Religious Studies, Theology, and the University: Conflicting Maps, Changing Terrain

by Linell E. Cady, Delwin Brown

Overview

This collection explores the highly contested relationship of religious studies and theology and the place of each, if any, in secular institutions of higher education. The founding narrative of religious studies, with its sharp distinction between teaching religion and teaching about religion, grows less compelling in the face of globalization and the erosion of modernism. These essays take up the challenge of thinking through the identity and borders of religious studies and theology for our time. Reflecting a broad range of positions, the authors explore the religious/secular conceptual landscape that has dominated the modern West, and in the process address the revision of the academic study of religion and theology now underway.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791455227
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	10/10/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	243
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Linell E. Cady is Professor of Religious Studies at Arizona State University and author of Religion, Theology, and American Public Life, also published by SUNY Press. Delwin Brown is Harvey H. Potthoff Professor of Theology at the Iliff School of Theology. He has published several books, including Boundaries of Our Habitations: Tradition and Theological Construction, also published by SUNY Press.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Introduction
Linell E. Cady and Delwin Brown

2. The Study of Religion as an Anthropology of Credibility
Russell T. McCutcheon

3. Why "Theology" Won't Work
Ivan Strenski

4. Our Subject "Over There?" Scrutinizing the Distance Between Religion and Its Study
Christopher Chesnek

5. Other People's Theologies:The New Hubris of History of Religions
Richard C. Martin

6. Embodied Theology
Sam Gill

7. From Theology to theology: The Place of "God-Talk" in Religious Studies
William D. Hart

8. Territorial Disputes: Religious Studies and Theology in Transition
Linell E. Cady

9. Academic Theology in the University or Why an Ex-Queen's Heir Should Be Made a Subject
Delwin Brown

10. Rethinking Theology and Religious Studies
Sheila Greeve Davaney

11. Religious Studies and the Alienation of Theology
Darrell J. Fasching

12. The Place of Academic Theology in the Study of Religion from the Perspective of Liberal Education
Paula M. Cooey

13. The Epistemic Publicity of Academic Black Theology
Frederick L.Ware

14. Theology and Cultural Contest in the University
Kathryn Tanner

Bibliography

Contributors

Index

Editorial Reviews

"On the whole, the authors are scholars whose views on the subject we want to hear, with a good mix of seasoned and new voices. They present us with several good descriptions of the complex, ambiguous, historical, and conceptual relationships of theology and religious studies." — William E. Paden, author of Religious Worlds: The Comparative Study of Religion, Second Edition and Interpreting the Sacred: Ways of Viewing Religion

"The usefulness of this book cannot be overstressed. It speaks to the new developments toward global issues and pluralism now being engaged in new ways by scholars in related fields." — Robert M. Garvin, University at Albany, State University of New York

From the Publisher