Richard King is professor of Buddhist and Asian studies at the University of Kent. He is the author of Early Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism (1995); Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial Theory, India, and the "Mystic East" (1999); Indian Philosophy: An Introduction to Hindu and Buddhist Thought (1999); and Selling Spirituality: The Silent Takeover of Religion (2004, with Jeremy Carrette).

Covering an important and impressive range of theoretical approaches and critical engagement, this sophisticated book will be a useful resource for serious scholars of religion as well as those working in related fields such as anthropology, sociology of religion, and psychology of religion. -- Hugh Urban, Ohio State University Once driven by a comparative method on the trail of timeless universals, the academic study of religion is today an entirely different beast: a newer generation is far more sensitive to viewpoint, theory, and the practical implications of scholarship itself. Religion, Theory, Critique offers a set of state-of-the-art essays that keep in sight both the study of religious people as well as those who classify them as religious. It therefore sets the table for scrutinizing the entire field-including our tools and our assumptions. -- Russell McCutcheon, University of Alabama This volume will quickly become essential to undergraduate and graduate 'theory and method' courses, as well as a range of 'religion and culture' courses and graduate student reading lists. -- M. Gail Hamner, Syracuse University

• Preface Acknowledgments 1. The Copernican Turn in the Study of Religion, by Richard King Part 1: Historical Foundations/Genealogies 2. Nominalist "Judaism" and the Late-Ancient Invention of Religion, by Daniel Boyarin 3. Bible/Religion/Critique, by Ward Blanton and Yvonne Sherwood 4. Hegel: On Secularity and the Religion-Making Machine, by Arvind Mandair 5. Friedrich Max Muller and the Science of Religion, by Lourens van den Bosch 6. Classic Comparative Theology and the Study of Religion, by Hugh Nicholson 7. Religion, Religious Studies, and Shinto in Modern Japan, by Jun'ichi Isomae Part 2: The Enlightenment Critique of Religion 8. David Hume on Religion, by Randall Styers 9. Feuerbach on Religion, by Jay Geller 10. Nietzsche: Life, Works, Reception, by Tyler Roberts 11. Sigmund Freud on Religion, by Volney Gay 12. Karl Marx on Religion, by Terry Rey 13. "Religion" in the Writings of the New Atheists, by Tina Beattie Part 3: Religion Beyond the West 14. Indigenous African Traditions as Models for Theorizing Religion, by Edward P. Antonio 15. Zongjiao and the Category of Religion in China, by Ya-pei Kuo 16. Islamic D?n as an Alternative to Western Models of "Religion", by Ahmet T. Karamustafa 17. Translation, by Arvind Mandair Part 4: Religion as Experience 18. The Psychology of Religion, by Jeremy Carrette 19. William James and the Study of Religion: A Critical Reading, by Jeremy Carrette and David Lamberth 20. Rudolf Otto and the Idea of the Holy, by Gregory Alles 21. Jung on Religion, by Volney Gay 22. Religion and the Brain: Cognitive Science as a Basis for Theories of Religion, by Ilkka Pyysiainen 23. A Critical Response to Cognitivist Theories of Religion, by Steven Engler and Mark Quentin Gardiner Part 5: Religion, Language, and Myth 24. "Religion" in Anglo-American (Analytical) Philosophy of Religion, by Ludger Viefhues-Bailey 25. Structuralist Linguistics and Structuralist Theories of Religion, by Volney Gay 26. Imagining, Manufacturing, and Theorizing Myth: An Overview of Key Theories of Myth and Religion, by Daniel Dubuisson Part 6: Religion/Society/Culture 27. The Origins of the Sociology of Religion: The Problem of "Religion" and "Religions" in Classical Sociology, by Bryan S. Turner 28. Contemporary Social Theory and Religion: The Misconstrual of Religion in Theories of "Second" Modernity, by Simon Speck 29. Classical Anthropological Theories of Religion, by Randall Styers 30. Defining Religion: Geertz and Asad, by Jon P. Mitchell 31. Religion, Media, and Cultural Studies, by Richard Fox Part 7: Religion, Ritual, and Action 32. Classic Ritual Theories, by Ulrike Brunotte 33. The Myth-Ritual Debate, by Ulrike Brunotte 34. From Ritual to Ritualization, by Jon P. Mitchell 35. Religion and Theories of Action, by Kocku von Stuckrad Part 8: The Phenomenology of Religion and Its Critics 36. Phenomenology of Religion: The Philosophical Background, by Charles E. Scott 37. The Phenomenology of Religion, by James L. Cox 38. Mircea Eliade, by Gregory Alles 39. Critical Responses to Phenomenological Theories of Religion: What Kind of Category Is "Religion"?, by William Arnal 40. Critical Religion: "Religion" Is Not a Stand-Alone Category, by Timothy Fitzgerald Part 9: Religion and Contemporary European Thought 41. Post-Marxism and Religion, by Nelson Maldonado-Torres 42. Pierre Bourdieu on Religion, by Terry Rey 43. Jacques Derrida on Religion, by Ellen Armour 44. Foucault and the Study of Religion, by Jeremy Carrette 45. Contemporary Continental Philosophy and the "Return of the Religious", by Randall Styers Part 10: Religion, Gender, and Sexuality 46. Feminist Approaches to the Study of Religion, by Darlene Juschka 47. French Feminism and Religion, by Morny Joy 48. Queer Theory Meets Critical Religion: Are We Starting to Think Yet?, by Naomi R. Goldenberg Part 11: Religion, Coloniality and Race 49. Religion, Modernity, and Coloniality, by Nelson Maldonado-Torres 50. Apartheid Comparative Religion in South Africa, by David Chidester 51. Theorizing Race and Religion: Du Bois, Cox, and Fanon, by William David Hart 52. Black Cultural Criticism, the New Politics of Difference, and Religious Criticism, by Victor Anderson 53. Theorizing Black Religious Studies: A Genealogy, by Victor Anderson Part 12: Religion/Nation/Globalization 54. Religion and Violence, by William T. Cavanaugh 55. Religion and Economy, by Gregory Alles 56. Globalization and Religion, by Jeremy Carrette List of Contributors Index