The Proper Study of Religion After Jonathan Z. Smith

Download The Proper Study of Religion After Jonathan Z. Smith PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0197527221
Total Pages : 283 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (975 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Proper Study of Religion After Jonathan Z. Smith by : Sam D. Gill

Download or read book The Proper Study of Religion After Jonathan Z. Smith written by Sam D. Gill and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2021-02-24 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Proper Study of Religion, Sam Gill charts an innovative course of development for the academic study of religion by engaging the legacy of Jonathan Z. Smith, Gill's teacher and mentor for fifty years. Building on Smith's foundational legacy through creative encounters, Gill explores an extensive range of absorbing topics including: comparison as essential to academic technique and to human knowledge itself; play, philosophically understood, as a coredynamic of Smith's entire program; the relationship of academic document-based studies to the sensory-rich real world of religions; and self-moving as providing a biological and philosophical foundation on which to develop and expand upon a proper academic study of religion.

Relating Religion

Download Relating Religion PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226763870
Total Pages : 429 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (267 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Relating Religion by : Jonathan Z. Smith

Download or read book Relating Religion written by Jonathan Z. Smith and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2004-11-10 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most influential theorists of religion, Jonathan Z. Smith is best known for his analyses of religious studies as a discipline and for his advocacy and refinement of comparison as the basis for the history of religions. Relating Religion gathers seventeen essays—four of them never before published—that together provide the first broad overview of Smith's thinking since his seminal 1982 book, Imagining Religion. Smith first explains how he was drawn to the study of religion, outlines his own theoretical commitments, and draws the connections between his thinking and his concerns for general education. He then engages several figures and traditions that serve to define his interests within the larger setting of the discipline. The essays that follow consider the role of taxonomy and classification in the study of religion, the construction of difference, and the procedures of generalization and redescription that Smith takes to be key to the comparative enterprise. The final essays deploy features of Smith's most recent work, especially the notion of translation. Heady, original, and provocative, Relating Religion is certain to be hailed as a landmark in the academic study and critical theory of religion.

On Teaching Religion

Download On Teaching Religion PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199944296
Total Pages : 175 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (999 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis On Teaching Religion by : Jonathan Z. Smith

Download or read book On Teaching Religion written by Jonathan Z. Smith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-10 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On Teaching Religion collects the best of Jonathan Z. Smith's essays and lectures into one volume.

Imagining Religion

Download Imagining Religion PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226763609
Total Pages : 181 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (267 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Imagining Religion by : Jonathan Z. Smith

Download or read book Imagining Religion written by Jonathan Z. Smith and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1982 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With this influential book of essays, Jonathan Z. Smith has pointed the academic study of religion in a new theoretical direction, one neither theological nor willfully ideological. Making use of examples as apparently diverse and exotic as the Maori cults in nineteenth-century New Zealand and the events of Jonestown, Smith shows that religion must be construed as conventional, anthropological, historical, and as an exercise of imagination. In his analyses, religion emerges as the product of historically and geographically situated human ingenuity, cognition, and curiosity—simply put, as the result of human labor, one of the decisive but wholly ordinary ways human beings create the worlds in which they live and make sense of them. "These seven essays . . . display the critical intelligence, creativity, and sheer common sense that make Smith one of the most methodologically sophisticated and suggestive historians of religion writing today. . . . Smith scrutinizes the fundamental problems of taxonomy and comparison in religious studies, suggestively redescribes such basic categories as canon and ritual, and shows how frequently studied myths may more likely reflect situational incongruities than vaunted mimetic congruities. His final essay, on Jonestown, demonstrates the interpretive power of the historian of religion to render intelligible that in our own day which seems most bizarre."—Richard S. Sarason, Religious Studies Review

To Take Place

Download To Take Place PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226763617
Total Pages : 202 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (267 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis To Take Place by : Jonathan Z. Smith

Download or read book To Take Place written by Jonathan Z. Smith and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1987 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this broad-ranging inquiry into ritual and its relation to place, Jonathan Z. Smith prepares the way for a new approach to the comparative study of religion. Smith stresses the importance of place—in particular, constructed ritual environments—to a proper understanding of the ways in which "empty" actions become rituals. He structures his argument around the territories of the Tjilpa aborigines in Australia and two sites in Jerusalem—the temple envisioned by Ezekiel and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The first of these locales—the focus of one of the more important contemporary theories of religious ritual—allows Smith to raise questions concerning the enterprise of comparison. His close examination of Eliade's influential interpretation of the Tjilpa tradition leads to a powerful critique of the approach to religion, myth, and ritual that begins with cosmology and the category of "The Sacred." In substance and in method, To Take Place represents a significant advance toward a theory of ritual. It is of great value not only to historians of religion and students of ritual, but to all, whether social scientists or humanists, who are concerned with the nature of place. "This book is extraordinarily stimulating in prompting one to think about the ways in which space, or place, is perceived, marked, and utilized religiously. . . . A provocative example of the application of humanistic geography to our understanding of what takes place in religion."—Dale Goldsmith, Interpretation

