The End of Religious Studies (as we knew it)

Authors

  • Suzanne Owen Leeds Trinity University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/imre.41526

Keywords:

religious studies, phenomenology, realism, critical religion

Abstract

Fitzgerald’s The Ideology of Religious Studies was published the year before I started my Master’s degree at the University of Edinburgh and was brought to my attention by James Cox, my supervisor. It led me to question everything I had learned as a Religious Studies undergraduate and sparked my first essay (in 2001), titled “Religious Studies: What is it?” In it, I had seen the problem of “what is it?” as a methodological issue as well as a definitional one and predicted an expansion of Religious Studies along phenomenological lines. Today, while still recognising colleagues’ fears that Fitzgerald’s book undermines the study of religion, I rather see his critique as making the study of religion more important than ever, though not in the way I had described in my 2001 essay. My paper will revisit those early responses to the book (mine and others’), asking if we are indeed seeing the end of Religious Studies (as we knew it), and show how Fitzgerald’s critique has instead opened up and transformed the study of religion, at least in my own research and teaching.

Author Biography

  • Suzanne Owen, Leeds Trinity University

    Suzanne Owen is a reader in religious studies at Leeds Trinity University, UK. She obtained her PhD from the University of Edinburgh and researches contemporary indigenous and pagan religions.

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Published

2020-08-04

How to Cite

Owen, S. (2020). The End of Religious Studies (as we knew it). Implicit Religion, 22(3-4), 319-330. https://doi.org/10.1558/imre.41526