Theology and Religious Studies in Higher Education

D.L. Bird is Subject Coordinator for Theology for the Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies, University of Leeds, UK. She is co-editor (with Yvonne Sherwood) of Bodies in Question: Gender, Religion, Text (Ashgate 2005) and associate editor with David Jasper and George Newlands of Believing in the Text (Peter Lang 2004). Simon G. Smith is Associate Director of the Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies, University of Leeds, UK.

"This is a remarkable a timely collection of essays addressing the highly contested relationship between the study of theology and religious studies in universities. The debate and differences between the scholars is provocative in its multidisciplinarity and its representation of a wide range of cultural origins - British, Dutch, Swedish, South African and Iranian. Terms ae defined and redefined in a rich context of historical, educational, academic and political arenas in discussions which are sometimes definitive and sometimes open-ended. Overall the reader is left better informed and provoked into new reflections on issues in religion which remain central to culture and the place and purposes of our educational institutions." - Professor David Jasper, University of Glasgow, UK

• 1. Theology and Religious Studies for a Multifaith and Secular Society, David Ford; 2. Theological Theology and Theological Religious Studies, Gavin D'Costa; 3. Theology as the Future of Religious Studies, Erik Borgman and Stephan van Erp; 4. 'A Coat of Many Colours': Interweaving Strands in Theology and Religious Studies, Ursula King; 5. Interdisciplinary Theology: Bridging the Theology/Religious Studies Divide, Shannon Craigo-Snell; 6. The Inevitability of Normativity in the Study of Religion: Theology in Religious Studies, Thomas A. Lewis; 7. Recent Developments in Theology and Religious Studies: The South African Experience, Tony Moodie and Janet Jarvis; 8. The Irony of Religious Studies: An Argument from the Swedish Experience, Mattias Martinson; 9. Towards a Socio-Cultural, Non-Theological Definition of Religion, James L. Cox; 10. A Spatial Analysis of the Relationship between Theology and Religious Studies, Kim Knott; 11. The Bible: Fringe or Hinge? The Place of Biblical Studies in the Theology / Religious Studies Debate, Hugh Pyper; 12. The Place of Theology in Iranian Universities: Teaching Theology and its Modern Problems in Iran, Mohammad Sadegh Zahedi; 13. Religious Studies versus Theology: Why I'm Still Glad that I Converted from Theology to Religious Studies, Denise Cush.