Understanding Religion: Theories and Methods for Studying Religiously Diverse Societies
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.
1137609774
Understanding Religion: Theories and Methods for Studying Religiously Diverse Societies
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.
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Understanding Religion: Theories and Methods for Studying Religiously Diverse Societies

Understanding Religion: Theories and Methods for Studying Religiously Diverse Societies

by Paul Michael Hedges
Understanding Religion: Theories and Methods for Studying Religiously Diverse Societies
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Understanding Religion: Theories and Methods for Studying Religiously Diverse Societies

Understanding Religion: Theories and Methods for Studying Religiously Diverse Societies

by Paul Michael Hedges

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780520298910
Publisher: University of California Press
Publication date: 02/23/2021
Edition description: First Edition
Pages: 584
Product dimensions: 7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Paul Hedges is Associate Professor in the Studies in Interreligious Relations in Plural Societies Programme, RSIS, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He has authored or edited more than a dozen books and over seventy academic papers. His most recent book is Religious Hatred: Prejudice, Islamophobia, and Antisemitism in Global Context.
 

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

List of Boxes xi

Acknowledgments and Dedications xvii

Introduction 1

Part I What Is Religion And How To Approach It?

1 Religion: Language, Law, and Legacies 19

Case- Study 1A: Falun Gong: Religion or Self-Cultivation Practice? 35

Case Study 1B: Christians and Ancestor Veneration: Religion or Culture? 39

2 Method: Insider-Outsider Debates, Phenomenology, and Reflexivity 44

Case Study 2A: Living between Religious Worlds: Conversion and Reconversion 60

Case Study 2B: Hindu and Christian? Multiple Religious Identities 62

3 Life: Lived Religion, Syncretism, and Hybridity 67

Case Study 3A: Mexican American Catholicism and Our Lady of Guadalupe 81

Case Study 3B: Thai Buddhism as Lived Religion and Syncretic Practice 84

Part II Theories, Methodologies, And Critical Debates

4 History: Historical Methodology and the Invention of Tradition 93

Case Study 4A: The Historical Jesus and the Christ of Faith 104

Case Study 4B: Laozi, the Daodejing, and the Origins of Daoism 111

5 Power: Social Constructionism, Habitus, and Authority 117

Case Study 5A: Mosques, Minarets, and Power 132

Case Study 5B: Individual (New Age/Alternative) Spirituality as Modernity's Ideology 135

6 Identity: Social Identity Theory, In-Groups, Out-Groups, and Conflict 140

Case Study 6A: Shiv Sena, Hindu Nationalism, and Identity Politics 154

Case Study 6B: Race, Religion, and the American White Evangelical 158

7 Colonialism: Postcolonialism, Orientalism, and Decolonization 163

Case Study 7A: Beyond "Inventing" Hinduism 179

Case Study 7B: Magic, Superstition, and Religion in Southeast Asia and Africa 182

8 Brains: The Cognitive Science of Religion and Beyond 188

Case Study 8A: Religion, Non-Religion, and Atheism 201

Case Study 8B: Ancestors, Jesus, and Prosocial Behavior in Fiji 205

9 Bodies: Material Religion, Embodiment, and Materiality 209

Case Study 9A: Weeping Cods and Drinking Statues 225

Case Study 9B: Embodied Practice at a Christian Shrine 227

10 Gender: Feminism, Sexuality, and Religion 232

Case Study 10A: Priests, Paul, and Rewriting Texts 248

Case Study 10B: Buddhist Feminisms and Nuns 251

11 Comparison: Comparative and Contrastive Methodologies 255

Case Study 11A: Comparing Hinduism and Judaism 270

Case Study 11B: A Comparison of Zen Buddhist and Protestant Christian Sitting Practices 272

12 Ritual: Realization, Myth, and Performance 278

Case Study 12A: The Zen Tea Ceremony and Protestant Eucharist as Performance and Ritual 294

Case Study 12B: Buddhist Ordination Rites 297

Part III Religious Diversity And Society

13 Diversity: Religious Borders, Identities, and Discourses 303

Case Study 13A: The Memory of Al-Andalusia 316

Case Study 13B: Dominus lesus and Catholic Christianity in Asia 320

14 Dialogue: Interreligious Discourse and Critique 325

Case Study 14A: Christian and Muslim Women Reading Scriptures 340

Case Study 146: Buddhist-Christian Dialogue: History and Discourse 342

15 Violence: Fundamentalism, Extremism, and Radicalization 348

Case Study 15A: The Invention of Islamic Terrorism 364

Case Study 15B: Buddhism and Violence 367

16 Secularism: Secularization, Human Rights, and Religion 373

Case Study 16A: Laícité and the Burkini Ban 391

Case Study 16B: Singapore's Common Space 394

17 Geography: Place, the Lived Environment, and Environmentalism 398

Case Study 17A: Trees as Monks? 413

Case Study 17B: Protestant Christian Understandings of the "Holy Land" 417

18 Politics: Governance, the Colonial Wound, and the Sacred 421

Case Study 18A: Ethnicity and Religion: The Singaporean Malay-Muslim Identity 436

Case Study 18B: Saluting the Flag: The Case of Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States 439

Glossary 445

Who's Who 473

Notes 485

Index 545

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