Comparison - A Critical Primer - Aaron W. Hughes
Context
Comparison - A Critical Primer - Aaron W. Hughes
Aaron W. Hughes [+]
University of Rochester
Aaron W. Hughes is the Dean’s Professor of the Humanities and the Philip S. Bernstein Professor in the Department of Religion and Classics 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.
Description
This chapter explores how comparison ought to work. It does this by arguing that, unlike the grand comparative schemas of the past, we ought to remove traditional and unhelpful slogans—like “religion,” “Judaism,” “Islam,” and so forth—and instead pay attention to mundane and quotidian concerns as a social actors, in specific times, places, and spaces, make sense of themselves and their social worlds. Comparison, in sum, is about attention to contexts.