Seriously, What Does "Taking Religion Seriously" Mean?

Pritchard, Elizabeth A.

doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfq066

Cited by 27 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 1 publication

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Critique, transformation, affirmation and negation are all viable possibilities. This is necessarily so given that the challenge of taking theology seriously, as Pritchard () has recently argued in regard to ‘religion’, is always‐already a matter of a particular theology. The engagement of an anthropologist vis‐à‐vis the many different theologies will consequently vary considerably between them.…”

Section: Encounters and Engagementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropological theologies: Engagements and encounters

Fountain

Lau

2013

Australian J of Anthropology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In a ground-breaking article Joel Robbins analysed what he characterises as the 'awkward' relationship between anthropology and theology and invited greater anthropological engagement with its disciplinary cousin. This Special Issue responds to this provocation by using Robbins' argument as a bouncing board for wide-ranging forays into a common set of concerns. In investigating anthropological theologies the collection critically attends to the kinds of engagements and encounters that already take place and also lays out future agendas for further interactions. We call for an anthropology that is open to provisional, dialogic and potentially transformative interactions across diverse theologies and suggest that such a move will help shed light on the possibilities of re-modelling the practice of anthropology. AN AWKWARD RELATIONSHIPIn a ground-breaking article Robbins (2006) invites consideration of 'what is or should be the relationship between anthropology and theology?' The fact that the question, as Robbins notes, has hardly ever been asked by anthropologists says something that cuts to the core of the discipline. Indeed, while questions of our location vis-a-vis 'neighbouring' disciplines such as sociology and cultural studies have long haunted anthropology, theology has hardly ever been considered part of our neighbourhood. Direct and explicit discussion of theology has rarely been considered an urgent or necessary task. This has been the case even when theological theories clearly intersect with central anthropological domains of enquiry. In asking for descriptive and normative enquiries into this relationship, Robbins disturbs the status quo and invites critical examination of our conspicuous and assiduous avoidance of this disciplinary cousin.But more than being simply a matter of neglect, the relationship between theology and anthropology (at least from the anthropologists' side) is characterised by deep unease. Probing this discomfort, Robbins suggests that anthropologists have had a thoroughly 'awkward' relationship with theology. This stems from the fact that theology is a 'committed discipline', whereas anthropology, he argues, is not. Perhaps more

show abstract

Section: Encounters and Engagementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropological theologies: Engagements and encounters

Fountain

Lau

2013

Australian J of Anthropology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Yet this mode of lending veracity through authorial testimony also recalls Pritchard's (2010) critique of those arguments that urge scholars to 'take religion seriously' by remaining endlessly open to religious encounter, forestalling indefinitely all boundaries and closure. Such appeals to an endless state of liminality and suspension of disbelief, she argues, necessitate 'a rather spectacular gesture on the part of the scholar…that threatens to upstage the person or object of study' (Pritchard 2010(Pritchard : 1098. They betray 'Enlightenment assumptions in which the scholar is the only true agent in these [religious] encounters' (Pritchard 2010(Pritchard : 1102.…”

Section: Being Humanmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Such appeals to an endless state of liminality and suspension of disbelief, she argues, necessitate ‘a rather spectacular gesture on the part of the scholar…that threatens to upstage the person or object of study’ (Pritchard : 1098). They betray ‘Enlightenment assumptions in which the scholar is the only true agent in these [religious] encounters’ (Pritchard : 1102). Personal testimony from the scholar runs the risk of similarly privileging the scholar.…”

Section: Being Humanmentioning

confidence: 99%

The alchemy of life: Magic, anthropology and human nature in a Pagan theology

Morgain

2013

Australian J of Anthropology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Reclaiming is a contemporary Pagan tradition rooted in the understanding that sacrality infuses the cosmos. Reclaiming teachers critique the ‘mechanistic’ basis of modern science and its rejection of magical thought, implicating this worldview in oppression, environmental devastation and colonialism. Their concerns resonate with an emerging critique among historians, who argue that the Enlightenment's rejection of Europe's ‘superstitious’ past was tied to the colonial project of refuting the religious and magical beliefs of non‐Europeans. Engaging with Reclaiming theology exposes the still‐uncomfortable relationship of anthropology to ‘non‐rational’ forms of knowledge. In embracing systems of thought profoundly repudiated since the Enlightenment and reimagining what it is to be human, Reclaiming understandings potentially disturb anthropology at its roots, including its very delimitation as a ‘science of humanity’.

show abstract

“…In particular, scholars have examined the ways in which liberalism depends upon a particular understanding of 'religion' based in 'liberal Protestant assumptions. ' For liberalism, 'true religion' cannot be 'violent nor coercive, … is not bodily, but ideal' (Pritchard 2010;1102; see also : Fitzgerald 2007;Orsi 2006). destabilising this liberal sense of religion, as at its core private, personal, and removed from the public realm of politics, is significant for any study of 'political religion' which is too often assumed to be a mere deviation from real, apolitical religious life.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The limits of religion: liberalism and anti-liberalism in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Foody

2016

Culture and Religion

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Seriously, What Does "Taking Religion Seriously" Mean?

Cited by 27 publications

References 1 publication

Anthropological theologies: Engagements and encounters

Anthropological theologies: Engagements and encounters

The alchemy of life: Magic, anthropology and human nature in a Pagan theology

The limits of religion: liberalism and anti-liberalism in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About