Religious discourse in modern Japan : religion, state, and Shinto /
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Religious Discourse in Modern Japan explores the introduction of the Western concept of "religion" to Japan in the modern era, and the emergence of discourse on Shinto, philosophy, and Buddhism. Taking Anesaki's founding of religious studies ( shukyogaku ) at Tokyo Imperial University as a pivot, Isomae examines the evolution of this academic discipline in the changing context of social conditions from the Meiji era through the present. Special attention is given to the development of Shinto studies/history of Shinto, and the problems of State Shinto and the emperor system are described in relation to the nature of the concept of religion. Isomae also explains how the discourse of religious studies developed in connection with secular discourses on literature and history, including Marxism.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004272682 :
1878-8106 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Future of the Study of Religion, Proceedings of Congress 2000.
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This volume brings together diverse voices from various fields within religious and theological studies for a conversation about the proper objects, goals, and methods for the study of religion in the twenty-first century. It approaches these questions by way of the most recent contemporary challenges, debates, and developments in the field, and provides a forum in which contending perspectives are tested and contested by their proponents and opponents. Contributors address topics such as: the connection between the 'normative' and the 'scientific' approaches to the study of religion, the meaning of religion in a context of globalization, the relation between religious studies and religious traditions, the viability of comparative and cultural studies of religious phenomena, and the future of gender studies in religion.
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1 online resource. :
9789047404125
The Question of Methodological Naturalism.
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The traditions and institutions that we call religions abound with references to the supernatural: ancestral spirits, karma, the afterlife, miracles, revelation, deities, et cetera How are students of religion to approach the behaviors, doctrines, and beliefs that refer to such phenomena, which by their very nature are supposed to defy the methods of empirical research and the theories of historical scholarship? That is the question of methodological naturalism. The Question of Methodological Naturalism offers ten thoughtful engagements with that perennial question for the academic study of religion. Contributors include established senior scholars and newer voices propounding a range of perspectives, resulting in both surprising points of convergence and irreconcilable differences in how our shared discipline should be conceptualized and practiced.
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1 online resource. :
9789004372436
The concept of religion : defining and measuring contemporary beliefs and practices /
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In The Concept of Religion Hans Schilderman edits a volume on the definition and empirical study of religion within the changing landscape of modern society. Now that we can no longer assume a simple harmony between the scientific concept of religion, church doctrine and practiced belief, issues concerning the definition and measurement of religion are becoming crucial issues to academic institutions. The contributing authors present empirical studies studying issues of lifespan and socialisation at school settings; of vocation and profession at church and hospital settings; and culture and nation of society at large. The volume offers a beautiful sample of the empirical study of religion; a conceptual and illustrative overview of the academic field for students and scholars in religion.
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1 online resource (198 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004299320 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Taking 'Religion' Seriously: Essays on the Discursive Study of Religion /
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"This book demonstrates through methodological reflections and carefully chosen case studies a new way to conduct the study of religion. It focuses on how social actors negotiate what counts as "religion" and how discourses on religion are part of the way in which contemporary societies organise themselves. The present volume draws on examples from judicial processes, media discourses, and scholarly debates related to Wiccans, Druids, and Jedi knights, among others. By analysing discourses on religion and building on, rather than rejecting, genealogical critiques of religion, Teemu Taira argues that the study of religion can be constructive and socially relevant"--
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004511682
9789004511699
Orality and textuality in the Iranian world : patterns of interaction across the centuries /
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The volume demonstrates the cultural centrality of the oral tradition for Iranian studies. It contains contributions from scholars from various areas of Iranian and comparative studies, among which are the pre-Islamic Zoroastrian tradition with its wide network of influences in late antique Mesopotamia, notably among the Jewish milieu; classical Persian literature in its manifold genres; medieval Persian history; oral history; folklore and more. The essays in this collection embrace both the pre-Islamic and Islamic periods, both verbal and visual media, as well as various language communities (Middle Persian, Persian, Tajik, Dari) and geographical spaces (Greater Iran in pre-Islamic and Islamic medieval periods; Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan of modern times). Taken as a whole, the essays reveal the unique blending of oral and literate poetics in the texts or visual artefacts each author focuses upon, conceptualizing their interrelationship and function.
