Steven Ramey
Biographic Data
| ID | 3687753 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Steven Ramey |
| GIVEN NAMES | Steven |
| FAMILY NAME | Ramey |
| SIGNATURE | RAMEY S |
| AFFILIATIONS | 1Department of Religious Studies, 212 Manly Hall, P.O. Box 870264, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487–0264, USA |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 8 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Teaching the Religions of the World in an Age of Polarization
Teaching a course on religions of the world is challenging, especially considering the cogent critiques of that paradigm and the history of its construction. In our courses and text, we have employed a strategy comparing different representations of a single religion to help students develop analytical and critical thinking skills. Within this approach, we employ a functionalist methodology that addresses how each representation of a religion emp…
Religions of the World
Religions of the World: Questions, Challenges, and New Directions provides a critical introduction to the social, political, and cultural interests that inform how people describe and identify with religion. One of its goals is to provide a sense of methodological transparency that few, if any, other textbooks today offer. The book opens with an Introduction that discusses contemporary methodological concerns in the study of religion, with specia…
What To Do with World Religions
This essay describes an approach to the Religions of the World course that incorporates the critique of the World Religions Paradigm and teaches the Paradigm as a set of discourses that are open to analysis. The focus of the course is teaching the critical analysis of representations, which i argue is more important than teaching religious literacy, though this course also provides some religious literacy while acknowledging that those terms and …
When Acceptance Reflects Disrespect
The late Hans Penner critiqued the Phenomenology of Religion 25 years ago for confusing the subject and its object. His critique remains relevant to contemporary methods that accept participant statements uncritically. Beginning with a detailed analysis of one lived religion article and expanding to a broader critique, this essay illustrates the contradictions that remain in lived religion methodologies and similar approaches to the study of reli…
Textbooks, Assumptions, and Us
Commenting on Jimmy Emanuelsson’s analysis of three Islam textbooks used in Sweden, this essay expands his critique of these textbooks to address the systemic issues in the assumptions about “religion” and world religions discourse. As Emanuelsson’s analysis focuses on the textbooks themselves, this essay considers the efforts that professors can take to contest the textbooks within a course
Keeping "critical" critical
In early March 2014, some of the members of Culture on the Edge-a scholarly research collaboration of seven scholars of religion, interested in more theoretically sophisticated studies of identity, and all of whom are at different career stages and at a variety of North American institutions-had a conversation online on the use of the terms "critique" and "critical," terms widely used in the field today but employed in such a variety of ways that…
Hindu Minorities and the Limits of Hindu Inclusiveness
Challenging Definitions
Much contemporary scholarship in Religious Studies emphasizes communities who contest the standard definitions of their religion. However, religious labels and terms such as syncretism often implicitly validate the dominant definitions that identify these diverse practices as peripheral. This essay explores the challenges that the dominant definitions present to such communities and suggests an emphasis on agency and the contestation surrounding …
Textbooks, Assumptions, and Us
Commenting on Jimmy Emanuelsson’s analysis of three Islam textbooks used in Sweden, this essay expands his critique of these textbooks to address the systemic issues in the assumptions about “religion” and world religions discourse. As Emanuelsson’s analysis focuses on the textbooks themselves, this essay considers the efforts that professors can take to contest the textbooks within a course
When Acceptance Reflects Disrespect
The late Hans Penner critiqued the Phenomenology of Religion 25 years ago for confusing the subject and its object. His critique remains relevant to contemporary methods that accept participant statements uncritically. Beginning with a detailed analysis of one lived religion article and expanding to a broader critique, this essay illustrates the contradictions that remain in lived religion methodologies and similar approaches to the study of reli…
Keeping "critical" critical
In early March 2014, some of the members of Culture on the Edge-a scholarly research collaboration of seven scholars of religion, interested in more theoretically sophisticated studies of identity, and all of whom are at different career stages and at a variety of North American institutions-had a conversation online on the use of the terms "critique" and "critical," terms widely used in the field today but employed in such a variety of ways that…
Challenging Definitions
Much contemporary scholarship in Religious Studies emphasizes communities who contest the standard definitions of their religion. However, religious labels and terms such as syncretism often implicitly validate the dominant definitions that identify these diverse practices as peripheral. This essay explores the challenges that the dominant definitions present to such communities and suggests an emphasis on agency and the contestation surrounding …
Hindu Minorities and the Limits of Hindu Inclusiveness
Textbooks, Assumptions, and Us
Commenting on Jimmy Emanuelsson’s analysis of three Islam textbooks used in Sweden, this essay expands his critique of these textbooks to address the systemic issues in the assumptions about “religion” and world religions discourse. As Emanuelsson’s analysis focuses on the textbooks themselves, this essay considers the efforts that professors can take to contest the textbooks within a course
Keeping "critical" critical
In early March 2014, some of the members of Culture on the Edge-a scholarly research collaboration of seven scholars of religion, interested in more theoretically sophisticated studies of identity, and all of whom are at different career stages and at a variety of North American institutions-had a conversation online on the use of the terms "critique" and "critical," terms widely used in the field today but employed in such a variety of ways that…
When Acceptance Reflects Disrespect
The late Hans Penner critiqued the Phenomenology of Religion 25 years ago for confusing the subject and its object. His critique remains relevant to contemporary methods that accept participant statements uncritically. Beginning with a detailed analysis of one lived religion article and expanding to a broader critique, this essay illustrates the contradictions that remain in lived religion methodologies and similar approaches to the study of reli…
What To Do with World Religions
This essay describes an approach to the Religions of the World course that incorporates the critique of the World Religions Paradigm and teaches the Paradigm as a set of discourses that are open to analysis. The focus of the course is teaching the critical analysis of representations, which i argue is more important than teaching religious literacy, though this course also provides some religious literacy while acknowledging that those terms and …
Teaching the Religions of the World in an Age of Polarization
Teaching a course on religions of the world is challenging, especially considering the cogent critiques of that paradigm and the history of its construction. In our courses and text, we have employed a strategy comparing different representations of a single religion to help students develop analytical and critical thinking skills. Within this approach, we employ a functionalist methodology that addresses how each representation of a religion emp…
Religions of the World
Religions of the World: Questions, Challenges, and New Directions provides a critical introduction to the social, political, and cultural interests that inform how people describe and identify with religion. One of its goals is to provide a sense of methodological transparency that few, if any, other textbooks today offer. The book opens with an Introduction that discusses contemporary methodological concerns in the study of religion, with specia…
Religion and Society Interactions (7 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Study and Philosophy of Religion (5 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · Philosophy (3 works) · Religious studies (3 works) · Social science (3 works) · CONTEST (2 works)