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
1. Comparison 15-35
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
5. Complicating ‘Comparison’: On Perspective, Rhetoric, and Recognition in the Study of Religion 64-69
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.
6. Response 70-75
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.
10. Perhaps Action Enough 114-118
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).
14. “Constitution God-Given Rights”: Explaining Religion and Politics in the Malheur Occupation 158-167
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 South Carolina
18. To Our Critics 192-201
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).
20. Homo Interpretans 222-227
Tufts University
Jennifer Eyl is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Tufts University. She works primarily on ancient Christianity.
23. Interpretation 245-251
University of Manitoba
Matt Sheedy received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies at the University of Manitoba (2015), Winnipeg, and is co-editor of the Bulletin for the Study of Religion blog and Religion Compass. His research interests include critical social theory, theories of secularism, as well as representations of Christianity, Islam, and Native traditions in popular and political culture.
24. A Reply to My Critics [+–] 252-258
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).
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.
Afterword
Afterword 259-274
McDaniel College
Gregory D. Alles is professor of religious studies at McDaniel College, Westminster, MD. A past president of NAASR, he serves as co-editor of Numen and co-chair of the steering committee of the Indigenous Religious Traditions Unit of the American Academy of Religion. He is the author of The Iliad, The Ramayana, and the Work of Religion: Failed Persuasion and Religious Mystification as well as a number of articles. He edited Religious Studies: A Global View. His current research interest center on the religion and culture of the Rathvas, a scheduled tribe in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
End Matter
Index [+–] 275-280
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.
Religion FeedsThe humanistCulture on the EdgeEquinox Religion app
Download the Equinox Religious Studies App for amazing discount offers, advance access to new books and journal issues, free downloads, free virtual issues, and free access to all reviews published by our 18 religious studies journals.