Method Today - Redescribing Approaches to the Study of Religion - Brad Stoddard
19. Interpretation and the Study of Religion
Method Today - Redescribing Approaches to the Study of Religion - Brad Stoddard
Kevin Schilbrack [+]
Appalachian State University
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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).
Description
My goal in this chapter is to clarify and defend the interpretive approach in the academic study of religion, and I do this by asking and answering three questions that have been contentious in the debates about interpretation: (1) Can one understand human behavior independent of the action’s meaning? (2)Does interpretation require access to people’s mental states?(3) Does interpretation preclude causal explanation?