Understanding religion : theories and methods for studying religiously diverse societies / Paul Hedges.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hedges, Paul (Paul Michael), 1970- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religious pluralism--Case studies.

Religious pluralism.

Religions--Relations--Case studies.

Religions.

Religion and sociology--Case studies.

Religion and sociology.

Interfaith relations.

Relations.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

xviii, 561 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2021]

Summary:

"Understanding Religion is a cutting-edge and innovative book that introduces students to interdisciplinary theoretical tools for understanding contemporary religiously diverse societies. Using critical approaches to religion and the politics of scholarship, the book includes coverage of decolonial, feminist, hermeneutical, poststructuralist, phenomenological, and other approaches. It examines many real-life case studies, a method much used in business schools and elsewhere, but rarely found in the study of religion. This approach helps readers understand the practical application of theories"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: pt. I WHAT IS RELIGION AND HOW TO APPROACH IT?

1. Religion: Language, Law, and Legacies

Case Study 1A Falun Gong: Religion or Self-Cultivation Practice?

Case Study 1B Christians and Ancestor Veneration: Religion or Culture?

2. Method: Insider-Outsider Debates, Phenomenology, and Reflexivity

Case Study 2A Living between Religious Worlds: Conversion and Reconversion

Case Study 2B Hindu and Christian? Multiple Religious Identities

3. Life: Lived Religion, Syncretism, and Hybridity

Case Study 3A Mexican American Catholicism and Our Lady of Guadalupe

Case Study 3B Thai Buddhism as Lived Religion and Syncretic Practice

pt. II THEORIES, METHODOLOGIES, AND CRITICAL DEBATES

4. History: Historical Methodology and the Invention of Tradition

Case Study 4A The Historical Jesus and the Christ of Faith

Case Study 4B Laozi, the Daodejing, and the Origins of Daoism

5. Power: Social Constructionism, Habitus, and Authority

Case Study 5A Mosques, Minarets, and Power

Case Study 5B Individual (New Age/Alternative) Spirituality as Modernity's Ideology

6. Identity: Social Identity Theory, In-Groups, Out-Groups, and Conflict

Case Study 6A Shiv Sena, Hindu Nationalism, and Identity Politics

Case Study 6B Race, Religion, and the American White Evangelical

7. Colonialism: Postcolonialism, Orientalism, and Decolonization

Case Study 7A Beyond "Inventing" Hinduism

Case Study 7B Magic, Superstition, and Religion in Southeast Asia and Africa

8. Brains: The Cognitive Science of Religion and Beyond

Case Study 8A Religion, Non-Religion, and Atheism

Case Study 8B Ancestors, Jesus, and Prosocial Behavior in Fiji

9. Bodies: Material Religion, Embodiment, and Materiality

Case Study 9A Weeping Cods and Drinking Statues

Case Study 9B Embodied Practice at a Christian Shrine

10. Gender: Feminism, Sexuality, and Religion

Case Study 10A Priests, Paul, and Rewriting Texts

Case Study 10B Buddhist Feminisms and Nuns

11. Comparison: Comparative and Contrastive Methodologies

Case Study 11A Comparing Hinduism and Judaism

Case Study 11B A Comparison of Zen Buddhist and Protestant Christian Sitting Practices

12. Ritual: Ritualization, Myth, and Performance

Case Study 12A The Zen Tea Ceremony and Protestant Eucharist as Performance and Ritual

Case Study 12B Buddhist Ordination Rites

pt. III RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY AND SOCIETY

13. Diversity: Religious Borders, Identities, and Discourses

Case Study 13A The Memory of Al-Andalusia

Case Study 13B Dominus lesus and Catholic Christianity in Asia

14. Dialogue: Interreligious Discourse and Critique

Case Study 14A Christian and Muslim Women Reading Scriptures

Case Study 14B Buddhist-Christian Dialogue: History and Discourse

15. Violence: Fundamentalism, Extremism, and Radicalization

Case Study 15A The Invention of Islamic Terrorism

Case Study 15B Buddhism and Violence

16. Secularism: Secularization, Human Rights, and Religion

Case Study 16A Laicite and the Burkini Ban

Case Study 16B Singapore's Common Space

17. Geography: Place, the Lived Environment, and Environmentalism

Case Study 17A Trees as Monks?

Case Study 17B Protestant Christian Understandings of the "Holy Land"

18. Politics: Governance, the Colonial Wound, and the Sacred

Case Study 18A Ethnicity and Religion: The Singaporean Malay-Muslim Identity

Case Study 18B Saluting the Flag: The Case of Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Hedges, Paul (Paul Michael), 1970- Understanding religion

ISBN:

9780520298897

0520298896

9780520298910

0520298918

OCLC:

1184122012

Publisher Number:

99986716501