Claiming Identity in the Study of Religion

Monica R. Miller is Assistant Professor of Religion and Africana Studies at Lehigh University and among other publications, author of Religion and Hip Hop (Routledge). Miller currently serves as a Senior Research Fellow with The Institute for Humanist Studies.

"Miller and her contributing authors remind us that concepts such as 'identity,' 'culture,' and 'religion,' are anything but self-evident. Rather than tangible material entities, they are ghosts given form by the writer's desires." Sean McCloud, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina, Charlotte "Claiming Identity in the Study of Religion tackles some of the most formidable questions relating to the discursive construction of identity that scholars and students struggle to negotiate. Whether you find yourself nodding in agreement with these essays, or eagerly searching for weaknesses in their arguments, the book provides an accessible and invaluable entryway into theoretical challenges religious studies scholars face when making identity claims and points toward fruitful methods of dealing with questions of classification. This is a 'must read' for anyone interested in identity formation." Craig Prentiss, Professor of Religious Studies, Rockhurst University, Missouri "When religion, culture, society, identity, and other such concepts are destabilized and revealed to be dynamic, manufactured constructs, what is the academic study of religion to do? One answer, as represented by the essays in this provocative volume, is to turn to the study of processes of classification. The studies of strategies of identification contained within exemplify recent attempts to rethink the study of religion as the reflexive examination of 'battles for capital and positions.'" Richard J. Callahan, Jr., Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Missouri "This book undoubtedly...has merit as a classroom text, whether at the graduate or undergraduate level. Undergraduates may especially benefit from some of the outstanding commentary..." --Neil George, Reading Religion

• Editor's Introduction Monica R. Miller Topic I: Claiming Identity K. Merinda Simmons (University of Alabama): '"Well, Isn't That Special?': What We Talk about When We Talk about Identity" Russell T. McCutcheon (University of Alabama): "Will Your Cognitive Anchor Hold in the Storms of Culture?" Topic II: Behind the 'A-historical' Leslie Dorrough Smith (Avila University): "Everything is a Cemetery: On the History Behind the 'Ahistorical"' Russell T. McCutcheon: "The Melancholy Empire Builder: The Life and Works of Mircea Eliade" Topic III: Theoretical and Methodological Cake Monica R. Miller: "Who Is the Nigger?: Strategies of Using the 'N' Word and Having it Both Ways" Russell T. McCutcheon: "A Gift with Diminished Returns: On Jeff Kripal's The Serpent's Gift" Topic IV: Costs of Conceptual Colonialism Craig Martin (St Thomas Aquinas College): "Conceptual Colonialism: How Descriptions Carry Explanations" Russell T. McCutcheon: "It's a Lie. There's No Truth in It! It's a Sin!": The Cost of Saving Others from Themselves" Topic V: Cost-Benefit Analysis Steven Ramey (University of Alabama): "Authorizing Identifications, Disciplining Techniques: The Affinities of Public Advocacy" Russell T. McCutcheon: "Affinities, Benefits, and Costs: The ABCs of Good Scholars Gone Public" Topic VI: Limiting Engagements Vaia Touna (University of Alberta, PhD candidate): "What's New is Old Again: The Restoration of Tradition" Russell T. McCutcheon: "The Resiliency of Conceptual Anachronisms: On the Limits of 'the West' and 'Religion"' Afterword Steven Ramey: "Accidental Favorites: The Implicit in the Study of Religion"