Vocabulary for the Study of Religion

Get access Subject: Religious Studies
Edited by: Robert A. Segal & Kocku von Stuckrad.

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The Vocabulary for the Study of Religion offers a unique overview of critical terms in the study of religion(s). This first dictionary in English covers a broad spectrum of theoretical topics used in the academic study of religion, including those from adjacent disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, historiography, theology, philology, literary studies, psychology, philosophy, cultural studies, and political sciences.

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  • Action
  • Adaptation
  • Aesthetics
  • Afterlife
  • Agency
  • Agents (Superhuman / Counterintuitive)
  • Aggression
  • Agnosticism
  • Agriculture
  • Alchemy
  • Alienation
  • Allegory
  • Alterity
  • Altruism
  • Amulet
  • Analogy
  • Ancestors and Ancestor Worship
  • Androcentrism
  • Angel
  • Animal
  • Animism
  • Anthropocentrism
  • Anthropology of Religion
  • Anthropomorphism
  • Anti-reductionism
  • Antinomianism
  • Apocalypse
  • Apocalypticism
  • Apollonian and Dionysian
  • Apologetics
  • Apostasy
  • Archetypes
  • Art
  • Asceticism
  • Astrology
  • Atheism
  • Attitude
  • Attribution (theory)
  • Authoritarianism
  • Authority
  • Authorship
  • Baptism
  • Behavior
  • Behaviorism
  • Belief(s)
  • Belonging
  • Biography
  • Blasphemy
  • Blessing and Curse
  • Body / Embodiment
  • Boundaries
  • Bricolage
  • Burial
  • Calendar and New Year
  • Canon / Canonization
  • Capital, Forms of
  • Capitalism
  • Cargo Cult
  • Catharsis
  • Causality
  • Ceremony
  • Chance
  • Charisma
  • Charismatic Movement
  • Cinema
  • Cinematography
  • Civil religion
  • Civil society
  • Class
  • Classification
  • Clothing
  • Cognition
  • Colonialism
  • Commercialization / Commodification
  • Commitment
  • Commodification
  • Communication
  • Communism
  • Community
  • Comparative Method
  • Concept of Religion
  • Conflict
  • Conflict Theory
  • Congregation / Congregationalism
  • Conscience
  • Consciousness
  • Conservatism
  • Contingency
  • Coping
  • Cosmos / Cosmologies
  • Covenant
  • Creationism
  • Critical Theory
  • Criticism and Critique (in, among and of Religions)
  • Cult
  • Cult (Social form)
  • Curse
  • De-secularization
  • Death and Burial
  • Deconstruction
  • Deconversion
  • Definitions of Religion
  • Demography
  • Demythologization
  • Deprivation
  • Deus otiosus
  • Deviance
  • Dialectic / Dialectical Materialism
  • Dialogism
  • Diaspora
  • Diet
  • Differentiation (Social)
  • Diffusion and dispersion
  • Dionysian and Apollonian
  • Disclosure
  • Discourse
  • Disease
  • Disenchantment
  • Dispersion
  • Dissociation
  • Dissonance (Cognitive)
  • Divination
  • Divine Kingship
  • Divinity
  • Do ut des
  • Dogmatism
  • Drama
  • Dream
  • Dualism
  • Dying and Rising Gods
  • Economics of Religion
  • Economy
  • Ecstasy
  • Ecumenism
  • Education
  • Effervescence
  • Elective Affinity
  • Elite
  • Embodiment
  • Emic / Etic
  • Emotion
  • Empathy
  • Enlightenment
  • Entheogens
  • Environment
  • Epoché
  • Equality
  • Eschatology
  • Esoteric / Esotericism
  • Ethnicity
  • Ethnocentrism
  • Ethnography
  • Ethos
  • Etic
  • Euhemerism
  • Everyday Life
  • Evil
  • Evolution / Evolutionism
  • Exchange
  • Exclusion
  • Excommunication
  • Exegesis
  • Existentialism
  • Exorcism
  • Explanation and Interpretation
  • Extremism
  • Fairy tale
  • Faith
  • Fatalism / Fate
  • Festival
  • Fetish / Fetishism / Fetishization
  • Fideism
  • Fieldwork
  • Financing
  • Folk Religion
  • Food and Diet
  • Founder / Foundation
  • Framework (Conceptual)
  • Framing
  • Freedom
  • Function / Functionalism
  • Functions of Religion
  • Fundamentalism
  • Funeral
  • Geisteswissenschaft
  • Gender
  • Genre
  • Gestures
  • Ghost
  • Gift / Giving
  • Globalization
  • God / Goddess
  • Group
  • Guilt
  • Hallucinogens and Entheogens
  • Happiness
  • Healing / Disease
  • Health
  • Heaven / Hell
  • Hegemony
  • Hell
  • Henotheism
  • Heresy
  • Hermeneutics and Interpretation
  • Hero / Heroism
  • Hierarchy
  • Hieros Gamos
  • History
  • Homo Religiosus
  • Human Rights
  • Humanism
  • Humor
  • Hunting
  • Hybridity
  • Icon / Iconography
  • Iconoclasm
  • Identity
  • Ideology
  • Idol / Idolatry
