Critical Terms for Religious Studies
Editor/Author: Editor: Taylor, Mark C.Publication Year: 1998
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 978-0-226-79173-9
Category: religion
Image Count: 11
Book Status: Available
Provides a concise history of each 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.
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This collection of essays is an eloquent testament to the advances made over the last century in the establishment of the study of religion on a critical, scientific foundation. Editor Taylor (Williams College) brings together the work of a number of scholars who have addressed, with erudition and clarity, the critical issues facing the scientific study of religion. The expression "critical terms" refers to key concepts or categories that have come to play a central role in the study of religion. Among the conceptual categories to which essays are devoted are the notion of belief, the idea of religious experience, the concept of God, time, image, sacrifice, and gender. In an important and carefully crafted introduction, Taylor establishes the historical context within which both the individual essays and the history of the modern science of religion are to be read and understood. The volume concludes with a brief biographical sketch of the contributors to the project and a very useful index. A valuable resource for both students and scholars of religion, this work is highly recommended for all college, university, and seminary libraries
M. Swartz
Boston University -
For the adept student of religion this volume will be essential, but this is not a "basic" reference work. Taylor, a recognized commentator on the interface between religion and contemporary critical theory, has edited a series of essays from accomplished scholars that explore such familiar concepts as "belief," "God," and "sacrifice," and also newer dimensions of the disciplines, such as "performance," "gender," "writing," "territory," and "body." Each of the 22 essays is supplemented with a list of suggested readings. Taylor's introduction is an excellent summary of the current state of religions studies (as opposed to theological studies) and issues contributing to its resurgence. He maintains that the "responsible study of religion today is multidisciplinary and multicultural," and he probes the "complexities entailed in the notion of religion as well as the range of methodological alternatives available for its investigation." This book will appeal especially to those interested in the intersection of religion and cultural studies, but will prove useful to a much broader audience. The essays tend to exfoliate a variety of sophisticated layers of meaning within their subjects; their emphasis is not on arriving at condensed generalizations about the topics, but rather to chart each one's expanding boundaries of definition. The book may well "deconstruct" the familiar understanding of a reference work by provoking more questions than it answers. This is a key addition to any library's holding in religion.
Christopher Baker
Professor of English, Armstrong Atlantic State Univ., Savannah, Ga
