Recognizing Religion

Disciplinary Traditions, Epistemology, and History

Bibliographic Data

ID9205003
AuthorsM Lambek (0000-0003-4629-1301, University of Toronto, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume61
Issue2-3
Pages145-165
Publication date2014-03-18
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueNumen (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0029-5973 • E-ISSN: 1568-5276
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/15685276-12341313
OpenAlexW1974041156
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited28

Questions of methodology hang on epistemology. I consider the conceptualization of the subject of the study of religion, arguing that the disciplines that carry out the study and also the objects or subjects of their study can be understood as traditions. I briefly review the conceptualization of religion within the anthropological tradition, noting a tension between understanding religion as socially immanent or as a set of explicit beliefs and practices constitutive of the transcendent. Religion is probably conceptualized rather differently within religious studies, especially insofar as each tradition has formulated itself in relation to secularism in its own way and in relation to, or confrontation with, other distinct traditions, whether of science or theology. Drawing on a meteorological metaphor, I suggest that both disciplines and religions qua traditions can be understood to change along historical “fronts;” these form both the conditions of our knowledge and its appropriate subject matter

Conceptualization · Discipline · Epistemology · History of religions · Metaphor · Relation (database) · Social science · Sociology · Subject (documents) · Theology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies · Study and Philosophy of Religion

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