Description
Religion in 50 Words: A Critical Vocabulary is the first of a two-volume work that seeks to transform the study of religion by offering a radically critical perspective. It does so by providing a succinct and critical examination of the key words used in the modern study of religion. Arranged alphabetically, the book explores the historic roots, varied uses, and current significance and utility of the technical terms used within the current field of religious studies. These are the terms that both students and scholars routinely deploy to think about, describe, and analyze data—sometimes without realizing that they are themselves technical tools in need of attention.
Among the topics covered:
- Belief
- Critical
- Culture
- Definition
- Environment
- Gender
- Ideology
- Lived religion
- Material religion
- Orthodoxy
- Politics
- Race
- Sacred/profane
- Secular
- Theory
This book submits all of its terms to a critical interrogation and subsequent re-description, thereby allowing a collective reframing of the field. This volume is an indispensable resource for students and academics working in religious studies.
Table of Contents
Introduction: A User’s Guide
1. Affect
2. Authenticity
3. Authority
4. Belief
5. Canon
6. Classification
7. Cognition
8. Comparison
9. Critical
10. Culture
11. Definition
12. Description
13. Diaspora
14. Environment
15. Essence
16. Experience
17. Explanation
18. Faith
19. Function
20. Gender
21. History
22. Identity
23. Ideology
24. Indigeneity
25. Interpretation
26. Law
27. Lived Religion
28. Material Religion
29. Method
30. Methodological Agnosticism
31. Origin
32. Orthodoxy
33. Phenomenology
34. Pluralism
35. Politics
36. Power
37. Practice
38. Primitive
39. Race
40. Redescription
41. Religion
42. Religious Literacy
43. Sacred/Profane
44. Secular
45. Society
46. Status
47. Text
48. Theory
49. World Religions
50. Worldview
Appendix: A Word on Etymologies
Index