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1 online resource (xx, 456 pages) : illustrations (some color) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004291973 :
1570-078X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Innovation and Tradition in Rabbinic Culture : A Reassessment Through a Linguistic Lens /
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Reading Talmudic Sources as Arguments: A New Interpretive Approach elucidates the unique characteristics of Talmudic discourse culture. Approaching Talmudic literature from a linguistic perspective, the book shows the extensive and hidden ways in which later rabbis used early formulations. Applying Quentin Skinner's interpretive question "What was the author doing in composing the text in this particular way?" to Talmudic literature reveals that Talmudic debate is not only about ideas, concepts and laws but also about the latter's connection to pre-existing formulations. These early traditions, rather than only being accepted or not, are used by later generations to build their own arguments. The book articulates the function of tradition at the time that Rabbinic Judaism was forged.
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1 online resource. :
9789004430044
9789004430037
Evolution, cognition, and the history of religion : a new synthesis : festschrift in honour of Armin W. Geertz /
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Evolution, Cognition, and the History of Religion: A New Synthesis comprises 41 chapters that push for a new way of conducting the study of religion, thereby, transforming the discipline into a genuine science of religion. The recent resurgence of evolutionary approaches on culture and the increasing acknowledgement in the natural and social sciences of culture's and religion's evolutionary importance calls for a novel epistemological and theoretical framework for studying these two areas. The chapters explore how a new scholarly synthesis, founded on the triadic space constituted by evolution, cognition, cultural and ecological environment, may develop. Different perspectives and themes relating to this overarching topic are taken up with a main focus on either evolution, cognition, and/or the history of religion.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004385375 :
2214-3270 ;
Theory and Method in the Study of Religion : Twenty Five Years On.
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Theory and Method are two words that cause considerable consternation in the academic study of religion. Although everyone claims to be aware of and to engage them, the fact of the matter is that they remain poorly understood. Some see the terms as irritants that get in the way of data interpretation and translation. Others may invoke them sporadically to appear in vogue but then return quickly and myopically to their material and with little concern for the larger issues that such terms raise. To contribute to these debates, the present volume reproduces select articles from Method and Theory in the Study of Religion (MTSR) from the first 25 volumes of the journal, and allows a group of younger scholars to introduce and review them, asking if the issues raised are still relevant to the field. Read the Inaugural Editorial now, please click here .
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List of ContributorsIndex. :
1 online resource (314 pages) :
9789004257573 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
A modest proposal on method : essaying the study of religion /
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A Modest Proposal on Method further documents methodological and institutional failings in the academic study of religion. This collection of essays-which includes three previously unpublished chapters-identifies the manner in which old problems (like the presumption that our object of study is a special, deeply meaningful case) yet remain in the field. But amidst the critique there are a variety of practical suggestions for how the science of religion can become methodologically even-handed and self-reflexive-the markings of a historically rigorous exercise. Each chapter is introduced and contextualized by a newly written, substantive introduction.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004281417 :
2214-3270 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
What is Religion?, Origins, Definitions, and Explanations.
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What is Religion? consists of fourteen essays written by a selection of scholars who represent a wide spectrum of approaches to the acedamic study of religion. Each of the essays is an effort not only to take stock of the present controversy concerning appropriate methodologies for the study of religion, but also to take one giant step beyond that to formulate a precise definition of religion. Given the considerable confusion today about what it is exactly that religious studies scholars take to be their subject matter when they presume to professionally teachabout religion, this volume provides a much needed forum for leading scholars to debate and clarify what professors of religious studies understand as the central object or objects under their scrunity.
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1 online resource. :
9789004379046
Geschichte und Probleme der Religionswissenschaft.
