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Twenty-two terms in alphabetical order provide the scaffolding for this anthology of essays by an impressive group of experts in the field of religious studies. The terms (belief, body, conflict, culture, experience, gender, g[G]od, image, liberation, modernity, performance, person, rationality, relic, religion [religions, religious], sacrifice, territory, time, transformation, transgression, value, and writing) provide each scholar/essayist with an opportunity to explore a staggering array of contemporary issues. Although each of the essays has its own distinctive stamp, most approach the critical term under investigation by surveying the ways in which the term has been used historically and polemically. Each is followed by a series of suggested further readings and a bibliography, thus making the volume useful as an introductory textbook for students interested in the latest research in "religious studies." Taylor's introduction is, among other things, an excellent overview of the history of that term, including its problematic nature. The rhetorical style of the volume runs the gamut from High Academese ("A study of the so-called world religions, a term used to refer to those religions that do not serve primarily as vehicles for ethnic identification, shows that many of the concerns that characterize Western modernity appeared as the result of the caesura established by the religious founders' skepticism toward received ideas and practices, as well as by the transcendentalization of norms, and by the second-order questions asked by some of them") to Recognizable English ("Before we throw out experience altogether, however, we must take stock of what is at stake"), often within the confines of a single essay. Every essay contains an impressive amount of valuable information and thought-provoking points of view. The essayists include Donald Lopez, Jr, William LaFleur, Francis Schussler Fiorenza and Gordon D. Kaufman, Gustavo Benavides, and J.Z. Smith. The range of essayists, and the range of universities from which they hail, give the reader a dazzling and dizzying view of the philosophical heights to which modern religious studies have begun to soar. I particularly recommend Lopez's essay on "belief." His debunking of the martyrdom of Peter Martyr, as well as his sardonic take on Olcott's Buddhist catechism, compelled me to completely revise my understanding of this term and its role in religious studies. Smith's delineation of "religion" may stand for all the essays in this volume when he says, "It was once a tactic of students of religion to cite the appendix of James H. Leuba's Psychological Study of Religion (1912), which lists more than fifty definitions of religion, to demonstrate that the 'effort clearly to define religion in short compass is a hopeless task.' Not at all! The moral of Leuba is not that religion cannot be defined, but that it can be defined, with greater or lesser success, more than fifty ways." In place of "religion," substitute any of the other twenty-one terms, and you have the impetus of this entire volume. Long live complexity! Review © 1999 Terry Hansen and RSiSS Return to Resources for Studying and Teaching |
