What Is Religion?: Debating the Academic Study of Religion

Debating the Academic Study of Religion explores the definition of religion, its diversity, and its various applications in governance, technology, and networks. It includes essays from 17 leading scholars that assess the progress made in the field and propose new directions for future work.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 02 February 2022
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

For decades, debates have raged over the definition of the word "religion." It is a term of art, an academic subject of study, a governance concept, a technology, and a network. It is a concept whose diversity is frequently its own worst enemy. Religion is a hazy collection of conceptualizations and generalizations about a variety of human activities, as well as a system of authorization for people, ideas, and practices.

What is religion? Debating the Academic Study of Religion invites readers to eavesdrop on scholarly debates over the limits of, and uses for, a word commonly used but infrequently defined in a precise manner. This volume takes the temperature of the modern field of Religious Studies by inviting a diverse group of scholars to offer their own substantive contribution that builds on the shared opening prompt, "Religion is...." Their essays document the current state of the field and its various sub-fields, assess the progress that has been made over the past generation, and propose new directions for future work. Seventeen of the international field's leading scholars show how they work with each other's definition, or, sometimes, the lack of a definition. Of interest to students, scholars, and general readers alike, What is Religion? will provoke debate and provide insights into the state of the field.

Weight: 550g
Dimension: 228 x 235 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780190064983