Map Is Not Territory

Download Map Is Not Territory PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004667466
Total Pages : 347 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (46 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Map Is Not Territory by : Jonathan Z Smith

Download or read book Map Is Not Territory written by Jonathan Z Smith and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-07-17 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Studying Religion

Download Studying Religion PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317491661
Total Pages : 221 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (174 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Studying Religion by : Russell T. McCutcheon

Download or read book Studying Religion written by Russell T. McCutcheon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-05 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Widely used as a primer, a text and a provocation to critical thinking, 'Studying Religion' aims to develop students' skills. The book clearly explains the methods and theories employed in the study of religion. Essays are offered on a range of topics: from the history and functions of religion to public discourse on religion and the classification of religions. The works of key scholars - from Karl Marx, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Rudolf Otto to Mircea Eliade, James G. Frazer, and Sigmund Freud - are analysed and explored. 'Studying Religion' represents a shift away from the traditional focus of describing the exotic or curious religious 'Other' to an examination of how religious behaviours and institutions are studied. The book will be invaluable to students of religious studies.

Considering Comparison

Download Considering Comparison PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019092912X
Total Pages : 315 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (99 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Considering Comparison by : Oliver Freiberger

Download or read book Considering Comparison written by Oliver Freiberger and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-02 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The comparative method is an integral part of religious studies. All the technical terms that scholars of religion use on a daily basis, such as ritual, hagiography, shrine, authority, fundamentalism, hybridity, and, of course, religion, are comparative terms. Yet comparison has been subject to criticism, including postcolonialist and postmodernist critiques. Older approaches are said to have used comparison primarily to confirm preconceptions about religion. More recently, comparison has been criticized as an act of abstraction that does injustice to the particular, neglects differences, and establishes a mostly Western power of definition over the rest of the world. In this book, Oliver Freiberger takes a closer look at how comparison works. Revisiting critical debates and examining reflections in other disciplines, including comparative history, sociology, comparative theology, and anthropology, Freiberger proposes a model of comparison that is based on a thorough epistemological analysis and that takes both the scholar's situatedness and his or her agency seriously. Examining numerous examples of comparative studies, Considering Comparison develops a methodological framework for conducting and evaluating such studies. Freiberger suggests a comparative approach - which he calls discourse comparison - that confronts the omnipresent risks of decontextualization, essentialization, and universalization. This book makes a case for comparison, arguing that it is indispensable for a deeper analytical understanding of what we call religion. The book is intended to enrich the practice of both aspiring and seasoned comparativists, stimulate much-needed further discussions about comparative methodology, and encourage more scholars to produce responsible comparative studies.

Teaching the Introductory Course in Religious Studies

Download Teaching the Introductory Course in Religious Studies PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 330 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Teaching the Introductory Course in Religious Studies by : Mark Juergensmeyer

Download or read book Teaching the Introductory Course in Religious Studies written by Mark Juergensmeyer and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collection of introductory articles on teaching religious studies; extended references to major texts and basic ideas; article by J.H. Martin on Aboriginal religion annotated separately.

Before Religion

Download Before Religion PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300154178
Total Pages : 315 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (1 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Before Religion by : Brent Nongbri

Download or read book Before Religion written by Brent Nongbri and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-22 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining a wide array of ancient writings, Brent Nongbri dispels the commonly held idea that there is such a thing as ancient religion. Nongbri shows how misleading it is to speak as though religion was a concept native to pre-modern cultures.

A Magic Still Dwells

Download A Magic Still Dwells PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520923863
Total Pages : 259 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (29 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Magic Still Dwells by : Kimberley C. Patton

Download or read book A Magic Still Dwells written by Kimberley C. Patton and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-09-01 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first thorough assessment of the field of comparative religion in forty years, this groundbreaking volume surmounts the seemingly intractable division between postmodern scholars who reject the comparative endeavor and those who affirm it. The contributors demonstrate that a broader vision of religion, involving different scales of comparison for different purposes, is both justifiable and necessary. A Magic Still Dwells brings together leading historians of religions from a wide range of backgrounds and vantage points, and draws from traditions as diverse as Indo-European mythology, ancient Greek religion, Judaism, Buddhism, Ndembu ritual, and the spectrum of religions practiced in America. The contributors take seriously the postmodern critique, explain its impact on their work, uphold or reject various premises, and in several cases demonstrate new comparative approaches. Together, the essays represent a state-of-the-art assessment of current issues in the comparative study of religion.

