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Full Description
A cutting-edge introduction to contemporary religious studies theory, connecting theory to data.
This innovative coursebook introduces students to interdisciplinary theoretical tools for understanding contemporary religiously diverse societies—both Western and non-Western. Using a case-study model, the text considers:
A wide and diverse array of contemporary issues, questions, and critical approaches to the study of religion relevant to students and scholars
A variety of theoretical approaches, including decolonial, feminist, hermeneutical, poststructuralist, and phenomenological analyses
Current debates on whether the term "religion" is meaningful
Many key issues about the study of religion, including the insider-outsider debate, material religion, and lived religion
Plural and religiously diverse societies, including the theological ideas of traditions and the political and social questions that arise for those living alongside adherents of other religions
Understanding Religion is designed to provide a strong foundation for instructors to explore the ideas presented in each chapter in multiple ways, engage students in meaningful activities in the classroom, and integrate additional material into their lectures. Students will gain the tools to apply specific methods from a variety of disciplines to analyze the social, political, spiritual, and cultural aspects of religions. Its unique pedagogical design means it can be used from undergraduate- to postgraduate-level courses.
Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Boxes
Acknowledgments and Dedications
Introduction
PART I. WHAT IS RELIGION AND HOW TO APPROACH IT?
1. Religion: Language, Law, and Legacies
Case Study 1A: Falun Gong: Religion or Self-Cultivation Practice?
Case Study 1B: Christians and Ancestor Veneration: Religion or Culture?
2. Method: Insider-Outsider Debates, Phenomenology, and Reflexivity
Case Study 2A: Living between Religious Worlds: Conversion and Reconversion
Case Study 2B: Hindu and Christian? Multiple Religious Identities
3. Life: Lived Religion, Syncretism, and Hybridity
Case Study 3A: Mexican American Catholicism and Our Lady of Guadalupe
Case Study 3B: Thai Buddhism as Lived Religion and Syncretic Practice
PART II. THEORIES, METHODOLOGIES, AND CRITICAL DEBATES
4. History: Historical Methodology and the Invention of Tradition
Case Study 4A: The Historical Jesus and the Christ of Faith
Case Study 4B: Laozi, the Daodejing, and the Origins of Daoism
5. Power: Social Constructionism, Habitus, and Authority
Case Study 5A: Mosques, Minarets, and Power
Case Study 5B: Individual (New Age/Alternative) Spirituality as Modernity's Ideology
6. Identity: Social Identity Theory, In-Groups, Out-Groups, and Conflict
Case Study 6A: Shiv Sena, Hindu Nationalism, and Identity Politics
Case Study 6B: Race, Religion, and the American White Evangelical
7. Colonialism: Postcolonialism, Orientalism, and Decolonization
Case Study 7A: Beyond "Inventing" Hinduism
Case Study 7B: Magic, Superstition, and Religion in Southeast Asia and Africa
8. Brains: The Cognitive Science of Religion and Beyond
Case Study 8A: Religion, Non-Religion, and Atheism
Case Study 8B: Ancestors, Jesus, and Prosocial Behavior in Fiji
9. Bodies: Material Religion, Embodiment, and Materiality
Case Study 9A: Weeping Gods and Drinking Statues
Case Study 9B: Embodied Practice at a Christian Shrine
10. Gender: Feminism, Sexuality, and Religion
Case Study 10A: Priests, Paul, and Rewriting Texts
Case Study 10B: Buddhist Feminisms and Nuns
11. Comparison: Comparative and Contrastive Methodologies
Case Study 11A: Comparing Hinduism and Judaism
Case Study 11B: A Comparison of Zen Buddhist and Protestant Christian Sitting Practices
12. Ritual: Ritualization, Myth, and Performance
Case Study 12A: The Zen Tea Ceremony and Protestant Eucharist as Performance and Ritual
Case Study 12B: Buddhist Ordination Rites
PART III. RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY AND SOCIETY
13. Diversity: Religious Borders, Identities, and Discourses
Case Study 13A: The Memory of Al-Andalusia
Case Study 13B: Dominus Iesus and Catholic Christianity in Asia
14. Dialogue: Interreligious Discourse and Critique
Case Study 14A: Christian and Muslim Women Reading Scriptures
Case Study 14B: Buddhist-Christian Dialogue: History and Discourse
15. Violence: Fundamentalism, Extremism, and Radicalization
Case Study 15A: The Invention of Islamic Terrorism
Case Study 15B: Buddhism and Violence
16. Secularism: Secularization, Human Rights, and Religion
Case Study 16A: Laïcité and the Burkini Ban
Case Study 16B: Singapore's Common Space
17. Geography: Place, the Lived Environment, and Environmentalism
Case Study 17A: Trees as Monks?
Case Study 17B: Protestant Christian Understandings of the "Holy Land"
18. Politics: Governance, the Colonial Wound, and the Sacred
Case Study 18A: Ethnicity and Religion: The Singaporean Malay-Muslim Identity
Case Study 18B: Saluting the Flag: The Case of Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States
Glossary
Who's Who
Notes
Index
