Jason N Blum
Biographic Data
| ID | 5178097 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jason N Blum |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jason N |
| FAMILY NAME | Blum |
| SIGNATURE | BLUM J N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Davidson College |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Beyond Methodological Axioms
Since nearly the field’s birth, religious studies has been plagued by the question of how to deal with claims concerning the supernatural. Strategies for addressing the issue typically take the form of one or another methodological axiom, typically either methodological atheism or methodological agnosticism. Although each axiom answers legitimate concerns about how to address supernatural claims, each is also vulnerable to substantial objections.…
The Question of Methodological Naturalism
"The traditions and institutions that we call religions abound with references to the supernatural: ancestral spirits, karma, the afterlife, miracles, revelation, deities, etc. How are students of religion to approach the behaviors, doctrines, and beliefs that refer to such phenomena, which by their very nature are supposed to defy the methods of empirical research and the theories of historical scholarship? That is the question of methodological…
The Question of Methodological Naturalism
The traditions and institutions that we call religions abound with references to the supernatural: ancestral spirits, karma, the afterlife, miracles, revelation, deities, etc. How are students of religion to approach the behaviors, doctrines, and beliefs that refer to such phenomena, which by their very nature are supposed to defy the methods of empirical research and the theories of historical scholarship? That is the question of methodological …
Public discourse and the myth of religious speech
Critics of public religious speech have proposed various strategies for limiting the presence of religion in the public square, while proponents of public religious speech argue that such limitations constitute an infringement of the freedom of speech. For theoretical, practical, and ethical reasons, I argue for dismissing the category of ‘religious speech’, which rests on the erroneous assumption of a clear distinction between ‘the religious’ an…
Belief: Problems and Pseudo-Problems
For decades, religious studies has struggled with the concept of belief. Many scholars have criticized the concept as misleading the discipline, and some have suggested that it be abandoned entirely. Contrary to this trend, I argue that the concept of belief is not only useful but in fact unavoidable in our scholarship. While legitimate concerns about the proper use and conceptualization of it have been raised, I argue that these can and must be …
Comparison and the Spectre of Perennialism: A Reply to Craig Martin
Craig Martin accuses me of repeating the mistakes of perennialism, perpetuating an irresponsible and covertly theological approach to research that rushes to identify dubious “similarities” in religious experience across culture and history. While it is true that I identify cross-cultural similarities in the accounts of mystical experience that I examine in Zen and the Unspeakable God , that argument is based on historical evidence, and does not …
William James on How to Study Experience: Integrating Phenomenology of Religion and Radical Empiricism
William James stands at the nexus of two intellectual traditions important to religious studies: phenomenology of religion and radical empiricism. Focusing on James’s work, I identify three essential points of contact between radical empiricism and phenomenology of religion: epoché, the affective character of consciousness, and the inevitably open-ended nature of experience. I argue that these resonances allow them to be integrated, thereby furni…
The Science of Consciousness and Mystical Experience: An Argument for Radical Empiricism
Recent evidence in neuroscience and psychology militates against the dominant theory of consciousness that has typically been used in explaining mystical experience—a neo-Kantian model that emphasizes concepts and language as the necessary foundations of consciousness. Findings in neuroanatomy, psychology, and evolutionary biology indi-cate that emotion is more fundamental to consciousness than previously suspected, and that language does not pla…
Interpreting vs. Explaining: A Rejoinder to Robert Segal
THANKS TO ROBERT SEGAL for his response, in which he argues that the distinction I draw between interpretation (analysis that discloses embedded assumptions and meanings that characterize the religious subject's perspective) and explanation (a causal account from the scholar's perspective) is not possible. He writes that the “religionist interpretation of religious experience is not separable from the religionist explanation of religious experien…
Radical Empiricism and the Unremarkable Nature of Mystic Ineffability
Ineffability has long been considered a hallmark of mystical experience. Dominant trends in epistemology and the study of mysticism, however, hold that experience is fundamentally conceptual and linguistic in nature, and therefore that experience cannot actually be ineffable. From this perspective, ineffability claims stymie analysis, and their cross-cultural prevalence in mystic traditions is problematic. Radical empiricism dissolves these diffi…
Retrieving Phenomenology of Religion as a Method for Religious Studies
