The Bloomsbury Reader in Cultural Approaches to the Study of Religion

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This is the first reader to gather primary sources from influential theorists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries in one place, presenting the wide-ranging and nuanced theoretical debates occurring in the field of religious studies. Each chapter focuses on a major theorist and contains: an introduction contextualizing their key ideas one or two selections representative of the theorists innovative methodological approach(es) discussion questions to extend and deepen reader engagement Divided in three sections, the first part includes foundational comparative debates: Mary Douglass articulation of purity and impurity Phyllis Tribles methods of reading sacred texts Wendy Donigers comparative mythology Catherine Bells reimagining of religious and secular ritual The second part focuses on methodological particularity: Alice Walker's use of narrative Charles Longs critique of Eurocentricism Caroline Walker Bynums emphasis on gender and materiality The third section focuses on expanding boundaries: Gloria Anzaldas work on borders and languages Judith Butlers critique of gender and sex norms Saba Mahmoods expansion on the critique of colonialisms secularizing demands Reflecting the cultural turn and extending the existing canon, this is the anthology instructors have been waiting for. For further detail on the theorists discussed, please consult Cultural Approaches to Studying Religion: An Introduction to Theories and Methods, edited by Sarah J. Bloesch and Meredith Minister.

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[An] important resource for any religious studies course that includes a theoretical dimension. * Nova Religio *
Serving as brief intellectual-biographical histories, these essays illumine the preoccupations and priorities that have motivated influential scholarss work. While the text is not a required counterpart for the Reader, the editors note that its contributions profitably locate the span of its contents within personal and historiographical worlds, opening an aperture for students to further reflect on their own locations and the disciplinary contexts in which these texts are situated. It is also worth noting that these essays deserve careers of their own as documents of intellectual history and could be usefully assigned together or apart in graduate as well as undergraduate seminars. * Reading Religion *

Author Bio

Sarah J. Bloesch is Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Elon University, USA. Her teaching and research interests focus on Christianity, critical race theory, and sexuality in the United States. Meredith Minister is Assistant Professor of Religion at Shenandoah University, USA. She teaches courses in religious studies and gender studies and is author of Trinitarian Theology and Power Relations: God Embodied (2014).