2009/12/17 by Mark Quentin Gardiner, Mark Q. Gardiner, Steven Engler · 25 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Epistemology #Function (biology) #Law #Linguistics #Metaphor #Order (exchange) #Philosophy #Political science #Religion and Society Interactions #Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices #Representation (politics) #Sociology #Study and Philosophy of Religion
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.religion.2009.08.010
published in Religion 40(1), 1-13 (Taylor & Francis)
openalex publication_date 2009/12/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The idea that scholars of religion produce ‘maps' that represent the ‘territories' of religion(s) is common and influential. This paper first discusses the role of the metaphor, with special reference to the work of J.Z. Smith, and some of the problems raised by the map metaphor (above all, its implicit reliance on a naive correspondence view of truth). It then draws two important distinctions: between different levels of representation; and between the representing and guiding function of maps (truth and use). It ends by comparing issues in the philosophy of science and the theory of religion in order to highlight some promising directions for more defensible semantic and epistemological groundwork in theory of religion.