Journal Article Retrieving Phenomenology of Religion as a Method for Religious Studies Get access Jason N. Blum Jason N. Blum * *Jason N. Blum, Department of History, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt. E-mail: [email protected]. My thanks to Walter Conser, Adam Graves, and the two anonymous reviewers of the JAAR for comments and feedback on this article. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journa…
Pragmatism and Naturalism in Religious Studies
Given the close relationship between pragmatism and naturalism, incorporation of the former into religious studies methodology might seem to privilege the latter. I question this intuition by examining dimensions of pragmatism which suggest that it is more amenable to theism, and less closely tied to naturalism, than many suppose. Pragmatism encourages theoretical openness and reflectivity, which militate against exclusively privileging any parti…
Retrieving Phenomenology of Religion as a Method for Religious Studies
Journal Article Retrieving Phenomenology of Religion as a Method for Religious Studies Get access Jason N. Blum Jason N. Blum * *Jason N. Blum, Department of History, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt. E-mail: [email protected]. My thanks to Walter Conser, Adam Graves, and the two anonymous reviewers of the JAAR for comments and feedback on this article. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journa…
Belief: Problems and Pseudo-Problems
For decades, religious studies has struggled with the concept of belief. Many scholars have criticized the concept as misleading the discipline, and some have suggested that it be abandoned entirely. Contrary to this trend, I argue that the concept of belief is not only useful but in fact unavoidable in our scholarship. While legitimate concerns about the proper use and conceptualization of it have been raised, I argue that these can and must be …
The Science of Consciousness and Mystical Experience: An Argument for Radical Empiricism
Recent evidence in neuroscience and psychology militates against the dominant theory of consciousness that has typically been used in explaining mystical experience—a neo-Kantian model that emphasizes concepts and language as the necessary foundations of consciousness. Findings in neuroanatomy, psychology, and evolutionary biology indi-cate that emotion is more fundamental to consciousness than previously suspected, and that language does not pla…
Interpreting vs. Explaining: A Rejoinder to Robert Segal
THANKS TO ROBERT SEGAL for his response, in which he argues that the distinction I draw between interpretation (analysis that discloses embedded assumptions and meanings that characterize the religious subject's perspective) and explanation (a causal account from the scholar's perspective) is not possible. He writes that the “religionist interpretation of religious experience is not separable from the religionist explanation of religious experien…
Beyond Methodological Axioms
Since nearly the field’s birth, religious studies has been plagued by the question of how to deal with claims concerning the supernatural. Strategies for addressing the issue typically take the form of one or another methodological axiom, typically either methodological atheism or methodological agnosticism. Although each axiom answers legitimate concerns about how to address supernatural claims, each is also vulnerable to substantial objections.…
Comparison and the Spectre of Perennialism: A Reply to Craig Martin
Craig Martin accuses me of repeating the mistakes of perennialism, perpetuating an irresponsible and covertly theological approach to research that rushes to identify dubious “similarities” in religious experience across culture and history. While it is true that I identify cross-cultural similarities in the accounts of mystical experience that I examine in Zen and the Unspeakable God , that argument is based on historical evidence, and does not …
Radical Empiricism and the Unremarkable Nature of Mystic Ineffability
Ineffability has long been considered a hallmark of mystical experience. Dominant trends in epistemology and the study of mysticism, however, hold that experience is fundamentally conceptual and linguistic in nature, and therefore that experience cannot actually be ineffable. From this perspective, ineffability claims stymie analysis, and their cross-cultural prevalence in mystic traditions is problematic. Radical empiricism dissolves these diffi…
Pragmatism and Naturalism in Religious Studies
Given the close relationship between pragmatism and naturalism, incorporation of the former into religious studies methodology might seem to privilege the latter. I question this intuition by examining dimensions of pragmatism which suggest that it is more amenable to theism, and less closely tied to naturalism, than many suppose. Pragmatism encourages theoretical openness and reflectivity, which militate against exclusively privileging any parti…
Pragmatism and Naturalism in Religious Studies
Given the close relationship between pragmatism and naturalism, incorporation of the former into religious studies methodology might seem to privilege the latter. I question this intuition by examining dimensions of pragmatism which suggest that it is more amenable to theism, and less closely tied to naturalism, than many suppose. Pragmatism encourages theoretical openness and reflectivity, which militate against exclusively privileging any parti…
Radical Empiricism and the Unremarkable Nature of Mystic Ineffability
