Why Animals and Religion Now

Over the last few of years, coming on the heels of a general turn toward the animal within the humanities and social sciences, a turn toward the animal and religion has taken place. This paper seeks to highlight some of the reasons why this turn has begun to take place and why thus turn has begun to take place only now. The works of Aaron Gross and Donovan Schaefer, I contend, represent a turning point in the history of the subject of religious studies for, in their work, other (non-human) animals are considered, as possible religious agents. Here, I engage the work of G.W.F. Hegel, Jacques Derrida, Émile Durkheim, J.Z. Smith, and Georges Bataille, to demonstrate the extent to which our thinking about religion has determined who can count as a religious subject and why the relatively recent turn toward religion and animals constitutes such a significant gesture within the history of religious studies and, for that matter, within the humanities in general

Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Hegelianism · Social science · Sociology · Subject (documents · Subject matter · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Philosophy · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics · Religious Tourism and Spaces

• An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation

  Jeremy Bentham•Princeton Readings in Political…•2018

  Incluir item

• Religion, Modernity, and Politics in Hegel

  Thomas A Lewis•Religion, modernity, and politics…•2011

  Incluir item

• The Western Construction of Religion

  Daniel Dubuisson, Name Missing•The western construction of…•2007

  Incluir item

• The Koyukon Bear Party and the "Bare Facts" of Ritual

  Benjamin C Ray•Numen•1991

  Incluir item

• What Bodies Know About Religion and the Study of It

  Kimerer L Lamothe•Journal of the American Academy…•2008

  Incluir item

• Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View

  Open Access•Immanuel Kant, Mary J Gregor•Anthropology from a Pragmatic…•1974

  Incluir item

• Primitive Classification (Routledge Revivals)

  Emile Durkheim, Marcel Mau et al.•Primitive Classification…•2009

  Incluir item

• Bear Ceremonialism in the Northern Hemisphere

  Open Access•A Irving Hallowell•American Anthropologist•1926

  Incluir item