To Be or Not to Be Scientific Is Not the Question

A Science Scholar’s Challenge for the Study of Religion

Authors

  • Lieve Orye KU Leuven

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.26015

Keywords:

science, religion, Latour, history of ideas

Abstract

In The Archive we republish an article that, in hindsight, may have been ahead of its time with its prescience. Our second pull for this issue is a 2005 piece from Lieve Orye where he discusses the intricacies of categorizing religious studies as an art or a science. He endeavors to find out if the field should be studied with a scientific approach. Orye posits that maybe this is not even a question we should be asking. This piece was originally published in Council for the Societies for the Study of Religion Bulletin 34.1–2, 14–18.

References

Bloor, David. 1999. “Anti-Latour.” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science Part A 30A.1: 81–112.

Boggs, James. 2004. “The Culture Concept as Theory, in Context.” Current Anthropology 45.2: 187–209.

Fisher, Michael. 1996. “Commentary, Science in Anthropology: Definitions.” Anthropology Newsletter 37.3: 48–49.

Hammel, Eugene. 1995. “Science and Humanism in Anthropology: A View from the Balkan Pit” Anthropology Newsletter 36.8: 49, 52.

———. 1996. “Science in Anthropology: Transformations in Science and Society.” Anthropology Newsletter 37.4: 9–12.

Hess, David. 1995. “Misleading Boundaries.” Anthropology Newsletter 36.9: 44.

Latour, Bruno. 1987. Science in Action. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

———. 1993. We Have Never Been Modem. New York: Harvester.

———. 1996. “Not the Question.” Anthropology Newsletter 37.3: 1, 5.

———. 2002a. Jubiler, ou Les Tourments de la Parole Religieuse. Paris: Les Empecheurs-Le SeuiL

———. 2002b. “Le Rappel de la Modernite approaches anthropologiques.” Available online at http://www.ethnographiques.org/documents/article/arArLatour.html. Accessed on January 7, 2005.

Nader, Laura. 2001. “Anthropology! Distinguished Lecture—2000.” American Anthropologist 103.3: 609–20.

Orye, Lieve. 2005 “Reappropriating ‘religion’? Constructively reconceptualising (human) science and the study of religion. “Method and Theory in the Study of Religion.

Skomal, Susan. 1995. “Science in Anthropology.” Anthropology Newsletter 36.7: 1, 5.

Traweek, Sharon. 1996. “Commentary, Science in Anthropology: Definitions.” Anthropology Newsletter 37/3: 48.

Viveiros de Castro, Eduardo. 2003. AND. Manchester Papers in Social Anthropology. Manchester: University of Manchester.

Wiebe, Donald. 1991. The Irony of Theology and the Nature of Religious Thought Montreal. McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Wuthnow, Robert. 2004. “Is There a Place for ‘Scientific’ Studies of Religion?”

Published

2023-07-18

Issue

Section

The Archive

Categories

How to Cite

Orye, L. (2023). To Be or Not to Be Scientific Is Not the Question: A Science Scholar’s Challenge for the Study of Religion. Bulletin for the Study of Religion, 51(3-4), 119-125. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.26015