Critical Terms for Religious Studies

by Mark C. Taylor (Editor)

A century that began with modernism sweeping across Europe is ending with a remarkable resurgence of religious beliefs and practices throughout the world. Wherever one looks today, from headlines about political turmoil in the Middle East to pop music and videos, one cannot escape the pivotal role of religious beliefs and practices in shaping selves, societies, and cultures.

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.

These essays adopt the approach that has won this book's predecessors such widespread each provides a concise history of a critical term, explores the issues raised by the term, and puts the term to use in an analysis of a religious work, practice, or event. Moving across Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Native American and Mayan religions, contributors explore terms ranging from experience, territory, and image, to God, sacrifice, and transgression.

The result is an essential reference that will reshape the field of religious studies and transform the way in which religion is understood by scholars from all disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, psychology, cultural studies, gender studies, and literary studies.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Reference, Theory

429 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 1998

About the author

Mark C. Taylor, Ph.D. (Religious Studies, Harvard University, 1973; B.A., Wesleyan University, 1968), is a philosopher of religion who chaired the Department of Religion at Columbia University 2007–2015. Previously, he was Cluett Professor of Humanities at Williams College (Williamstown, Massachusetts), where he began his teaching career in 1973.

Reviews

[Jessica Zu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall, it's a very useful book for students of religion. Nevertheless, I prefer to rename it the deconstruction of critical terms for religious studies. Reading this book has given me an severe intellectual headache. It this were the intention of the authors and editor, then congratulations you are all very successful: there are no answers only questions!

That being said, questions are exactly what we need as students of religions, doubts are our only savior in our academic life. Once you know how to ask a good question, your research is half done. The rest is easy. Reading this book has been a great learning experiences: it greatly broadens my horizon while teaching how to ask questions and how to advance my questions. Most importantly, I learned how to be comfortable with questions and doubts. After all, religion is messy. Any clear answer is doomed to be oversimplification of one sort or another.

[John]

religion,nonfiction,reference

[Sue Caulfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

Required reading for a course, I learned a lot from this book, but would not recommend it unless you are pursuing study of religion.