The Ideology of Religious Studies Then and Now

The Author’s View

Bibliographic Data

ID20206802
AuthorsTimothy Fitzgerald (0000-0002-8586-6895, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume22
Issue3-4
Pages268-290
Publication date2020-08-04
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueImplicit Religion (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1463-9955 • E-ISSN: 1743-1697
PublisherEquinox Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1558/imre.41788
OpenAlexW3046991104
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited4

I have found it challenging and productive to revisit The Ideology of Religious Studies (IRS) twenty years after its publication. This article outlines the background to, and motivations for, writing IRS. IRS contains various arguments aimed against a complex target: liberal capitalism and agencies that serve to normalise its precepts and practices, particularly religious studies and the social sciences more widely. IRS was an early stage in a longer-term project – critical religion – that is still evolving. A core part of the argument was and is that the invention of generic religion and its binary opposite the non-religious secular operates rhetorically to make capitalism and liberal Individualism seem “natural,” with a mask of scientific objectivity, normality and respectability. However, I see retrospectively that there are two potentially antagonistic projects in IRS – limited critique and extended critique – which need to be analytically distinguished. This distinction may help to explain some differences in the responses of contributors

Capitalism · Conservatism · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Ideology · Individualism · Liberalism · Political science · Politics · Secularism · Social science · Sociology · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religion, Society, and Development · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology

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