  • Immanence
  • Impurity
  • Indexicality
  • Indigenous Religions
  • Ineffability
  • Initiation / Transformation
  • Innovation
  • Insider / Outsider
  • Institution
  • Intellectuals
  • Interpretation
  • Interreligious Relations
  • Intertextuality
  • Intoxication
  • Introduction
  • Intuition
  • Invisible Religion
  • Irreligion
  • Journey
  • Justice
  • Kingship
  • Kinship
  • Knowledge
  • Landscape
  • Language
  • Law
  • Legitimacy / Legitimization
  • Liberalism
  • Liminal / Liminality
  • List of Authors
  • Literature
  • Luck
  • Magic
  • Marketplace Model
  • Marriage
  • Martyrdom / Martyr
  • Masks
  • Material Culture
  • Matriarchy / Patriarchy
  • Meaning
  • Measurements of Religion
  • Media
  • Medicine
  • Memory / Memorization
  • Mentalities
  • Messianism
  • Metaphor
  • Migration
  • Millenarianism / Millennialism
  • Mimesis
  • Minority (Religious)
  • Miracle and Wonder
  • Mission
  • Modernization / Modernity
  • Money
  • Monism
  • Monotheism
  • Mourning
  • Museality
  • Music
  • Mystery
  • Mysticism
  • Myth
  • Narrative
  • Nation / Nationalism
  • Nativism
  • Naturalism
  • Nature
  • New Age
  • New Religious Movements
  • New Year
  • Nomads
  • Numinous
  • Object Relations
  • Objectivity
  • Occidentalism
  • Occult / Occultism
  • Oceanic feeling
  • Oedipus complex
  • Ontology
  • Orality
  • Orientalism / Occidentalism
  • Origins of Religion
  • Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy
  • Other-Worldly and This-Worldly
  • Othering
  • Outsider
  • Pacifism
  • Paganism
  • Pain
  • Pantheism
  • Participant Observation
  • Patriarchy
  • Peak Experience
  • Performance / Performativity
  • Person / Personality
  • Phenomenology of Religion
  • Philology
  • Philosophy of Religion
  • Pilgrimage
  • Pluralism and Plurality
  • Polemics
  • Politics / Political Science and Religion
  • Polytheism
  • Popular religion
  • Possession
  • Postmodernism
  • Poverty
  • Power
  • Practice
  • Prayer
  • Predestination
  • Prejudice
  • Priest / Priestess
  • Primal religions
  • Private and Public Religion
  • Privatization
  • Profane / Profanation
  • Progress
  • Projection
  • Property
  • Prophecy / Prophet
  • Proselytism / Proselytization
  • Protestant Ethic
  • Psychology of Religion
  • Public Religion
  • Purity/Impurity
  • Qualitative Research
  • Quantitative Research
  • Race / Racism
  • Radicalism
  • Rapture
  • Rational Choice Theory
  • Rationality
  • Reading and Writing
  • Reception Theory
  • Reductionism / Anti-reductionism
  • Reincarnation
  • Relativism
  • Religion, Classification / Types of
  • Religion, Concept of
  • Religion, Definitions of
  • Religion, Measurements of
  • Religion, Origins of
  • Religion, Secular
  • Religion, Theories of
  • Religiosity
  • Revelation
  • Revitalization Movement
  • Rhetoric
  • Rhythm
  • Rites of passage
  • Ritual
  • Role
  • Routinization
  • Sacred (the); Sacred and Profane
  • Sacrifice
  • Salvation
  • Sanctuary / Shrine / Temple
  • Savior
  • Scapegoat
  • Schism / Schismogenesis
  • Science
  • Scripture
  • Sect / Sectarianism / Cult
  • Secular religion
  • Secular, Secularism
  • Secularization and De-secularization
  • Semiotics
  • Sexuality
  • Shaman / Shamanism
  • Shame
  • Shrine
  • Sign / Symbol
  • Social Movement
  • Socialization
  • Society
  • Sociology of Religion
  • Sorcerer / Sorcery
  • Soul
  • Sound
  • Space
  • Specialist
  • Speech Acts
  • Spirituality
  • State
  • Status
  • Stratification
  • Structuralism
  • Structure
  • Subaltern
  • Sublimation
  • Suffering
  • Sui Generis
  • Suicide
  • Symbol
  • Syncretism
  • System / Systems Theory
  • Taboo
  • Teleology
  • Temple
  • Texts / Textuality
  • Theater / Theatricality
  • Theodicy
  • Theogony
  • Theology
  • Theories of Religion
  • This-Worldly
  • Time
  • Tolerance
  • Totem
  • Tradition
  • Trance
  • Transcendence and Immanence
  • Transformation
  • Translation
  • Transmission
  • Transnational / Transnationalism
  • Trauma
  • Trickster
  • Trope
  • Truth
  • Typology
  • Universals
  • Urbanization
  • Utopia
  • Values
  • Violence
  • Virtuality
  • Vision
  • Visual Arts and Culture
  • Votive / Votum
  • War / Warrior
  • Wedding
  • Wilderness
  • Will (free)
  • Wisdom (Literature)
  • Witch / Witchcraft and Sorcerer / Sorcery
  • Wonder
  • World Religions
  • Worship
  • Writing