Catherine Robinson

Developments in religious studies: towards a dialogue with religious education

The early days of non-confessional, multi-faith religious education in Britain benefitted from close collaboration between academics in universities, teacher educators and teachers. This article attempts to initiate a revival of such a dialogue, by summarizing some developments in religious studies at university level and suggesting possible implications for religious education in schools. After a brief retrospective of phenomenological and ethnographic approaches in religious studies and religious education, it examines feminist, queer and postcolonial theory as well as the changing religious landscape in contemporary Britain and the wider world. Themes emerging from this analysis prompt the following proposals: to take an anti-essentialist approach to ‘religion’ and ‘religions’; to stress diversity within and between traditions; to recognise complexity and change in religion and society; to acknowledge both local and global contexts; to focus on real people and seldom-heard voices; and to criticize dominant discourses, whether as patriarchal, heteronormative or colonialist.

Encyclopedia of Hinduism

Edited by Robinson, Cush and York, with an introduction by Robinson, Cush and Foulston. This encyclopedia includes more ethnographic and contemporary material in contrast to the exclusively textual and historical approach of earlier works.

The Living Words of the Living Master: Sants, Sikhs, Sachkhand Nanak Dham and the Academy

This article investigates a new religious movement, Sachkhand Nanak Dham, by comparing it with Sikhism. It argues that Sachkhand Nanak Dham has affinities with both Punjabi popular religiosity and Sikh sectarian movements. Further, it argues that Sachkhand Nanak Dham today is similar to an earlier stage in the development of Sikhism. It provides an account of the life and work of the founder of Sachkhand Nanak Dham, Mahraz Darshan Das Ji, and identifies significant continuities with the life and work of the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, suggesting that these continuities may be explained by reference to the Sant tradition. Finally, the article speculates about the future development of Sachkhand Nanak Dham, specifically whether it can avoid the fate of becoming a ‘religion’, according to Mahraz Darshan Das Ji, an institutionalised orthodoxy antithetical to revelatory insight, and in so doing considers the possibility of a new lineage of living Masters.