Bøker i The Future of the Religious Past-serien

What do we talk about when we talk about religion? Is it an array of empirical facts about historical human civilizations? Or is religion what is in essence unpredictable-perhaps the very emergence of the new? This book explores the difficulties and double binds that arise when we ask What is religion?

Addressing the relation between religion and things, which has long been conceived in antagonistic terms, the guiding idea of this volume is that religion necessarily requires some kind of incarnation. Exploring the role and place of sacred artifacts, images, bodily fluids, sites and technologies in different locations and religious traditions, this volume re-materializes the study of religion.

Addressing the relation between religion and things, which has long been conceived in antagonistic terms, the guiding idea of this volume is that religion necessarily requires some kind of incarnation. Exploring the role and place of sacred artifacts, images, bodily fluids, sites and technologies in different locations and religious traditions, this volume re-materializes the study of religion.

Dealing with the nexus of religion and power, this volume radically undermines the idea that the political relevance of religion is a thing of the past.

Dealing with the nexus of religion and power, this volume radically undermines the idea that the political relevance of religion is a thing of the past. It also includes essays that offer broad analyses of the nature of religion and power in their modes of emergence today and specific case studies from anthropology, sociology, and the arts.

It is said that words are like people: One can encounter them daily yet never come to know their true selves. This volume examines what words are-how they exist-in religious phenomena. Going beyond the common idea that language merely describes states of mind, beliefs, and intentions, the book looks at words in their performative and material specificity.The contributions in the volume develop the insight that our implicit assumptions about what language does guide the way we understand and experience religious phenomena. They also explore the possibility that insights about the particular status of religious utterances may in turn influence the way we think about words in our language.