The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion

Second Edition

The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion is a major resource for courses in Religious Studies. It begins by explaining the most important methodological approaches to religion, including psychology, philosophy, anthropology and comparative study, before moving on to explore a wide variety of critical issues, such as gender, science, fundamentalism, ritual, and new religious movements. Written by renowned international specialists, this new edition:

•includes eight new chapters on post-structuralism, religion and economics, religion and the environment, religion and popular culture, and sacred space

•surveys the history of religious studies and the key disciplinary approaches

•explains why the study of religion is relevant in today’s world

•highlights contemporary issues such as globalization, diaspora and politics

•includes annotated reading lists, a glossary and summaries of key points to assist student learning.

John R. Hinnells is Emeritus Professor at Liverpool Hope University and Honorary Research Professor at SOAS where he was founding head of the Department for the Study of Religion. He is also a Senior Member of Robinson College, Cambridge, and life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. His main works on Zoroastrianism are Zoroastrians in Britain (OUP 1996);

Zoroastrian and Parsi Studies (2000) and The Zoroastrian Diaspora (2005). He edited the New Penguin Dictionary of Religions and the New Penguin Handbook of Living Religions (1997 and 1998). He is editor of the Routledge series Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices.

Contributors: Douglas Allen, Gregory D. Alles, William Sims Bainbridge, Michael Barnes, Jeremy Carrette, Thomas Dixon, David F. Ford, Judith Fox, Paul Gifford, Roger S. Gottlieb, Garrett Green, Rosalind I. J. Hackett, John R. Hinnells, Lawrence Iannaccone, Darlene Juschka, Richard King, Kim Knott, Mary Ellen Konieczny, Gordon Lynch, Luther H. Martin, Seán McLoughlin, Chad Meister, Dan Merkur, George Moyser, Henry Munson, William E. Paden, Martin Riesbrodt, Robert A. Segal, Eric J. Sharpe, Donald Wiebe and John Wolffe.

The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion

Second edition

Edited by John R. Hinnells

First published 2010 by Routledge

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This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009.

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© 2010 John R. Hinnells for selection and editorial materials. The contributors for their contributions.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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ISBN 0-203-86876-5 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN10: 0-415-47327-6 (hbk)

ISBN10: 0-415-47328-4 (pbk)

ISBN10: 0-203-86876-5 (ebk)

ISBN13: 978-0-415-47327-9 (hbk)

ISBN13: 978-0-415-47328-6 (pbk)

ISBN13: 978-0-203-86876-8 (ebk)

Contributors

Douglas Allen is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Maine. He served as President of Society of Asian and Comparative Philosophy, 2001–2004, and is Series Editor of Lexington’s Studies in Comparative Philosophy and Religion. Author and editor of thirteen books and over 100 book chapters and journal articles, his most recent books are Comparative Philosophy and Religion in Times of Terror, and The Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi for the Twenty-First Century.

Gregory D. Alles is Professor of Religious Studies at McDaniel College, Westminster, MD, USA. A past president of the North American Association for the Study of Religion, he is the editor of Religious Studies: A Global View (Routledge, 2008). He has recently been engaged in fieldwork among ādivāsī (indigenous) people in eastern Gujarat, India.

William Sims Bainbridge is the author of fifteen books, four textbook-software packages, and about 200 shorter publications in the social science of technology, information science, religion and culture. In 2006 he published God from the Machine, applying artificial intelligence techniques to understand religious cognition, and in 2007 he published Across the Secular Abyss and Nanoconvergence about the tensions between religion, cognitive science, social science, and emerging technologies.

Michael Barnes is Senior Lecturer and Reader in Interreligious Relations at Heythrop College in the University of London. He has written several books and a number of articles on Christianity and other faiths, notably Theology and the Dialogue of Religions (Cambridge: CUP 2002). He lives and works in Southall, West London, where he runs a small dialogue centre.

Jeremy Carrette is Professor of Religion and Culture and Head of Religious Studies at the University of Kent, UK. He is the author of numerous works on Foucault, William James and the politics of religious knowledge, including Selling Spirituality (London: Routledge, 2005), co-authored with Richard King. His most recent work is Religion and Critical Psychology: Religious Experience in the Knowledge Economy (London: Routledge, 2007) and he is the author of a forthcoming text William James: Belief, Experience and Truth (Equinox Press).

Thomas Dixon is Senior Lecturer in History at Queen Mary University of London. His publications include From Passions to Emotions: The Creation of a Secular Psychological