Fashioning a Post-Colonial Sociology of Religion (original) (raw)

Religions in the Modern World: Traditions and Transformations (Paperback) - Taylor & Francis

2001

The third edition of this comprehensive edited volume contains important chapters on the role of religions in the modern world. Framed on either end by detailed analyses of the phenomena known as modernity on the one hand, and secularism on the other, the book's structure in fact cleverly symbolises the common assumption that many Westerners have regarded the role of religion as 'compartmentalised' within the framework of modern secular states. This book demonstrates, quite impressively, that things are not so black and white. The introduction by two of the editors, Linda Woodhead and Christopher Patridge, defines key topics that are essential to understanding the engagement of religions with the modern world, including the topic of modernity, under which are addressed the subcategories of 'the nation state, ' 'colonialism, ' 'capitalism and rationalization, ' 'subjectivization and consumerism, ' 'secularism and secularization, ' to name a few (to these are added definitions pertaining to late modernity, such as 'globalization' and 'post-secularism' etc.). This volume can be described as interdisciplinary, since the more ancient religions addressed herein are, firstly, analysed on their own terms (their respective histories and theologies), and, secondly, addressed in regards to their relationship with modernity. In relation to contemporary religions, such as the New Age and New Religious Movements, the disparity between their pasts and modernity is not so evident since many of them are recent in origin. Thematic chapters include: 'Religion, globalization, and migration, ' 'Religion and politics, ' 'Religion and violence, ' 'Religion and gender, ' and 'Religion and popular culture, ' all of which are topics that are immediately relevant cross-culturally today. The second chapter on 'How to Study Religion, ' by Kim Knott, is particularly important since it sets-though in a very general way-the methodological 'tone' of the volume. It outlines the manner in which religion is studied as an academic discipline, including more traditional approaches such as the theological, textual, historical, and phenomenological ones that dominated in the past. New approaches, focusing "on the way in which class, gender, and power operate to reify certain traditions" (p. 24), as well as feminist and postcolonialist Book Reviews

The Sociology of Religion in a Post-Colonial Era: Towards Theoretical Reflexivity

Religions

This article makes two points. First, it argues that sociology, like all knowledge, is shaped, though not determined, by its historical-cultural origins. Early sociology arose in 19th-century Europe and its core concepts were shaped by that era—both in what they reveal about society and what they hide. We now realize this, so we sociologists of religion need to examine our inherited concepts to understand those concepts’ limitations. We also need to include an analysis of the way the current historical-cultural situation shapes sociology today. This is the theoretical reflexivity called for in the title. Second, the article argues that expanding sociology’s conceptual canon to include insights from other historical-cultural locations is more than just an ethical matter. It is also epistemological. Sociology does not make progress unless it includes insights from as many standpoints as possible. This does not mean that all insights are equal. It does mean that all have the potential ...

Sociology of Religion (BA-II) 2018 Syllabus Leiden University

This course gives an overview of the most important themes in the sociology of religion. The course falls in three parts: The first part of the course is concerned with theorising religion sociologically. We raise sociological questions at the level of the individual (e.g., why are people religious in the first place?; why are women more religious than men?), at the level of the nation-state (e.g., why are some countries more religious than others?; how and why do state-religion relations differ cross-culturally?), and at the level of religious communities (e.g., how are religious communities maintained socially?) The second part of the course is concerned with the profound changes that have taken place in the religious field across the world during the 20 th and 21 st centuries. We explore the secularisation thesis, i.e. the idea that religion (necessarily) loses power, prestige, and plausibility as a result of modernisation, and evaluate alternatives to this master narrative (e.g., the subjectivisation thesis and the return-of-religion thesis). We compare the religious field in Europe (ongoing secularisation) with the United States (continued high levels of religion) and China (religious revival despite Communist oppression) and try to explain the differences between these cases. We also explore the rise of new, late modern 'religiosity styles', such as fundamentalism and new age spirituality. The third part of the course looks at the relation between religion and other aspects of civil society. In particular, we will discuss religion education and religion in popular culture.

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION

Throughout most of human history, human beings living in small societies attributed death, birth and even what happened in between to the operation of supernatural forces. Over the cause of the last several hundred years, however, science has emerged as an alternative way of understanding the natural world, and scientific sociology offers various explanations of how and why societies operate the way they do. 1 These then brings to our notice that over the past decade-and-a-half, the academic study of religion and international relations has sprouted from a sparse scattering of works into a vibrant body of scholarship. This Group on the relationship between International Relations and Religion funded by the Mellon Foundation to the University Of Notre Dame, have gone so far in asking questions on how scholarship on religion and international relations has come and where it might go. Base on this therefore, I shall be asking some questions and at the same answering them. These questions are to enable me to discuss in detail Religion and international relations. Nevertheless, I shall attempt to use these format listed below to answer and discuss this topic. Perhaps it is not the case of just asking question but it is the case that this topic cannot be discussed extensively without asking and answering of question.

"Alternative Sociologies of Religion"

James Spickard's book is a most welcome contribution to the sociology of religion, West and East. It is an attempt to draw from non-Western sources in order to develop a sociology of religion (in fact, a sociology in general) that is freed from its inherited normativities and ethnocentricities and therefore better designed to grasp the connected and plural realities that make up our global condition today. Spickard critiques the Post-Reformation Christian and Modern inflexions of what he calls sociology of religion's 'default view', which overstates such aspects of religious life as 'creed, canon, cult and cathedral' (p.5). The main argument of the book is that conceptual tools and epistemologies are historically and culturally grounded, resulting in their ability to highlight certain aspects of social facts, as well as their 'inability' (p.245) to see other aspects. The book advances a hermeneutical pledge : that other cultural settings could have produced different sociologies of religion that would have brought other aspects to the fore. The originality of Spickard's endeavour is that he is not content in simply making this argument : he actually walks the walk and presents three different theoretical perspectives which he then applies to a set of phenomena : a Confucian, an Ibn Khaldûn, and a Navajo-inspired sociology. First, though, the author defines the 'default view' which he argues continues to underscore most work in the sociology of religion. An overview of American sociology textbooks reveals a very homogenous and conservative picture in which religion is a minor subject among a series of well-differentiated, instituted social spheres that include family, education, politics, work, justice and so on. Religion is portrayed as being highly belief-centred, and its organizational and moral/ethical (rules) dimensions are foremost of interest. While not accounting for the whole of American (and wider) sociology of religion, the portrait is one in which religion is primarily about beliefs and is embodied in religious organisations (rather than embodied social actors), one which has been largely promoted by both secularization theories as well as rational choice and market model sociologies.

Religion and Its History: A Critical Inquiry

Routledge Monograph, 2021

Religion and its History offers a reflection of our operative concept of religion and religions, developing a set of approaches that bridge the widely assumed gulf between analysing present religion and doing history of religion. Religious Studies have adapted a wide range of methodologies from sociological tool kits to insights and concepts from disciplines of social and cultural studies. Their massive historical claims, which typically idealize and reify communities and traditions, and build normative claims thereupon, lack a critical engagement on the part of the researchers. This book radically rethinks and critically engages with these biases. It does so by offering neither an abridged global history of religion nor a small handbook of methodology. Instead, this book presents concepts and methods that allow the analysis of contemporary and past religious practices, ideas, and institutions within a shared framework.