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
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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.
Subscriptions: Brill.com
Polemics
(2,635 words)
Abstract: Despite its absence from the stock vocabulary of the study of religion, polemics is a key phenomenon in the study of religion. Although an intrinsic connection exists between polemics and t…
Politics / Political Science and Religion
(3,625 words)
Abstract: It was once taken for granted that modernization would lead inevitably to religious privatization and to secularization. It was also thought inevitable that over time the political importan…
Date:
2014-09-16
Polytheism
(3,545 words)
Abstract: Polytheism, the belief that multiple supernatural powers exert their influence on the human and natural world, must be understood in relationship to its opposite, monotheism. Many have clai…
Popular religion
(3,024 words)
Abstract: The meanings attributed to “popular religion” vary according to the point of contrast (the “non-popular religion”) with which it is compared. It has been understood as the religion of peopl…
Possession
(3,772 words)
Abstract: Few issues were more central to the history of anthropology, or the study of religion more broadly, than the ungainly catch-all “spirit possession,” a phrase that long ago became second nat…
Postmodernism
(2,504 words)
Abstract: The term “postmodernism” originally referred to a specific form of architecture but has long since come to refer to a set of philosophical positions as well as to the most recent period in …
Date:
2014-09-16
Poverty
(3,369 words)
Abstract: People are said to be in poverty when they live below what their society recognizes as a decent minimum. This inherently social judgment can never be absolute but is always relative to the …
Power
(4,329 words)
Abstract: This entry deals with the elusive, complex and vague term “power.” Even though a notion of power is often linked to both popular and academic discussions concerning religion and theology — …
Prayer
(3,887 words)
Abstract: Prayer is one of the typically religious forms of communication. With prayer, a person turns to the gods and other “supernatural” beings. In conformity with the emphatically asymmetrical re…
Predestination
(1,300 words)
Abstract: Doctrines of predestination might appear to be fatalistic or to implicate God in evil. However, predestinarians are not helpless against these charges. Their belief that God is the ultimate…
Date:
2014-09-16
Prejudice
(2,900 words)
Abstract: This entry presents a short overview of the main theoretical approaches to prejudice, followed by five aspects of the relationship between prejudice and religion: the influence of differing…
Date:
2014-09-16
Priest / Priestess
(2,475 words)
Abstract: “Priest” is an important term in religious discourse that, like many others, lacks a clearly agreed upon definition. This entry addresses the term’s context-specific variability, evident e…
Private and Public Religion
(2,989 words)
Abstract: In the sociology of religion the terms public and private religion refer to the shift in religion from the public sphere to the private one. The cause is modernization. Since the Enlightenm…
Date:
2014-09-16
Privatization
(3,822 words)
Abstract: Privatization covers a wide range of activities. This entry considers four crucial themes: the sale of enterprises (famous through Margaret Thatcher’s sales program in the United Kingdom), …
Progress
(1,676 words)
Abstract: Progress is one of the core ideas of Western thought. Some hold it a modern invention, notably of the Enlightenment period, but the seeds of this idea were sown by philosophers of classical…
Projection
(3,401 words)
Abstract: The projection theory of religion focuses on the notion of a personal God and the attributes in terms of which a personal God is to be conceptualized; the problematic relates to the anthrop…
Date:
2014-09-16
Property
(2,831 words)
Abstract: Debate between realists and nominalists about the nature and existence of universals was all the rage in the late medieval period. Subsequent centuries saw the terms of this debate expanded…