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This book contains a collection of 18 articles written by the author in the last 30 years on methodological, terminological and historical problems concerning the field of his discipline at Leipzig University, namely Religious Studies. Some articles are rewritten, others only revised or complemented. Much influenced at this University in considering the field of Religious Studies as an area based primary on history and philology, independent of theology and philosophy, this work focuses a.o. on terms like Myth, Mythology, Demythologizing, and Syncretism; on subjects like Mohammed, the relation between Jews, Christians and Muslims; and on leading figures of the discipline in past and present. An introductory essay provides the autobiographical considerations, necessary for a good understanding of the collection. Das Buch enthält 18 Aufsätze des Autors aus den letzten 30 Jahren, die sich mit wissenschaftsgeschichtlichen, methodologischen und terminologischen Problemen der Religionswissenschaft (Rw) beschäftigen. Mehrere von ihnen sind neubearbeitet, andere wenigstens durchgesehen und ergänzt worden. Da der Verfasser das Fach fast 25 Jahre an der Universität Leipzig (früher DDR) vertreten hat, ehe er nach den USA und dann nach Marburg berufen wurde, waren seine Möglichkeiten begrenzt, sich zu grundlegenden und aktuellen Fragen seiner Disziplin zu äußern, und wenn, dann in Zeitschriften, die nicht so verbreitet sind, daß sie international beachtet werden konnten. Seine Ausbildung in Leipzig mit einer der ältesten Traditionen der deutschen Rw und die damalige Situation bestimmen daher die Mehrzahl seiner Arbeiten in bemerkenswerter Weise, indem sie versuchen der Rw ein eigenständiges Profil zu geben, und zwar auf der Grundlage einer streng historisch-philologischen, nichttheologischen Position, die vor allem auch ihre ideologiekritische Seite mit einschließt. Einige Beiträge widmen sich außerdem terminologischen Themen (Mythos, Entmythologisierung, Synkretismus, Entwicklung, Sekte), andere historischen (Mohammed, Verhältnis von Juden, Christen und Muslimen, Frühes Christentum) und wissenschaftsgeschichtlichen (H. Haas, J. Wach, W. Baetke, Eliade, Religionsgeschichtliche Schule). Der einleitende Essay gibt autobiographische Reflexionen wieder, die zum Verständnis der Sammlung nötig sind. Das Buch greift grundlegende Probleme der Rw auf, die bis heute diese Disziplin begleiten, auch wenn verständlicherweise neue Fragestellungen aufgekommen sind, von denen der Verfasser z.B. die der Religion-Umwelt-Beziehung (der älteren Religionsgeographie) aufgreift.
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1 online resource. :
9789004378766
Die Religionswissenschaft und das Christentum, Eine historische Untersuchung über das Verhältnis von Religionswissenschaft und Theologie.
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What are religious studies? What is theology? And what is their relationship to each other? In the light of such theoretical and methodological questions this historical inquiry asks what characterizes the study of Christianity within comparative religion-as distinguished from that of Christian theology? In the three main sections of the book representative texts from the history of comparative religion-including Schleiermacher and some other theological forerunners in the 19th century-are analyzed from a methodological and a material point of view. On this basis an answer is sought to the following questions: What has been the place of the study of Christianity within this discipline? On which methodological principles has it been based? And what kind of picture of Christianity has it presented?
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1 online resource. :
9789004378834
Reappraising Durkheim for the Study and Teaching of Religion Today.
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Reappraising Durkheim for the Study and Teaching of Religion Today is an occasion to critically analyze and reassess the work of this intellectual pioneer. It is also an effort to signal the continuing importance of Durkheim for today's graduate and advanced undergraduate classrooms. Reappraising Durkheim brings together ten new critical essays in which noted sociologists, psychologists, phenomenologists, philosophers, and historians of religion grapple with the questions Durkheim raised and the solutions he proposed. Taken together, the volume is a careful historical and multi-disciplinary study of Durkheim that will lead students to a better understanding of how to study religion. Reappraising Durkheim will be an excellent text for courses focusing on theory and method in the academic study of religion at both the graduate and advanced undergraduate level. It would therefore be appropriate for use in departments of religious studies, philosophy, sociology, and anthropology.
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1 online resource. :
9789004379152
New Approaches to Textual and Image Analysis in Early Jewish and Christian Studies /
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The digital world pervades the everyday lives of most people, and online tools have become an essential part of academic research in many disciplines. This reality is true also for biblical studies and related disciplines, areas that work with complex literary traditions, multiple manuscript cultures, and many methodological approaches to the problems at the centre of our discussions. This book shines a light on multiple new and emerging approaches to big disciplinary questions in biblical studies and beyond by highlight projects that are using digital tools, crafting computer-assisted approaches, and re-thinking the resources fundamental to the history of research.
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1 online resource :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004515116
9789004518131