Books of Interest: Entanglements
Russell T. McCutcheon—former executive secretary of NAASR—has a new book with Equinox, titled Entanglements: Marking Place in the Field of Religion (2014). From the description:
Entanglements attempts to argue against those who claim that scholarship on the category religion is only of secondary interest, in that it fails to do primary research on real religions. The volume collects eighteen responses, written across twenty years, that each exemplify the inevitably situated, give-and-take nature of all academic debate. These essays call into question the often used distinction between primary and secondary sources, between description and analysis. Published here in their original form, each contribution is accompanied by new, substantive introduction describing the context of each response and explaining how each shows something still at stake in the academic study of religion–whether its the rhetoric used to authorize competing scholarly claims or the difficulty involved in suspending our commonsense view of the world long enough to study the means by which we have come to see it that way.
An ethnography of scholarly practice written mainly for earlier career readers–whether undergraduate or graduate students or even tenure-track faculty–Entanglements tackles the notion that some scholarship is more pristine, and thus more valuable, than others, thereby modeling for scholars earlier in their careers some of the obstacles and arguments that may face them should their research interests be judged unorthodox.
Books of Interest: Religion and Politics in the Graeco-Roman World
Religion and Politics in the Graeco-Roman World was written by Panayotis Pachis (2010). According to the description, “In this study the author focuses on the proliferation of worship of Egyptian deities in the Roman era and the direct relationship with social and political situation of the period.” Contents include:
Foreword by Professor Gerhard van den Heever
Introduction
1. ‘Manufacturing Religion’ in the Hellenistic Age: The Cases of Isis-Demeter Cult
2. The Discourse of a Myth: Diodorus Siculus and the Egyptian Theologoumena during the Hellenistic Age
3. Isis Tyrannos and the Construction of Imperial Society: Ecumenism and Social Formation
4. The Use of Felicitas and Aeternitas during the Graeco-Romas Age: The Case of Isis and Sarapis Cult
Books of Interest: Philosophy and the Study of Religions
NAASR member Kevin Schilbrack has a new book out with Wiley-Blackwell, Philosophy and the Study of Religions: A Manifesto (2014). From the book description:
Philosophy and the Study of Religions: A Manifesto advocates a radical transformation of the discipline from its current, narrow focus on questions of God, to a fully global form of critical reflection on religions in all their variety and dimensions.
- Opens the discipline of philosophy of religion to the religious diversity that characterizes the world today
- Builds bridges between philosophy of religion and the other interpretative and explanatory approaches in the field of religious studies
- Provides a manifesto for a global approach to the subject that is a practice-centred rather than a belief-centred activity
- Gives attention to reflexive critical studies of ‘religion’ as socially constructed and historically located
Books of Interest: A Ministry of Presence
Former NAASR officer Winnifred Fallers Sullivan has a new book with University of Chicago Press, titled A Ministry of Presence: Chaplaincy, Spiritual Care, and the Law (2014). From the description:
Most people in the United States today no longer live their lives under the guidance of local institutionalized religious leadership, such as rabbis, ministers, and priests; rather, liberals and conservatives alike have taken charge of their own religious or spiritual practices. This shift, along with other social and cultural changes, has opened up a perhaps surprising space for chaplains—spiritual professionals who usually work with the endorsement of a religious community but do that work away from its immediate hierarchy, ministering in a secular institution, such as a prison, the military, or an airport, to an ever-changing group of clients of widely varying faiths and beliefs.
In A Ministry of Presence, Winnifred Fallers Sullivan explores how chaplaincy works in the United States—and in particular how it sits uneasily at the intersection of law and religion, spiritual care, and government regulation. Responsible for ministering to the wandering souls of the globalized economy, the chaplain works with a clientele often unmarked by a specific religious identity, and does so on behalf of a secular institution, like a hospital. Sullivan’s examination of the sometimes heroic but often deeply ambiguous work yields fascinating insights into contemporary spiritual life, the politics of religious freedom, and the neverending negotiation of religion’s place in American institutional life.
Announcement: “From the Student Desk” Call for Submissions
NAASR member Emily Bailey, editor of the AAR’s “From the Student Desk” series, is look for submissions from graduate students. Articles should be about 1,200 words, and you can find find out more information here.
Books of Interest: Religion in Science Fiction
Religion in Science Fiction: The Evolution of an Idea and the Extinction of a Genre, by Steven Hrotic (Bloomsbury, 2014), is part of a series edited by NAASR founders Don Wiebe and Luther H. Martin. From the book description:
Religion in Science Fiction investigates the history of the representations of religion in science fiction literature. Space travel, futuristic societies, and non-human cultures are traditional themes in science fiction. Speculating on the societal impacts of as-yet-undiscovered technologies is, after all, one of the distinguishing characteristics of science fiction literature. A more surprising theme may be a parallel exploration of religion: its institutional nature, social functions, and the tensions between religious and scientific worldviews.
Steven Hrotic investigates the representations of religion in 19th century proto-science fiction, and genre science fiction from the 1920s through the end of the century. Taken together, he argues that these stories tell an overarching story—a ‘metanarrative’—of an evolving respect for religion, paralleling a decline in the belief that science will lead us to an ideal (and religion-free) future.
Science fiction’s metanarrative represents more than simply a shift in popular perceptions of religion: it also serves as a model for cognitive anthropology, providing new insights into how groups and identities form in a globalized world, and into how crucial a role narratives may play. Ironically, this same perspective suggests that science fiction, as it was in the 20th century, may no longer exist.
Books of Interest: Deep History, Secular Theory
Deep History, Secular Theory: Historical and Scientific Studies of Religion, by Luther H. Martin (Walter De Gruyter, 2010), is a collection of essays from one of NAASR’s founders over the last couple of decades. From the description:
Over the course of his career, Luther H. Martin has primarily produced articles rather than monographs. This approach to publication has given him the opportunity to experiment with different methodological approaches to an academic study of religion, with updates to and different interpretations of his field of historical specialization, namely Hellenistic religions, the subject of his only monograph (1987). The contents of this collected volume represent Martin’s shift from comparative studies, to socio-political studies, to scientific studies of religion, and especially to the cognitive science of religion. He currently considers the latter to be the most viable approach for a scientific study of religion within the academic context of a modern research university. The twenty-five contributions collected in this volume are selected from over one hundred essays, articles, and book chapters published over a long and industrious career and are representative of Martin’s work over the past two decades.
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