Method and Theory in the Study of Religion
As the Program Chair of The North American Association for the Study of Religion in conjunction with the Critical Theory and Discourses in Religion Group of the American Association of Religion I am helping to organize a joint session at the AAR Conference in Montréal, the general purpose of which is the consideration of theoretical-critical issues surrounding the study of religion. The specific intention of the session is to reflect on the current state of methodological and theoretical activity with a regard to (i) reconciling our fields’ origins with contemporary practices; (ii) diversifying the people engaged in and the perspectives brought to bear upon the analysis of religious phenomena; and (iii) identifying potential new modes of collaboration between the academic Study of Religion and other disciplines. A significant element in our collective goal is to begin an initial conversation that will exert some influence on how future research in religion is conducted.
The Philosophy of Science and the Study of Religion
I am serving as Guest Editor for a forthcoming special issue of
Religion on "The Philosophy of Science and the Study of Religion," featuring articles from
Armin Geertz ("When Cognitive Scientists Become Religious, Science Is in Trouble: On Neurotheology from a Philosophy of Science Perspective")
Jeppe Sinding Jensen ("Explanation and Interpretation in the Comparative Study of Religion")
David Goldberg ("d’Aquili and Newberg’s Neurotheology: Hermeneutical Problem With Their Neurological Solution")
Benson Saler ("Reduction, Integrated Theory, and the Study of Religion")
Robert Segal ("Kuhn and the Science of Religion"), and
Bryan Rennie ("Myths, Models, and Metaphors: Religion as Model and the Philosophy of Science")
With responses from Peter Machamer of the Department of History and Philosophy of Science of the University of Pittsburgh and Thomas Ryba of Purdue University.
Religion, Terror, and Violence: Religious Studies Perspectives
Edited by Bryan Rennie and Philip L. Tite
Routledge, 2008. This book brings together a collection of interdisciplinary essays primarily by religious studies scholars,
offering critical analyses of the relationship of religion and violence, particularly 9/11 and the subsequent "War on Terror."
THE IRANIAN ROOTS OF CHRISTIANITY
“Iranian Eschatology and Middle Eastern Religion: The Absence of the Zoroastrian Tradition from Mainstream Anglophone Biblical and Religious Studies,”
a paper delivered at a session on “Egregious Elephants?: Unexplained Oversights and Omissions in the Academic Study of Religion,” organized by the
North American Association for the Study of Religion at their annual meeting at the American Academy of Religion Annual
national conference, Washington DC, Friday November 17th, 2006. Appeared in The Bulletin of the Council of Societies
for the Study of Religion, 36/1 (February, 2007): 3-7 under the title “Zoroastrianism: The Iranian Roots of Christianity?”
Abstract:
For over a century occasional but insistent claims have been made regarding the debt owed by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to the Zoroastrian tradition, particularly
concerning beliefs about the End of Time. Despite difficulties in dating the Iranian materials, significant advances have recently been made and a clearer consensus has
emerged. In the light of these advances the lack of any significant response from mainstream Biblical and Religious Studies in the Anglophone world is hard to justify. The
almost total failure to respond to the claims of scholars of Iranian history cannot be adequately explained in terms of warranted academic caution and understandable
uncertainty, but must be attributed to less defensible ideological causes.
THE INTERNATIONAL ELIADE:
Recipient of the American Library Association Choice award as an
Outstanding Scholarly Volume.
2007 from the State University of New York Press, a collection of critical essays on
Mircea Eliade by authors from around the world, excluding the Anglophone world. This anthology grows out of two Symposium sessions at:
IAHR
DURBAN CONGRESS 2000
MIRCEA ELIADE: A CRITICAL READER
2006 from Equinox Books (see
under "Critical Categories in the Study of Religion"). This anthology is a collection of key essays by and about the Romanian-American Historian of Religions. It introduces the beginning student to the terms and categories of
Eliade's understanding of religious behavior as a universal phenomenon.
XVIII Quinquennial Congress:
Durban, 5-12 August 2000
Please e-mail inquiries to:
Bryan Rennie