Ineffability has long been considered a hallmark of mystical experience. Dominant trends in epistemology and the study of mysticism, however, hold that experience is fundamentally conceptual and linguistic in nature, and therefore that experience cannot actually be ineffable. From this perspective, ineffability claims stymie analysis, and their cross-cultural prevalence in mystic traditions is problematic. Radical empiricism dissolves these diffi…
Retrieving Phenomenology of Religion as a Method for Religious Studies
Journal Article Retrieving Phenomenology of Religion as a Method for Religious Studies Get access Jason N. Blum Jason N. Blum * *Jason N. Blum, Department of History, The American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt. E-mail: [email protected]. My thanks to Walter Conser, Adam Graves, and the two anonymous reviewers of the JAAR for comments and feedback on this article. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journa…
The Science of Consciousness and Mystical Experience: An Argument for Radical Empiricism
Recent evidence in neuroscience and psychology militates against the dominant theory of consciousness that has typically been used in explaining mystical experience—a neo-Kantian model that emphasizes concepts and language as the necessary foundations of consciousness. Findings in neuroanatomy, psychology, and evolutionary biology indi-cate that emotion is more fundamental to consciousness than previously suspected, and that language does not pla…
Interpreting vs. Explaining: A Rejoinder to Robert Segal
THANKS TO ROBERT SEGAL for his response, in which he argues that the distinction I draw between interpretation (analysis that discloses embedded assumptions and meanings that characterize the religious subject's perspective) and explanation (a causal account from the scholar's perspective) is not possible. He writes that the “religionist interpretation of religious experience is not separable from the religionist explanation of religious experien…
William James on How to Study Experience: Integrating Phenomenology of Religion and Radical Empiricism
William James stands at the nexus of two intellectual traditions important to religious studies: phenomenology of religion and radical empiricism. Focusing on James’s work, I identify three essential points of contact between radical empiricism and phenomenology of religion: epoché, the affective character of consciousness, and the inevitably open-ended nature of experience. I argue that these resonances allow them to be integrated, thereby furni…
Comparison and the Spectre of Perennialism: A Reply to Craig Martin
Craig Martin accuses me of repeating the mistakes of perennialism, perpetuating an irresponsible and covertly theological approach to research that rushes to identify dubious “similarities” in religious experience across culture and history. While it is true that I identify cross-cultural similarities in the accounts of mystical experience that I examine in Zen and the Unspeakable God , that argument is based on historical evidence, and does not …
The Question of Methodological Naturalism
"The traditions and institutions that we call religions abound with references to the supernatural: ancestral spirits, karma, the afterlife, miracles, revelation, deities, etc. How are students of religion to approach the behaviors, doctrines, and beliefs that refer to such phenomena, which by their very nature are supposed to defy the methods of empirical research and the theories of historical scholarship? That is the question of methodological…
The Question of Methodological Naturalism
The traditions and institutions that we call religions abound with references to the supernatural: ancestral spirits, karma, the afterlife, miracles, revelation, deities, etc. How are students of religion to approach the behaviors, doctrines, and beliefs that refer to such phenomena, which by their very nature are supposed to defy the methods of empirical research and the theories of historical scholarship? That is the question of methodological …
Public discourse and the myth of religious speech
Critics of public religious speech have proposed various strategies for limiting the presence of religion in the public square, while proponents of public religious speech argue that such limitations constitute an infringement of the freedom of speech. For theoretical, practical, and ethical reasons, I argue for dismissing the category of ‘religious speech’, which rests on the erroneous assumption of a clear distinction between ‘the religious’ an…
Belief: Problems and Pseudo-Problems
For decades, religious studies has struggled with the concept of belief. Many scholars have criticized the concept as misleading the discipline, and some have suggested that it be abandoned entirely. Contrary to this trend, I argue that the concept of belief is not only useful but in fact unavoidable in our scholarship. While legitimate concerns about the proper use and conceptualization of it have been raised, I argue that these can and must be …
Beyond Methodological Axioms
Since nearly the field’s birth, religious studies has been plagued by the question of how to deal with claims concerning the supernatural. Strategies for addressing the issue typically take the form of one or another methodological axiom, typically either methodological atheism or methodological agnosticism. Although each axiom answers legitimate concerns about how to address supernatural claims, each is also vulnerable to substantial objections.…
Epistemology (12 works) · Philosophy (12 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (9 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Study and Philosophy of Religion (7 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (4 works) · Theology (4 works) · Consciousness (3 works) · Empiricism (3 works)