The study of American religions: critical reflections on a specialization

2012/06/21 by Finbarr Curtis · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Religion and Society Interactions #Study and Philosophy of Religion #American Constitutional Law and Politics #Critical reflection #Sociology #Epistemology #Context (archaeology) #Environmental ethics #Philosophy #History

paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/0048721x.2012.681875

openalex publication_date 2012/06/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

This essay introduces a special forum on the study of American religions. The essays in the forum consider what role, if any, the discipline of religious studies plays in shaping work within one area of specialization. This introduction attempts to place the issues raised by the contributors within the context of debates about the status of religious studies in the wake of critiques of sui generis approaches to the study of religion. In different ways, the essays argue that some kind of critical theoretical reflection is necessary for religious studies to make sense as a discipline.

Citations

• Formations of the Secular
• Nietzsche, Genealogy, History

Cited by

• Religious studies [wikipedia]

Related

• Anthropology and Religion Studies
• The study of religion as an autonomous discipline
• Roundtable on the Sociology of Religion: Twenty-Three Theses on the Status of Religion in American Sociology--A Mellon Working-Group Reflection
• Two Traditions in the Study of Religion
• (The) Discipline and the Confessional: Toward Methodological Numenism and an Engaged, Embodied Study of Religion