NVMEN, the Academic Study of Religion, and the IAHR

NVMEN, the Academic Study of Religion, and the IAHR
Author: Tim Jensen
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 428
Release: 2015-11-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004308466

Nvmen publishes papers representing the most recent scholarship in all areas of the history of religions ranging from antiquity to contemporary history. It covers a diversity of geographical regions and religions of the past as well as of the present. The approach of the journal to the study of religion is strictly non-confessional. While the emphasis lies on empirical, source-based research, typical contributions also address issues that have a wider historical or comparative significance for the advancement of the discipline. Numen also publishes papers that discuss important theoretical innovations in the study of religion and reflective studies on the history of the discipline. Brill is proud to present this special volume of articles compiled to celebrate the occasion of the 60th anniversary of NVMEN: International Review for the History of Religions in 2014. The articles in this volume have been selected under the auspices of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR), and reflect critically on the past, present, and future of NVMEN, the IAHR and the study of the History of Religions.

Religion and American Cultures [4 volumes]

Religion and American Cultures [4 volumes]
Author: Gary Laderman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 1863
Release: 2014-12-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1610691105

This four-volume work provides a detailed, multicultural survey of established as well as "new" American religions and investigates the fascinating interactions between religion and ethnicity, gender, politics, regionalism, ethics, and popular culture. This revised and expanded edition of Religion and American Cultures: Tradition, Diversity, and Popular Expression presents more than 140 essays that address contemporary spiritual practice and culture with a historical perspective. The entries cover virtually every religion in modern-day America as well as the role of religion in various aspects of U.S. culture. Readers will discover that Americans aren't largely Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish anymore, and that the number of popular religious identities is far greater than many would imagine. And although most Americans believe in a higher power, the fastest growing identity in the United States is the "nones"—those Americans who elect "none" when asked about their religious identity—thereby demonstrating how many individuals see their spirituality as something not easily defined or categorized. The first volume explores America's multicultural communities and their religious practices, covering the range of different religions among Anglo-Americans and Euro-Americans as well as spirituality among Latino, African American, Native American, and Asian American communities. The second volume focuses on cultural aspects of religions, addressing topics such as film, Generation X, public sacred spaces, sexuality, and new religious expressions. The new third volume expands the range of topics covered with in-depth essays on additional topics such as interfaith families, religion in prisons, belief in the paranormal, and religion after September 11, 2001. The fourth volume is devoted to complementary primary source documents.

Perspectives on Method and Theory in the Study of Religion

Perspectives on Method and Theory in the Study of Religion
Author: Armin Geertz
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2000-04-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9047427181

This volume collects select papers on methodology in the study of religion that were originally presented at the XVIIth Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions, held in Mexico City in 1995. Granted the status of adjunct proceedings for the Congress, the collection opens with the editors’ detailed survey of the longstanding importance of discussions on methodology within the IAHR. The twenty-one essays which follow examine religion and the history of the study of religion within a variety of theoretical contexts. The essays are organized in terms of three general sub-divisions: general issues in methodology (from the impact of both postmodernism and reflexive anthropology on the study of religion to the politics of religious studies as practiced in different national settings); reflections on the categories commonly employed by scholars working in the field (e.g., “religion,” “syncretism,” “gender,” “New Religious Movements,” “sacred,” “power,” “experience,” etc.), and finally, the collection ends with a review symposium on one of the more sophisticated recent treatments of the problem of defining religion, Benson Saler’s Conceptualizing Religion (Brill, 1993). Despite carrying out their work in a variety of settings—from Denmark and Finland, to Britain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, the USA, and Mexico—the authors all model a similar approach to studying religion as but one instance of human culture.

The Future of the Study of Religion

The Future of the Study of Religion
Author: Slavica Jakelic
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2018-08-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9047404122

This volume brings together diverse voices from various fields within religious and theological studies for a conversation about the proper objects, goals, and methods for the study of religion in the twenty-first century. It approaches these questions by way of the most recent contemporary challenges, debates, and developments in the field, and provides a forum in which contending perspectives are tested and contested by their proponents and opponents. Contributors address topics such as: the connection between the ‘normative’ and the ‘scientific’ approaches to the study of religion, the meaning of religion in a context of globalization, the relation between religious studies and religious traditions, the viability of comparative and cultural studies of religious phenomena, and the future of gender studies in religion.

Sociologies of Religion

Sociologies of Religion
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2015-07-14
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9004297588

Sociologies of Religion: National Traditions presents fourteen histories of the sociological study of religion in a diverse set of nations. Each of the histories is newly written by author who are uniquely situated to tell narrate the story of the field in their countries. They give us the stories behind major personages, theoretical traditions, seminal works, research institutes, and professional associations. The histories trace the various ways the field was established in different academic and religious contexts and the trajectories it took in emerging as a scientific specialty.

Women and Religion

Women and Religion
Author: Ruspini, Elisabetta
Publisher: Policy Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2019-09-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1447336402

This edited collection provides interdisciplinary, global, and multi-religious perspectives on the relationship between women’s identities, religion, and social change in the contemporary world. The book discusses the experiences and positions of women, and particular groups of women, to understand patterns of religiosity and religious change. It also addresses the current and future challenges posed by women’s changes to religion in different parts of the world and among different religious traditions and practices. The contributors address a diverse range of themes and issues including the attitudes of different religions to gender equality; how women construct their identity through religious activity; whether women have opportunity to influence religious doctrine; and the impact of migration on the religious lives of both women and men.