Vocabulary for the Study of Religion
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Subject: Religious Studies
Edited by: Robert A. Segal & Kocku von Stuckrad.
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.
Subscriptions: Brill.com
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.
Subscriptions: Brill.com
Race / Racism
(2,684 words)
Abstract: Race refers to the idea that human populations can be divided into meaningful sub-populations based on biological conformity. The criteria have changed from skin color and crude anatomical …
Radicalism
(3,220 words)
Abstract: Radicalism is a familiar yet largely unclarified concept. Much can be said about the connotations, etymology, and history of the term, but the outstanding demand is for adequate conceptual …
Rapture
(1,150 words)
Abstract: The “rapture” is an eschatological concept, paralleling the Christian doctrine of resurrection, that has evolved from its origins in nineteenth-century Britain and Ireland to dominate large…
Date:
2014-09-16
Rational Choice Theory
(2,323 words)
Abstract: One of the earliest uses of rational choice theory is Pascal’s famous wager on the existence of God. This entry discusses developments in rational choice theory since the time of Pascal whi…
Rationality
(4,523 words)
Abstract: Frazer set up the modern problematic of comparing the rationality of magic, religion, and science. His rationalism was inductivist and, following the distinction between truths by nature an…
Date:
2014-09-16
Reading and Writing
(4,240 words)
Abstract: This article offers an overview of the relationship between writer and reader, as understood from the ancient world to the present day. It traces this relationship through Greek philosophy,…
Reception Theory
(3,348 words)
Abstract: Developing primarily in the fields of literary and cultural studies and the history of the book, reception theory asserts that the interpretive activities of readers explain and in many way…
Reductionism / Anti-reductionism
(4,415 words)
Abstract: This entry discusses several conventional views in religious studies: that “religionists,” as I call those in the tradition of Mircea Eliade, have a monopoly on the study of religion; that …
Reincarnation
(2,305 words)
Abstract: Reincarnation means the belief in the transfer, upon death, of a psycho-physical identity — soul, personal self, or spirit of an ancestors into a new body — human, animal, or spiritual. Wha…
Relativism
(3,374 words)
Abstract: Relativism is a term standing for many different positions. The relativist claims that one thing (e.g. truth) is relative to something else (cultures, paradigms, etc.). This claim can be ge…
Revelation
(1,966 words)
Abstract: Four uses of the term revelation are considered. The first usage is “general revelation,” which was commonly used before the Enlightenment. Since the Enlightenment a second usage “special r…
Revitalization Movement
(1,188 words)
Abstract: The concept of “revitalization movement” was presented in a now-classic 1956 paper by Anthony F.C. Wallace. Examples of revitalization movements are given in Mooney’s 1896 monograph on the…
Date:
2014-09-16