Method Today
Redescribing Approaches to the Study of Religion
Edited by
Brad Stoddard [+–]
McDaniel College, Westminster, Maryland
Brad Stoddard is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. He has degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, Yale Divinity School, and Florida State University. His research explores religion and public policy, particularly as they relate to criminal justice policies in the era of faith-based initiatives.
Thirty or forty years ago, the phrase “method and theory” in Religious Studies scholarship referred to more social scientific approaches to the study of religion, as opposed to the more traditional theological hermeneutics common to the field. Today, however, it seems that everyone claims to do “theory and method,” including those people who shun social scientific approaches the academic study of religion.
Method Today brings together the contributions of scholars from a recent North American Association for the Study of Religion conference to explore the question of what it means to do “theory and method” in an era where the phrase has no distinct meaning. Contributors specifically address the categories of description, interpretation, comparison, and explanation in Religious Studies scholarship.
Series: NAASR Working Papers
Table of Contents
Introduction
McDaniel College, Westminster, Maryland
Brad Stoddard is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. He has degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, Yale Divinity School, and Florida State University. His research explores religion and public policy, particularly as they relate to criminal justice policies in the era of faith-based initiatives.
Part I
University of Rochester
Aaron W. Hughes is the Philip S. Bernstein Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Rochester. His research and publications focus on both Jewish philosophy and Islamic Studies. He has authored numerous books, including Situating Islam: The Past and Future of an Academic Discipline (Equinox, 2007); Theorizing Islam: Disciplinary Deconstruction and Reconstruction (Equinox, 2012); Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam (Columbia, 2012); and Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History (Oxford, 2012). He currently serves as the editor of the journal Method and Theory in the Study of Religion.
University of Colorado
Florida State University
University of Chicago
University of Ottawa
Stacie Swain is a Master’s student in Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa, Canada. She is interested in theory and method within and across disciplines and areas of study. Her current research examines the politics of the category of ‘religion’ in reference to Indigenous peoples.
University of Rochester
Aaron W. Hughes is the Philip S. Bernstein Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Rochester. His research and publications focus on both Jewish philosophy and Islamic Studies. He has authored numerous books, including Situating Islam: The Past and Future of an Academic Discipline (Equinox, 2007); Theorizing Islam: Disciplinary Deconstruction and Reconstruction (Equinox, 2012); Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam (Columbia, 2012); and Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History (Oxford, 2012). He currently serves as the editor of the journal Method and Theory in the Study of Religion.
Part II
University of Ottowa
Queen’s University
Ian Alexander Cuthbertson is Baker Postdoctoral Fellow and Adjunct Assistant Professor at Queen’s University, Kingston. Ian is broadly interested in exploring how the modern category religion is deployed to legitimatize certain beliefs, practices, and institutions while delegitimizing others. His current research focuses on the ways non-religious individuals conceptualize their nonreligious identities in the Canadian context.
Chicago Divinity School
Emily D. Crews is a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Her dissertation investigates the role of religion (in its many forms) in Nigerian immigrant communities in the United States.
York University
Part III
University of California at Santa Barbara
Egil Asprem is a postdoctoral scholar at the Department of Religious Studies, University of California Santa Barbara.
University of California at Santa Barbara
Ann Taves is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Her most recent book is Revelatory Events: Three Case Studies of the Emergence of New Spiritual Paths (Princeton, 2016).
Centenary College of Louisiana
Northwestern University
Joel Harrison is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Religious Studies at Northwestern University. His work focuses on the intersection between social theory, theology, and philosophy of religion at the turn of the twentieth century in Germany and questions of theory and method in religious studies.
University of California at Santa Barbara
Egil Asprem is a postdoctoral scholar at the Department of Religious Studies, University of California Santa Barbara.
University of California at Santa Barbara
Ann Taves is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Her most recent book is Revelatory Events: Three Case Studies of the Emergence of New Spiritual Paths (Princeton, 2016).
Part IV
Appalachian State University
Kevin Schilbrack is Professor and Chair of Religious Studies at the Appalachian State University, USA. He previously taught at Florida International University, Wesleyan College, and Western Carolina University. He is the author of Philosophy and the Study of Religions: A Manifesto (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014) and of various articles on philosophy and the study of religion. He is the editor of Thinking Through Rituals: Philosophical Perspectives (Routledge, 2004), Thinking Through Myths: Philosophical Perspectives (Routledge, 2002), and The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Religious Diversity (Wiley-Blackwell, 2017).
Tufts University
Jennifer Eyl is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Tufts University. She works primarily on ancient Christianity.
Mount Royal University
Mount Royal University
Appalachian State University
Kevin Schilbrack is Professor and Chair of Religious Studies at the Appalachian State University, USA. He previously taught at Florida International University, Wesleyan College, and Western Carolina University. He is the author of Philosophy and the Study of Religions: A Manifesto (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014) and of various articles on philosophy and the study of religion. He is the editor of Thinking Through Rituals: Philosophical Perspectives (Routledge, 2004), Thinking Through Myths: Philosophical Perspectives (Routledge, 2002), and The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Religious Diversity (Wiley-Blackwell, 2017).
Afterword
McDaniel College
Gregory D. Alles is Professor of Religious Studies at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland.
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