Religion as a Social Kind

This essay critically discusses Stanley Stowers’s History and the Study of Religion (2024) as a bold criticism of antirealist and constructivist approaches and therefore a contribution to a realist turn in the study of religions. It interrogates the validity of its theoretical cornerstone of “religion as a social kind” and its distinction of religious “subkinds”. Moreover, the essay highlights the methodological strengths of Stowers’s critique of Christian origins narratives and his emphasis on non-elite religious practices, yet questions the payoff of the “social kind” framework relative to recent scholarship in the field. With the help of comparative perspectives from Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Judaean traditions, the essay assesses the broader applicability of Stowers’s theory and proposes additional perspectives. Ultimately, while recognizing its contributions, the essay calls for further conceptual clarification and integration with wider theoretical and historical debates

Cornerstone · Criticism · Metatheory · Narrative · Scholarship · Social constructivism · Globalization, Historical Perspectives, and International Relations · Islamic Studies and History · Study and Philosophy of Religion