these questionsif religious practices are to be investigated in the light of the terms and aims of the social and human sciences in the modern university.The Guide to the Study of Religion provides a map of the key concepts and thought-structures for imagining and studying religion as a class of everyday social practices that lend themselves to no more or less difficult explanation than any other class of social phenomena.
Download or read book The Study of Religion written by George D. Chryssides and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-12-05 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This updated textbook unravels the complex issues related to methodology and theory in the study of religion. It equips students with the knowledge needed for the academic study of religion, explaining the history of the methodology, including ideas of key theorists, and discusses key issues in the field, such as gender, phenomenology, and the insider/outsider discourse. Updated throughout, additional material includes: -New chapter on colonialism and post-colonialism -New chapter on insider/outsider discourse -Coverage of 'cyber-religion' and the internet as a research tool in religious studies Study and classroom features in each chapter include: -Chapter outlines -Case studies -Boxed key concepts -Discussion questions -Chapter bibliographies The text is illustrated throughout with 35 images, and extra resources can be found online, including additional coverage of 'levels of religion'.
Download or read book Introduction to the Study of Religion written by Hillary P. Rodrigues and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-11-29 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do people study religion? How have they studied it in the past? How do we study religion today? Is the academic study of religion the same as religious education? These and many other questions are addressed in this engaging introduction to the discipline of religious studies. Topics include Definitions of religion Perspectives in the study and teaching of religion How religion began to be studied: Traditional perspectives—philosophical and theological How people experience religion: Perspectives in the study of religious consciousness and perception—phenomenological and psychological Studying religion within communities: Social and cultural perspectives—anthropological, sociological, political, and economic Judging religion: Critical perspectives—feminist approaches, the interaction of popular literature and religion Contextual perspectives—historical and comparative Themes, theories, and current directions The thoroughly updated second edition encourages students to think critically about the theories and methods presented. Students will find arguments for the strengths and limitations of these approaches, understand connections among religious studies and other intellectual movements, and develop their own ideas of how they might want to go about the study of religion. Summary boxes, discussion questions, a glossary, a chronology of key figures and texts, and other pedagogic aids help students grasp key concepts.
Download or read book The Proper Study of Religion written by Sam Gill and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-08-14 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first generation of the proper academic study of religion might be said to span the half century from 1963 to 2013. Supreme Court Justice Clark's 1963 opinion clarifying that any liberal "education is not complete without a study of comparative religion or the history of religion and its relationship to the advancement of civilization" allowed the legal teaching of religion in secular universities. The end of the first generation might be marked by the 2013 retirement of Professor Jonathan Z. Smith (1938-2017) from the University of Chicago where he had taught since 1968. Arguably no scholar has made a greater contribution than did Smith to establishing a proper academic study of religion. In The Proper Study of Religion, Sam Gill charts an innovative course of development for the academic study of religion by creatively engaging the legacy of Jonathan Z. Smith, Gill's teacher and mentor for fifty years. Their careers coincided with the explosive expansion of the study of religion in secular universities in the US that began in the mid-1960s. Using an engaging narrative style, Gill builds on Smith's work exploring an extensive range of absorbing and foundational topics including: comparison as essential to academic technique and to human knowledge itself; the important role of experience, richly understood, both to academic studies of religion and to religions as lived; play, philosophically understood, as a core dynamic of Smith's entire program; the relationship of academic document-based studies to the sensory-rich real world of religions; and self-moving as providing a biological and philosophical foundation on which to develop and expand upon a proper academic study of religion. The foregrounding of human self-movement, new to the study of religion, is informed by Gill's experience as a dancer and student of dancing in cultures around the world. This book honors the work of an unforgettable giant of a man while also offering critical assessments and innovative ideas in the effort to advance the remarkable legacy of Jonathan Z. Smith.
Download or read book The Study of Religion in an Age of Global Dialogue written by Leonard J. Swidler and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion is the most fundamental, comprehensive of all human activities. it tries to make sense out of not simply one or another aspect of human life, but of all aspects of human experience. At the core of every civilization lies its religion, which both reflects and shapes it. Thus, if we wish to understand human life in general and our specific culture and history, we need to understand religion. What is religion? Religion is an explanation of the ultimate meaning of life, and how to live accordingly; based on a notion of the Transcendent. Normally it contains the four "C's": Creed, Code, Cult, Community-structure. CREED refers To The cognitive aspect of a religion; it is everything that goes into the "explanation" of the ultimate meaning of life. CODE OF BEHAVIOR, or ethics, includes all the rules and customs of action that somehow follow from one aspect or another of the Creed. CULT means all the ritual activities that relate the follower to one aspect or another of the Transcendent, either directly or indirectly, prayer being an example of the former and certain formal behavior toward representatives of the Transcendent, such as priests, of the latter. COMMUNITY-STRUCTURE refers To The relationships among the followers; this can vary widely, from a very egalitarian relationship, As among Quakers, through a "republican" structure as Presbyterians have, To a monarchical one, As with some Hasidic Jews have with their Rebbe. THE TRANSCENDENT, As the roots of the word indicate, means "that which goes beyond" the everyday, The ordinary, The surface experience of reality. it can mean spirits, gods, a Personal God, An Impersonal God, Emptiness, etc. This volume looks at the ways we humans have developed to study religion. However, a new age in human consciousness is now dawning: The Age of Global Dialogue, a radically new consciousness which fundamentally shifts the ways we understand everything in life, including religion. This global dialogical way of understanding life does not lead to one global religion, but it does lead toward a consciously acknowledged common set of ethical principles, a Global Ethic. The book looks at these two movements—the Age of Global Dialogue and inchoative Global Ethic—in order to help readers understand what is going on around them, So they might make informed, intelligent decisions about the meaning of life and how to live it. Author note:Leonard Swidleris Professor of Religion at Temple University.Paul Mojzesis Academic Dean and Professor of Religious Studies at Rosemount College.
Download or read book Why Study Religion written by Richard B. Miller and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book asks: Can the study of religion be justified? It poses this question on the view that scholarship in religion, especially work in "theory and method," is preoccupied with matters of methodological procedure and thus inarticulate about the goals that can justify the study of religion and motivate scholarship in the field. For that reason, it insists, the field suffers from a crisis of rationale. The book identifies six prevailing methodologies in the field, each of which it critically examines as symptomatic of this crisis, on the way toward offering an alternative framework for thinking about purposes for studying religion. Shadowing these methodologies is a Weberian scientific ideal for studying religion, one that privileges value-neutrality. This ideal poses obstacles to making justificatory claims on behalf of studying religion and fortifies a repressive conscience about thinking normatively within the field's regime of truth. After making these points, the chapter describes the book's alternative framework, Critical Humanism, especially how it theorizes about the ends rather than the means of humanistic scholarship and offers a basis for thinking about the ethics of Religious Studies as held together by four values: Post-critical Reasoning, Social Criticism, Cross-cultural Fluency, and Environmental Responsibility. Ordered to such purposes, the book argues, the study of religion can imagine itself as a valuable and desirable enterprise so that scholars of religion can relax their commitment to matters of methodological procedure and avow the values of studying religion"--
