After World Religions. Reconstructing Religious Studies

✍ Scribed by Christopher R Cotter, David G. Robertson (eds.)

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 223
• Series: RELIGION IN CULTURE
• Category: Library

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Preface
List of contributors
Foreword: Before the ‘After’ in ‘After World Religions’ – Wilfred Cantwell
Smith on the meaning and end of religion
1. Introduction: The World Religions Paradigm in contemporary Religious Studies
Classify and conquer: taxonomies and power
‘Mixed motivations’: the Science of Religion
Critiques of the WRP
‘Chairs on the Titanic’: problems of operationalization
of critiques
Outline of chapters
Notes
References
Part I: Subversive pedagogies: data and methods
2. The problem of ‘religions’: Teaching against the grain with ‘new age stuff’
The problem of ‘religions’
‘World religions’ as symptom
In practice: teaching ‘new age stuff’ in the introductory course
Conclusion: against the grain
Notes
References
3. ‘Not a task for amateurs’: Graduate instructors and Critical Theory in the World Religions classroom
Introduction
In practice: the textbook is always right?
In practice: textbooks as data?
In practice: heterogeneity as homogeneity
Conclusion
Notes
References
4. The critical embrace: Teaching the World Religions Paradigm as data
Introduction
Familiarity allows critique
Critiquing while teaching
Critiquing representations
In practice: comparisons provide alternatives
In practice: assessment and subversion
The challenges of subverting the paradigm
Notes
References
Part II: Alternative pedagogies: power and politics
5. Religion as ideology: Recycled culture vs. world religions
In practice: the evolution of Jesus
In practice: religions of the East
Concluding thoughts
Notes
References
6. Doing things with ‘religion’: A discursive approach in rethinking the World Religions Paradigm
Introduction
What is a discursive approach to ‘religion’?
In practice: teaching ‘Religions in the world’
In practice: resources for the classroom
Conclusion
Notes
References
7. Looking back on the end of religion: Opening re Marx
Introduction
In practice: learning to situate reason
In practice: from domination to communicative reason
Conclusion: why Religious Studies needs Marx
Note
References
8. The sacred alternative
Introduction
Approaching ‘the sacred’
In practice: contested space
Conclusion: making sacred
Notes
References
Part III: Innovative pedagogies: methods and media
9. The Desjardins diet for World Religions Paradigm loss
Introduction
The course
Conclusion
Notes
References
10. Narrating the USA’s religious pluralism: Escaping world religions through media
Introduction
From American religious history to world religions in the USA
In practice: God in America in the classroom
References
11. Archaeology and the World Religions Paradigm: The European Neolithic, religion and cultural imperialism
Introduction
Mission, expansion and colonialism as tropes of ‘world religions’
Monuments and the development of complex societies in the Neolithic
Neolithic culture and the WRP: cultural success and issues of power
Conclusion
Notes
References
12. Complex learning and the World Religions Paradigm: Teaching religion in a shifting subject landscape
Introduction: a world without world religions?
Complex learning: pedagogical processes in category constructions and deconstructions
In practice: formations
In practice: locations
Conclusion: charging at windmills
Notes
References
13. Afterword: On utility and limits
The moral of the story?
Notes
References
Index