What’s Old Is New Again, But Still Pretty Old

Searching for a Post-Theory Turn in Religious Studies

Authors

  • Craig R. Prentiss Rockhurst University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.38595

Keywords:

Post-Theory Turn, Religious Studies

Abstract

Editor’s Note: The following article was written as a contribution to a larger set of papers engaging Russell McCutcheon’s fascinating and important observation of a “post-theoretical shift” in the study of religion. That thematic set of papers did not come together. However, we wanted to publish this wonderful theoretical reflection by Craig Prentiss with the hope that it will contribute to an ongoing discussion in the field and we are appreciative that he agreed to publish this article as a stand-alone piece.

Author Biography

  • Craig R. Prentiss, Rockhurst University

    Craig R. Prentiss, Professor of Theology and Religious Studies, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Rockhurst University.

References

Coakley, Sarah.1997. Religion and the Body. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Durkheim, Emile, 1965 [1915]. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. New York: The Free Press.

Eliade, Mircea. 1959. The Sacred and the Profane. New York: Harcourt, Brace.

Geslani, Marko. 2015. “Religion in the Post-Colonial Humanities: An Interview with Kathryn Lofton.”Sacred Matters. https://sacredmattersmagazine.com/religion-in-the-post-colonial-humanities-an-interview-with-kathryn-lofton-part-1/.

Hall, David D., ed. 1995. Lived Religion in America: Toward a History of Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Lofton, Kathryn. 2011. Oprah:?The Gospel of an Icon. Berkeley:?University of California Press.

———. 2017. Consuming Religion. Chicago:?University of Chicago Press.

McCutcheon, Russell T. 2017a. “Beyond Cynicism: A Sampling of Current Work in the Swiss Study of Religion,” Bulletin for the Study of Religion 46 (1), 3–6. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.30940.

———. 2017b. “Feast and Famine in the Study of Religion.” In Theory in a Time of Excess: Beyond Reflection and Explanation in Religious Studies Scholarship, edited by Aaron Hughes, 191–202. Sheffield: Equinox. https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721x.2018.1449495.

McDannell, Colleen, 1995. Material Christianity: Religion and Popular Culture in America. New Haven: Yale University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0009640700119742.

Promey, Sally, and David Morgan, eds. 2001. The Visual Culture of American Religions. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Smith, William Cantwell. 1991 [1962]. The Meaning and End of Religion. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

Turner, Bryan. 1980. “The Body and Religion: Towards an Alliance of Medical Sociology and Sociology of Religion,” Annual Review of the Social Sciences of Religion 4: 247–86.

Published

2019-11-11

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Prentiss, C. (2019). What’s Old Is New Again, But Still Pretty Old: Searching for a Post-Theory Turn in Religious Studies. Bulletin for the Study of Religion, 48(1-2), 4-9. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.38595