How to Do Comparative Theology

Download How to Do Comparative Theology PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Fordham Univ Press
ISBN 13 : 0823278425
Total Pages : 351 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (232 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis How to Do Comparative Theology by : Francis X. Clooney

Download or read book How to Do Comparative Theology written by Francis X. Clooney and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2017-12-12 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For a generation and more, the contribution of Christian theology to interreligious understanding has been a subject of debate. Some think of theological perspectives are of themselves inherently too narrow to support interreligious learning, and argue for an approach that is neutral or, on a more popular level, grounded simply open-minded direct experience. In response, comparative theology argues that theology, as faith seeking understanding, offers a vital perspective and a way of advancing interreligious dialogue, aided rather than hindered by commitments; theological perspectives can both complement and step beyond the study of religions by methods detached and merely neutral. Thus comparative theology has been successful in persuading many that interreligious learning from one faith perspective to another is both possible and worthwhile, and so the work of comparative theology has become more recognized and established globally. With this success there has come to the fore new challenges regarding method: How does one do comparative theological work in a way that is theologically grounded, genuinely open to learning from the other, sophisticated in pursuing comparisons, and fruitful on both the academic and practical levels? How To Do Comparative Theology therefore contributes to the maturation of method in the field of comparative theological studies, learning across religious borders, by bringing together essays drawing on different Christian traditions of learning, Judaism and Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, the wisdom of senior scholars, and also insights from a younger generation of scholars who have studied theology and religion in new ways, and are more attuned to the language of the “spiritual but not religious.” The essays in this volume show great diversity in method, and also—over and again and from many angles—coherence in intent, a commitment to one learning from the other, and a confidence that one’s home tradition benefits from fair and unhampered learning from other and very different spiritual and religious traditions. It therefore shows the diversity and coherence of comparative theology as an emerging discipline today.

The Question of the Animal and Religion

Download The Question of the Animal and Religion PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231538375
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Question of the Animal and Religion by : Aaron S. Gross

Download or read book The Question of the Animal and Religion written by Aaron S. Gross and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-12-02 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through an absorbing investigation into recent, high-profile scandals involving one of the largest kosher slaughterhouses in the world, located unexpectedly in Postville, Iowa, Aaron S. Gross makes a powerful case for elevating the category of the animal in the study of religion. Major theorists have almost without exception approached religion as a phenomenon that radically marks humans off from other animals, but Gross rejects this paradigm, instead matching religion more closely with the life sciences to better theorize human nature. Gross begins with a detailed account of the scandals at Agriprocessors and their significance for the American and international Jewish community. He argues that without a proper theorization of "animals and religion," we cannot fully understand religiously and ethically motivated diets and how and why the events at Agriprocessors took place. Subsequent chapters recognize the significance of animals to the study of religion in the work of Ernst Cassirer, Emile Durkheim, Mircea Eliade, Jonathan Z. Smith, and Jacques Derrida and the value of indigenous peoples' understanding of animals to the study of religion in our daily lives. Gross concludes by extending the Agribusiness scandal to the activities at slaughterhouses of all kinds, calling attention to the religiosity informing the regulation of "secular" slaughterhouses and its implications for our relationship with and self-imagination through animals.

Theory for Religious Studies

Download Theory for Religious Studies PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Psychology Press
ISBN 13 : 9780415966382
Total Pages : 190 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (663 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Theory for Religious Studies by : William E. Deal

Download or read book Theory for Religious Studies written by William E. Deal and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion

Download The HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Harper San Francisco
ISBN 13 : 9780006279679
Total Pages : 1154 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (796 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion by : Jonathan Z. Smith

Download or read book The HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion written by Jonathan Z. Smith and published by Harper San Francisco. This book was released on 1996 with total page 1154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers more than three thousand articles on the world of religion.

The Meaning and End of Religion

Download The Meaning and End of Religion PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Fortress Press
ISBN 13 : 9781451420142
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (21 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Meaning and End of Religion by : Wilfred Cantwell Smith

Download or read book The Meaning and End of Religion written by Wilfred Cantwell Smith and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 1991 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wilfred Cantwell Smith, maintained in this vastly important work that Westerners have misperceived religious life by making "religion" into one thing. He shows the inadequacy of "religion" to capture the living, endlessly variable ways and traditions in which religious faith presents itself in the world.

Jesus the Magician

Download Jesus the Magician PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Hampton Roads Publishing
ISBN 13 : 157174715X
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (717 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Jesus the Magician by : Smith, Morton

Download or read book Jesus the Magician written by Smith, Morton and published by Hampton Roads Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-27 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A twentieth-century classic, uncannily smart, incredibly learned."--from the foreword by Bart Ehrman This book challenges traditional Christian teaching about Jesus. While his followers may have seen him as a man from heaven, preaching the good news and working miracles, Smith asserts that the truth about Jesus is more interesting and rather unsettling. The real Jesus, only barely glimpsed because of a campaign of disinformation, obfuscation, and censorship by religious authorities, was not Jesus the Son of God. In actuality he was Jesus the Magician. Smith marshals all the available evidence including, but not limited to, the Gospels. He succeeds in describing just what was said of Jesus by "outsiders," those who did not believe him. He deals in fascinating detail with the inevitable questions. What was the nature of magic? What did people at that time mean by the term "magician"? Who were the other magicians, and how did their magic compare with Jesus' works? What facts led to the general assumption that Jesus practiced magic? And, most important, was that assumption correct? The ramifications of Jesus the Magician give new meaning to the word controversial. This book recovers a vision of Jesus that two thousand years of suppression and polemic could not erase. And--what may be the central point of the debate--Jesus the Magician strips away the myths and legends that have obscured Jesus, the man who lived.