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Drawing on recent developments in the comparative study of religion, this book explores the trends of the past sixty years from a global perspective. Each of the ten chapters covers the study of religion in a different region of the world, from Europe and the Americas to Asia and the Far East. Topics covered include: local background to the study of religions formation of religious studies in the region important thinkers and writings institutions interregional diversity and interregional connections emerging issues. This book is a major contribution to the field of religious studies and a valuable reference for scholars, researchers and graduate students.
Contains nearly 600 brief entries on the world's religious traditions.
One often reads that literature works to construct worlds of meaning. This book argues that the Iliad and the Rāmāyana did not construct worlds so much as address them. It argues further that the worlds the Iliad and the Rāmāyana addressed were worlds in which words did not mean so much as persuade. In both ancient Greece and India, persuasion was central to harmonious social interaction. The failure of persuasion marked the limits of the patterns that configured human society; it also threatened social chaos. The work of the Iliad and the Rāmāyana was to transcend the limits and mystify the threat. In performing this work, the two poems made the configurations of social order fundamen...
What counts as 'indigenous religion' in today ́s world? Who claims this category? What are the processes through which local entities become recognisable as 'religious' and 'indigenous'? How is all of this connected to struggles for power, rights and sovereignty? This book sheds light on the contemporary lives of indigenous religion(s), through case studies from Sápmi, Nagaland, Talamanca, Hawai`i, and Gujarat, and through a shared focus on translations, performances, mediation and sovereignty. It builds on long term case-studies and on the collaborative comparison of a long-term project, including shared fieldwork. At the center of its concerns are translations between a globalising discourse (indigenous religion in the singular) and distinct local traditions (indigenous religions in the plural). With contributions from leading scholars in the field, this book is a must read for students and researchers in indigenous religions, including those in related fields such as religious studies and social anthropology.
Extremely distant and distinct indigenous communities have over recent decades become more like themselves and more like each other – a paradox prevalent globally but inadequately explained by established analytical frames, particularly with regard to religion. Addressing this rich and unfolding context, the Handbook of Indigenous Religion(s) engages a wide variety of locations and perspectives. Drawing upon the efforts of a diverse group of scholars working at the intersection of indigenous studies and religious studies, this volume includes a programmatic introduction that argues for new ways of conceptualizing the field of indigenous religion(s), numerous case study-based examples, and an Afterword by Thomas Tweed.
When scholarship presents the histories, belief systems, and ritual patterns of specific religious groups, it often privileges victorious and élite fractions of those communities to the detriment and neglect of alternative, dissonant, and resurgent voices. The contributions in this volume, which include case studies on various religious and academic contexts, illustrate the importance of listening to those alternative voices for the study of religion.
Rudolf Otto (1869-1937) is widely recognized as one of the most important contributors to the study of religions at the beginning of the 20th century. His book, The Idea of the Holy, became something of a sensation in its time, and his account of numinous experience as a mysterium tremendum et fascinans had an effect that few other ideas in the study of religions have had. His vocabulary broke through narrow disciplinary bounds and was taken up by people in a variety of disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences. However, since the 1960s, Otto has been increasingly overlooked and neglected. As thinkers and scholars have turned in many other intellectual directions, they have tende...
"In sum, this original inquiry uniquely respects the cognitional diversity that distinguishes the revelatory poetic spirit from the discursively speculative spirit, even as it demonstrates their deep affinities and mutual implications in the life of the imaginative intelligence."--BOOK JACKET.
This collection of essays, introduced, selected and translated by Gregory D. Alles, aims to broaden the image of Otto available to English readers. It presents previously untranslated writings of Otto the politician, social commentator, and churchman. Also included are Otto's autobiographical reflections and a sampling from his late essays on ethics. In an informative introduction Gregory D. Alles outlines the discussions that Otto's ideas have evoked and traces the impact of Otto's thought on theology and the academic study of religions. He also examines criticisms of Otto's ideas and makes suggestions for future research.
Nvmen publishes papers representing the most recent scholarship in all areas of the history of religions ranging from antiquity to contemporary history. It covers a diversity of geographical regions and religions of the past as well as of the present. The approach of the journal to the study of religion is strictly non-confessional. While the emphasis lies on empirical, source-based research, typical contributions also address issues that have a wider historical or comparative significance for the advancement of the discipline. Numen also publishes papers that discuss important theoretical innovations in the study of religion and reflective studies on the history of the discipline. Brill is proud to present this special volume of articles compiled to celebrate the occasion of the 60th anniversary of NVMEN: International Review for the History of Religions in 2014. The articles in this volume have been selected under the auspices of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR), and reflect critically on the past, present, and future of NVMEN, the IAHR and the study of the History of Religions.