—: and Astrid Mattes. 2024. "Introduction." In Lukas K. Pokorny and Astrid Mattes, eds. Taking Seriously, Not Taking Sides: Challenges and Perspectives in the Study of Religions. Paderborn: Brill Schöningh, ix–xix. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Religiographies, 2023
Hans Thomas Hakl, born in Graz (Austria) in 1947, is a lawyer, businessman, and independent scholar in the fields of history of religion, spirituality, magic, and esotericism (Fig. 1). Hakl has presented many papers on these topics in important academic venues and has published several articles and books in prestigious scientific journals and publishing houses. Despite his lack of training in the social and human sciences, Hakl’s research has been generally well-received. Other scholars have criticized Hakl’s shortcomings,1 possible religionist leaning regarding Eranos, and claimed that he implicitly whitewashes the extreme right intellectual Julius Evola.2 Hakl distanced himself from tradi- tionalist politics as destined to “nasty totalitarianism”3 but at the same time the question about how to discuss problematic authors, such as Evola, remains open (see Marco Pasi’s Introduction in this special issue).
Religious Studies--From the Routledge Companion to the Study of Jewish Cultures
Religion cuts across every layer of human experience. Whether conceived as an expression of ultimate meaning, a binding social force, a physiological impulse, or a set of beliefs and practices, the study of religion engages multiple disciplinary lenses to reveal the variety and complexity of religious expression in human life. Indeed, religion is perhaps best described as an "inter-discipline," a field of study that relies on the complementarity of a wide array of methodologies.
Reflections on the Sacred , 2021
Reflections on the Sacred - a comparative phenomenological religious studies seminar, at Engelsberg November 2021. The subject of special interest to the seminar is the sacred and the meaning it carries in various cultures and settings for the individual. How is meaning and the purpose of life created and perceived from a comparative perspective in different cultures? What is perceived as sacred and holy in the sense Rudolf Otto conceived religion as das ganz andere in present day? How do different ontologies, basic assumptions about the human existence, compare and influence the perception of the sacred and give rise to meaning in different cultures and cultural settings? Max Weber claimed that with the entzauberung der Welt, the influence of religious ideas did not disappear. His thesis implies that religion is a kind of matrix that can transform itself in an explicitly secular, but quasi- religious fashion. To what extent can it be said that modern societies and ideologies carry with them essentially religious/spiritual forms and structures and therefore purport basic assumptions about reality? How do we distinguish between the truly secular and the sacred in today’s world? Capitalism, socialism, and the green ecological movements are in this sense obvious objects of study were remnants of thought-patterns from a Christian eschatology seems to echo from notions of paradise lost to apocalyptic ideas about the end of the world. The conference is organised in order to reappraise and revitalise the discipline of History of Religions and also make it more relevant for understanding our contemporary society.
Religion, 1987
This two-volume reference work is presented as a `sequel' to J. Waardenburg's Classical Approaches to the Study of Religion published as volumes I and II in this same Mouton series (Reason and Religion). The work is meant to complement thè story' of the academic study of religion in its development up to 1945 implicit in the selections of representative scholars in the field gathered together by Waardenburg. The substance of these volumes does not, however, comprise select passages from key authors in `religious studies', that being virtually impossible given the extensive development of the field since 1945. Nor do these volumes present a unified historical narrative of that `further development' of religious studies. Rather, they contain the reflections of a `team' of scholars, each summarizing the character of the study of religion within the framework of various sub-disciplines, so to speak, that constitute that study. It is the aim of the editor (and most of the authors, it appears) not only to indicate the variety of legitimate research interests in religious studies, but also to show how that variety of approaches interrelate, or, at least, can be integrated so as to constitute a kind of unified theory of the nature of the study of religion. It soon becomes evident to the reader, however-and reluctantly admitted by the editorthat even with this two-volume assault on the problem there is no single paradigm for the study of religion even within sight let alone within our grasp. What unity does appear to exist derives more from the hopes expressed by the editor than from the substance of the essays. Volume I is focussed on `the humanities', i .e. on approaches to the study of religion that, as Whaling puts it in the introductions to the two volumes, transcend the positivism of the scientific approach to religious phenomena by means of the intuitive insight `that the study of religion has to do with man' (I : 25, 26 ; II : 12). In the introduction to the first volume, Whaling attempts to highlight, the contrasts between the classical and contemporary periods in the study of religion and enunciates some general methodological claims that seem to constitute a set of assumptions for all the authors. Five essays follow which cover the historical and phenomenological approaches to the study of religion (U. King), the comparative study of religion (F. Whaling), the study of religious texts and myth (K. Bolle), the scientific study of religion in its plurality (N. Smart), and the global context of the contemporary study of religions (F. Whaling). U. King's essay is more than merely descriptive. It is a polemical essay that argues for a historical and phenomenological study of religions that is more than a narrow, empirical approach to the phenomenon. Such an `empirical positivism', as she calls it, jeopardizes the autonomy of `religious studies' and is, moreover, inadequate to its subject matter. Her review of the methodological debates amongst historians and phenomenologists over the last 40 years, however, is thorough and stimulating .
Religion Abstracts: 2nd Annual International Conference
2017
This book includes the abstracts of all the papers presented at the 2nd Annual International Symposium on Religion and Theology, 22-25 May 2017, organized by the Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER). In total 25 papers were submitted by 29 presenters, coming from 14 different countries (Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Egypt, Germany, India, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, UK, and USA). The conference was organized into 11 sessions that included a variety of topic areas such as medieval theology, ethics, and philosophy of ritual. A full conference program can be found beginning on the next page. In accordance with ATINER’s Publication Policy, the papers presented during this conference will be considered for inclusion in one of ATINER’s many publications.