The ideology of religious studies
著者
書誌事項
The ideology of religious studies
Oxford University Press, 2000
大学図書館所蔵 全19件
  青森
  岩手
  宮城
  秋田
  山形
  福島
  茨城
  栃木
  群馬
  埼玉
  千葉
  東京
  神奈川
  新潟
  富山
  石川
  福井
  山梨
  長野
  岐阜
  静岡
  愛知
  三重
  滋賀
  京都
  大阪
  兵庫
  奈良
  和歌山
  鳥取
  島根
  岡山
  広島
  山口
  徳島
  香川
  愛媛
  高知
  福岡
  佐賀
  長崎
  熊本
  大分
  宮崎
  鹿児島
  沖縄
  韓国
  中国
  タイ
  イギリス
  ドイツ
  スイス
  フランス
  ベルギー
  オランダ
  スウェーデン
  ノルウェー
  アメリカ
注記
Includes bibliographical references and index
内容説明・目次
内容説明
This book argues that 'religion' is not a genuine analytical category since it does no useful work in helping us to understand the world we live in. While it appears to have something important and meaningful to say about societies and cultures and personal experiences, when one looks at its actual use in a wide spectrum of descriptives and analytical contexts it becomes clear that so much is included in the term that it becomes indistinguishable from "culture." By failing to specify any distinctive kind of experience or social institution, it inhibits and hinder the flow of intellectual development in the humanities. According to author Timothy Fitzgerald, long-standing debates about the validity of 'religion' as an analytical category that have been taking place in the religious studies community have been circular. One reason for this is that the ideological distinction between "religion" and the "the secular" has been so comprehensively institutionalized in western social systems that it appears as being "in the nature sof thing." However, many religions scholars themselves have had serious doubts about what constitutes their field of study.
After failing to arrive at any consensus about what definitional criteria distinguish religion from non-religion, or at what analytical level the term is being used, many scholars have virtually claimed that "religion" is self-validating. In other words, its meaningfulness is guaranteed by its use. The term is so comprehensively embedded in the language game, Fitzgerald argues, that it inevitably appears self-justifying to those who employ it and, indeed, to those who are employed by it. This book widen the cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural scope of the analysis, looking at texts, ostensibly about "religion," produced by religionists, anthropologists, historians, and others. By analysing its multiples uses, Fitzgerald demonstrates that the continued faith in the category as an analytical tool and as the basis for distinct academis departments is illusory and cannot be justified by any supposed analytical gains.
He shows the confusios caused in the analysis of social institutions in India and Japan by the adoption of the modern western distinction between religion and non-religion, and the consequent conflist in those cultures between indigenous and western political, juridical, and intellectual values. By critically rethinking "religion," scholars can contribute to the wider task of reconstructing western categories, thus opening the academic agenda to new insight and understanding about human values and institutions.
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