Fabricating Origins

"On the surface, the book appears more cultural studies than religious studies, but this is in fact the book's greatest strength: the essays force us not only to recognize the pervasiveness of origins narratives, but also to consider how intertwined religion is with other social institutions. These essays could be useful for triggering discussions about origins in undergraduate classrooms." --Zeba A. Crook, Carleton University, Religious Studies Review 42.4 (December 2016)

Russell T. McCutcheon is Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. His major publications include Manufacutring Religion (Oxford University Press, 1997), The Guide to the Study of Religion (Bloomsbury, 2000), Critics not Caretakers: Redescribing the Public Study of Religion (State University of New York Press, 2001) and The Discipline of Religion: Structure, Meaning, Rhetoric (Routledge, 2003). His most recent book, co-authored with William Arnal, is The Sacred is the Profane: The Political Nature of 'Religion' (Oxford University Press, 2013).

Preface Introduction Midnight in the Study of Origins Russell T. McCutcheon Buying Origins 1. Our Sofas, Ourselves Leslie Dorrough Smith, Avila University 2. Our Stuff, Our Stories Kat Daley Bailey, University of Georgia Techniques of Then and Now 3. When the Stakes Are High Vaia Touna, University of Alberta 4.High Stakes on the High Court Mike Graziano, Florida State University Pick a Past, Any Past 5. The Politics of Choice Craig Martin, St Thomas Aquinas College 6. The Origins Games Karen de Vries, University of California, Santa Cruz Selling Identities 7. One Coffee Bean at a Time Monica Miller, Lehigh University 8. Marketing Christian Roots Steffen Fuhrding, Leibniz University We Are What We Choose to Recall 9. Remember the Ala-what-now? K. Merinda Simmons, University of Alabama 10. We Are What Archive Elonda Clay, Philander Smith College Constituting and Contesting the Nation 11. Patricide and the Nation Steven Ramey, University of Alabama 12. Our Disparate Fathers Alexis Glenn, Brown University Knowing When Not to Laugh 13. Searching for Chimaeras Vaia Touna 14. "A Joke's a Very Serious Thing" Tara Baldrick-Morrone, Florida State University The Good Old Days 15. The Way We Were - ? K. Merinda Simmons 16. The Way We Worked - James Dennis LoRusso, Emory University A Little Ambiguity Goes a Long Way 17. Coloring Columbus Leslie Dorrough Smith 18. Tracing the Visible and Invisible Martha L. Smith Roberts, University of California, Santa Barbara A Genealogy of the Past 19. Writing a History of Origins Russell T. McCutcheon 20. Competing Christs Brad Stoddard, Florida State University Afterword Origins Today Russell T. McCutcheon