1st Edition
Dialogues on Religion—and its Study A Critical Edition
Dialogues on Religion—and its Study creatively revives a time-honored genre by offering a series of new speeches on religion (its definition, description, comparison, and explanation) between two old friends who periodically meet throughout the year. Eventually working their way to examining why we tend to call part of our world and our experiences religious, nonspecialist readers can eavesdrop on their conversations, gaining entry to a series of timely, interesting, and sometimes surprisingly complex topics—which all begins with one of them coming across a curious news story on their phone.
Treating these dialogues as if they were found objects, the book then also joins in a long tradition of critical editions by offering a scholarly introduction to the speeches along with a detailed commentary on both the technical items mentioned as well as the various cultural references that our speakers find to be familiar and then use to think through material that’s rather new—possibly providing clues as to their identities and location. Written in the vernacular, with a helpful postface that some may wish to read first, Dialogues on Religion—and its Study is original, engaging, and at times funny while always meeting readers where they sometimes are: just a little intrigued by something they’ve discovered and wishing that they could discuss it with a good friend, maybe meeting for coffee or over breakfast at a diner.
Introduction to the Critical Edition
On Dating the Dialogues and Identifying the Speakers
1. The Definition of Religion
2. The Description of Religion
3. The Comparison of Religion
4. The Explanation of Religion
5. The Category of Religion
Critical Notes
A Truthful Postface
Index
Biography
Russell T. McCutcheon is widely published in the academic study of religion, its methods, theories, and the field’s history; he is University Research Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama, USA.
"A prolific and provocative thinker on method and theory in the study of 'religion', Russell McCutcheon does not disappoint with Dialogues on Religion and Its Study. As though eavesdropping on a series of lively and smart conversations, the reader is taken through key frameworks in the study of religion, but in accessible and entertaining ways. The book lends itself well to undergraduate teaching from a number of vantage points. I plan to assign it."
Jennifer A. Selby, Professor, Memorial University, Canada
"If studying religion is not really about religion, then also these dialogues on religion and its study are really about something else; they investigate how we define, describe, compare, and explain whatever gets our attention in our everyday life and in serious scholarship. In classical but currently experimental and rarely utilized form, these dialogues demonstrate how we actively construct knowledge about religion and everything else, while often pretending as if we simply discover things as they are."
Teemu Taira, Senior Lecturer in the Study of Religion, University of Helsinki, Finland
"The philosophical dialogue has a long and venerable history as a means of exploring challenging concepts, not least religion. In these Dialogues on Religion and its Study, Russell McCutcheon remakes the genre for the twenty-first century, using contemporary examples to throw into relief the often unspoken assumptions that undergird our systems of classification. The book will be very useful in the religious studies classroom and beyond."
Brent Nongbri, Professor of History of Religions at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society
