CALL FOR PAPERS – FEBRUARY 2025 – METHOD AND THEORY IN THE STUDY OF RELIGION

See the full CFP here.

The editors of Method and Theory in the Study of Religion (MTSR) would like to announce calls for
papers on four special topics: 1) On Money, 2) The Meat Paradox, 3) Decolonizing the Study of Religion,
and 4) Global Connected Histories for the Study of Religion. See below for brief descriptions; the full call
is attached. Feel free to distribute this call widely and share with anyone who may be interested.
MTSR is the journal of the North American Association of the Study of Religion and encourages new
submissions that broaden methodological and theoretical horizons in the academic study of religion. Click here to submit an article on any topic relevant to the journal. If you are submitting in response to this CfP, please select the article type “Call for Papers” and be sure that your abstract and cover letter mention the relevant call (e.g. “Decolonizing the Study of Religion”).

1.      On Money
This CfP invites scholars of religion to approach money by critically examining the construction of its
apparent normality, and the process by which money as a technological fiction is transformed into
something “real.” Without reducing “money” to “religion,” it aims to deconstruct the ordinariness of money. How can method and theory in the study of religion bring new insights into the mythologization of moneyand the mythic entity called money?
2.      The Meat Paradox
Human relationships with meat have always been paradoxical. While some see meat consumption as
necessary, others consider it to be murder. Many societies (past and present) have handled this paradox
through ceremonies expressing gratitude and respect for the animal. Moderns more often resolve it
through concealment and desensitization. Existing studies on meat in religious studies tend to focus on
ancient sacrificial rituals. This CfP asks scholars of religion instead to consider modern industrial systems
of meat production and meat consumption. The goal here is not to discuss the ostensibly “religious”
aspect of meat production, or the lack thereof. Rather, how might the tools of religious studies shed new
light on such topics as animal-human relations, concealment of violence, mechanization of killing,
production of indifference through divisions of labor, and more?  
3.      Decolonizing the Study of Religion
MTSR seeks papers that will contribute to a more robust theorization of decolonization in the study of
religion. Scholars working in this area have argued that decolonizing religious studies must include
questioning assumptions about what counts as legitimate scholarship in the field and who has the right to determine its contours (Avalos 2024; Nye 2024). Colonial modernity arguably produced the entire field of religious studies and the very concept of “religion” itself. If so, what kinds of transformation should be carried out in the name of decolonizing the field? What does decolonizing religious studies mean for method and theory in the field? Where and how could the study of religion be reconstructed after its colonial structures have been dismantled? 
4.      Global Connected Histories for the Study of Religion
This CfP aims to deepen recent critiques of the world religions paradigm and the idea of European
Enlightenment. The dominant discourse of modernity assumes its origin in the European Enlightenment
and its eventual triumph over “religion.” More critical narratives have described how ostensibly “secular”
modern thinking colonized indigenous ways of life in many parts of the world. Recent work in archaeology and intellectual history, however, suggests an ancient history of mutual influence across continents and deep historical connections among the traditions commonly known as “world religions.” At the same time, new scholarship shows how Africans, Native Americans, and enslaved people in the Americas played key roles in the intellectual revolutions of the Enlightenment, including the emergence of secular epistemes.

MTSR invites papers that consider the implications of connected histories of “world religions,” and/or non-European origins of the European Enlightenment, for method and theory in the study of religion.