Naturalism and Protectionism in the Study of Religions


Book Description

How should we study religion? Must we be religious ourselves to truly understand it? Do we study religion to advance our knowledge, or should the study of religions help to reintroduce the sacred into our increasingly secularized world? Juraj Franek argues that the study of religion has long been split into two competing paradigms: reductive (naturalist) and non-reductive (protectionist). While the naturalistic approach seems to run the risk of explaining religious phenomena away, the protectionist approach appears to risk falling short of the methodological standards of modern science. Franek uses primary source material from Greek and Latin sources to show that both competing paradigms are traceable to Presocratic philosophy and early Christian literature. He presents the idea that naturalists are distant heirs, not only of the French Enlightenment, but also of the Ionian one. Likewise, he argues that protectionists owe much of their arguments and strategies, not only to Luther and the Reformation, but to the earliest Christian literature. This book analyses the conflict between reductive and non-reductive approach in the modern study of religions, and positions the Cognitive Science of Religion against a background of previous theories - ancient and modern - to demonstrate its importance for the revindication of the naturalist paradigm.







Historia Religionum


Book Description




NVMEN, the Academic Study of Religion, and the IAHR


Book Description

Nvmen publishes papers representing the most recent scholarship in all areas of the history of religions ranging from antiquity to contemporary history. It covers a diversity of geographical regions and religions of the past as well as of the present. The approach of the journal to the study of religion is strictly non-confessional. While the emphasis lies on empirical, source-based research, typical contributions also address issues that have a wider historical or comparative significance for the advancement of the discipline. Numen also publishes papers that discuss important theoretical innovations in the study of religion and reflective studies on the history of the discipline. Brill is proud to present this special volume of articles compiled to celebrate the occasion of the 60th anniversary of NVMEN: International Review for the History of Religions in 2014. The articles in this volume have been selected under the auspices of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR), and reflect critically on the past, present, and future of NVMEN, the IAHR and the study of the History of Religions.




Raffaele Pettazzoni and Herbert Jennings Rose, Correspondence 1927–1958


Book Description

Raffaele Pettazzoni (1883–1959), Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Rome and one of the leading historians of religions in the twentieth century, maintained a long correspondence with Herbert Jennings Rose (1883–1961), the gifted Canadian scholar who was Professor of Greek at St Andrews and is best known for his work in the field of ancient religion and folklore. These letters, spanning the years 1927 to 1958, bear witness to the close relationship between the two scholars and focus on two of Pettazzoni’s books, both translated by Rose: Essays on the History of Religions (1954) and The All-Knowing God (1956). They also shed light on Pettazzoni’s initiative to the foundation of the journal NVMEN (1954), and reveal Rose’s brilliant personality.




Studying Religion, Past and Present


Book Description

Celebrating the contributions of Panayotis Pachis to the field, this book discusses the past, present, and future of the study of religion in antiquity and modernity. Panayotis Pachis has dedicated his celebrated career at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki to the study of various aspects of ancient religions. The contents of this book reflect Pachis' conviction that the study of religious ideas and practices should be focused on three pillars: the study of history, the formulation and application of theoretical frameworks, and the utilization of traditional as well as innovative methodological tools. Chapters range from the scientific study of Roman-Graeco religions, cultural evolution, and neurocognitive theories in the history and study of religion, to a look at why we need an integrative approach to study religion, past and present.




What is Religion?


Book Description

What is Religion? consists of fourteen essays written by a selection of scholars who represent a wide spectrum of approaches to the acedamic study of religion. Each of the essays is an effort not only to take stock of the present controversy concerning appropriate methodologies for the study of religion, but also to take one giant step beyond that to formulate a precise definition of religion. Given the considerable confusion today about what it is exactly that religious studies scholars take to be their subject matter when they presume to professionally teachabout religion, this volume provides a much needed forum for leading scholars to debate and clarify what professors of religious studies understand as the central object or objects under their scrunity.




Liber Amicorum


Book Description

Preliminary Material /Editors Liber Amicorum -- Professor Bleeker's publications /Editors Liber Amicorum -- Professor C. J. Bleeker, a personal appreciation /Geo Widengren -- Are the Bororo Parrots or are we? /Th. P. van Baaren -- Le Professeur W. B. Kristensen et l'Ancien Testament /M.A. Beek -- Pour l'histoire du dualisme: un Coyote africain, le Renard pâle /Ugo Bianchi -- Saviour and judge: two examples of divine ambivalence /S. G. F. Brandon -- Mitologia /Angelo Brelich -- Sehen und hören /K. A. H. Hidding -- Prasāda in the Rāmāyana /D. J. Hoens -- The conception of creation in cosmology /E. O. James -- Der Schrecken Pharaos /Siegfried Morenz -- Jesus and Mani - a Comparison /L. J. R. Ort -- Light and darkness in Ancient Egyptian Religion /Helmer Ringgren -- Shāh ʻInāyat Shahīd of Jhōk a Sindhi mystic of the early 18th century /Annemarie Schimmel -- Pietism and enlightenment /Herbert W. Schneider -- Ein Fragment zur Physiognomik und Chiromantik aus der Tradition der spätantiken jüdischen Esoterik /Gershom Scholem -- Histoire des Religions, Histoire du Christianisme, Histoire de l'Église: Réflexions méthodologiques /Marcel Simon -- Koranisches Religionsgespräch eine Skizze /Jacques Waardenburg -- Muḥammad and the Qurʾān. Criteria for Muḥammad's prophecy /K. Wagtendonk -- Die Hymnen der Pistis Sophia und die gnostische Schriftauslegung /Geo Widengren -- The Book of Gates /J. Zandee.




2009


Book Description