The theological enemies of religious studies
Theology and secularism in the trivialization and personalization of religion in the west
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4372385 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jacob Neusner (Brown University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1988 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 21-35 |
| Publication date | 1988-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religion (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0048-721X • E-ISSN: 1096-1151 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1016/s0048-721x(88)80016-2 |
| OpenAlex | W1551994059 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
The academic study of religion faces enemies on two fronts: secular and theological. The two come together on a single proposition. It is that religion is personal and private, not social, not an issue of culture, politics, public interest. What people do when they study religion, therefore, is to analyze an interior world, a world with little bearing on the realities of public discourse. Accordingly, no reason tells us why we should study religion, because, as a private and personal matter, there is something to be reported and recorded, but not studied. The study of religion, within tiffs theology, does not involve knowledge of the world, but only of the individual at the most unique and unrepresentative. Religion, the totality of private messages, does not make itself available for study and analysis, for communication in public discourse. Within the theological theory of the matter, there is slight basis for academic study, for there is nothing to know, only something to report for the appreciation and edification of others. The accumulated messages of God's communication to individuals, one by one and in an intensely personal way, of course impress the secular enemies of religious studies as nonsense. The world presents more important subjects for study than nonsense. So, for its own reasons, the secular side concurs that religion is intensely personal. Religion is something not public, therefore not a matter of knowledge. Theological and secular enemies of religious studies therefore trivialize religion. That is how theological and secular enemies of religious studies treat religion as something essentially beyond all social analysis, irrelevant to the formation of culture and the study of society. The consequences of that view for the academic study of religion are spelled out
Atheism · Epistemology · Lived religion · Nonsense · Nothing · Political science · Politics · Proposition · Public reason · Secular education · Secular state · Sociology · Theology · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,08 |
| Citation span | 1990 - 1994 (5) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |