Theory, Method and Implicit Religion
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/imre.35016Keywords:
anthropology, cognitive science of religion, literary theory, method, implicit religion, philosophy of religionAbstract
An essay reviewing Theory in a Time of Excess: Beyond Reflection and Explanation in Religious Studies Scholarship and its relevance to the study of implicit religion. The edited volume presents a collection of papers from the 2015 North American Association for the Study of Religion (NAASR) conference that explore how the methods and theories used within the study of religion can be made more critical and rigorous. Perspectives from anthropology, literary theory, the cognitive science of religion and philosophy are discussed. Readers are encouraged to systematically rethink their approaches to the study of religion(s) and the use of a broad range of critical methodologies and theoretical frameworks is advocated. It is suggested that these insights and criticisms are particularly relevant to the study of implicit religion and that the use of more critical approaches is required to advance our understanding of implicit religiosity.
References
Bailey, E. I. 1999. Implicit Religion: An Introduction. London: Middlesex University Press.
Bloch, M. 2008. “Why Religion is Nothing Special but is Central.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 363: 2055–2061. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2008.0007
Blum, J. N. 2017. “On the Restraint of Theory.” In Theory in a Time of Excess: Beyond Reflection and Explanation in Religious Studies Scholarship, edited by A. W. Hughes, 21–31. Sheffield: Equinox.
Emmons, R. A. and Paloutzian, R. F. 2003. “The Psychology of Religion.” Annual Review of Psychology 54(1): 377–402. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145024
Hughes, A. W., ed. 2017. Theory in a Time of Excess: Beyond Reflection and Explanation in Religious Studies Scholarship. Sheffield: Equinox.
Laidlaw, J. 2007. “A Well-disposed Social Anthropologist’s Problems with the ‘Cognitive Science of Religion.’” In Religion, Anthropology and Cognitive Science, edited by H. Whitehouse and J. Laidlaw, 211–246. Durham: Carolina Academic Press.
Lee, L. 2015. Recognizing the Non-Religious: Reimagining the Secular. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198736844.001.0001
McCutcheon, R. 2003. Manufacturing Religion: The Discourse on Sui Generis Religion and the Politics of Nostalgia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Murphy, J. 2017. “Beyond ‘Religion’ and ‘Spirituality’: Extending a ‘Meaning Systems’ Approach to the Study of Lived Religion.” Archive for the Psychology of Religion, 39(1): 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1163/15736121-12341335
Paloutzian, R. F. and Park, C. L. 2013. “Recent Progress and Core Issues in the Science of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality.” In Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. Second edition, edited by R. F. Paloutzian and C. L. Park, 3–22. New York: Guilford.
Schnell, T. 2003. “A Framework for the Study of Implicit Religion: The Psychological Theory of Implicit Religiosity.” Implicit Religion 6(2): 86–104. https://doi.org/10.1558/imre.v6i2.86
———. 2012. “On Method: A Foundation for Empirical Research on Implicit Religion.” Implicit Religion 15(4): 407–422. https://doi.org/10.1558/imre.v15i4.407
Sheedy, M. 2017. “Of Elephants and Riders: Cognition, Reason, and Will in the Study of Religion.” In Theory in a Time of Excess: Beyond Reflection and Explanation in Religious Studies Scholarship, edited by A. W. Hughes, 121–128. Sheffield: Equinox.
Simmons, K. M. 2017. “The High Stakes of Identifying (with) One’s Object of Study.” In Theory in a Time of Excess: Beyond Reflection and Explanation in Religious Studies Scholarship, edited by A. W. Hughes, 59–68. Sheffield: Equinox.
Taves, A. 2009. Religious Experience Reconsidered: A Building-block Approach to the Study of Religion and Other Special Things. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
White, C. 2017. “What the Cognitive Science of Religion Is (and Is Not).” In Theory in a Time of Excess: Beyond Reflection and Explanation in Religious Studies Scholarship, edited by A. W. Hughes, 95–114. Sheffield: Equinox.