Steven Engler
Mount Royal University
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Religion | 2004
Steven Engler
Abstract Constructionism is a theoretical perspective with great potential usefulness for the study of religion. However, the theory is often assumed rather than clarified, and it is often reduced to its extreme relativistic versions. As a result, its value has stagnated even as talk of constructs has proliferated. Constructionism has been portrayed as the other of religions two realisms: theological and phenomenological. It has been cast in the role of a conveniently discounted counter-position. Constructionist work in the study of religion, by failing to clarify its theoretical basis adequately and by too often accepting the role of antagonist to realism, shares responsibility for this misleading and detrimental characterisation. Lack of due attention to theory has obscured the status and claims of constructionism. This theoretical perspective is not necessarily reductionist or radically relativist, and it is not simply the opposite of realist or sui generis approaches to religion. Constructionism can help us understand how historically and culturally contingent religious phenomena arise from the raw materials of our physical and social worlds. The first two sections of this article present a brief sketch of the development and key characteristics of constructionism, illustrating something of its breadth and variety. In the third section a consideration of constructionism in religious studies demonstrates the need to clarify three key issues. First, constructionist approaches are not necessarily anti-realist and so can be consistent with critical theological or sui generis perspectives. Second, the overwhelming lack of explicitly developed theory has obscured and obstructed the usefulness of constructionism in religious studies. Third, the relationship between constructionism and other theoretical positions needs to be clarified.
Cultural Studies | 2003
Steven Engler
Bourdieu held that the state in modernity has become the primary agent of consecration, ‘the legitimation and naturalization of social difference’, a function formerly performed largely by religion. After clarifying the role of ‘religion’ in Bourdieus work, this paper brings two empirical issues into dialogue with his ideas: social fragmentation in late-modernity, and the relation between temporalization and social structures in medieval and early-modern charity. His view that religion is anachronistic, that it was left behind by modernization misses its continuing, even increasing, importance. He overemphasized the centrality and authority of the state in modernity and distinguished too sharply between pre-modern gifting and modern market relations. Once these limitations are mitigated, Bourdieus analysis can be redirected to account for the importance of religion as an agent of consecration globally today.
Method & Theory in The Study of Religion | 2010
Steven Engler; Mark Q. Gardiner
This article proposes ten theses on the impact of semantic holism (an important philosophical view of meaning) on theories of religion. We argue that, if correct, semantic holism imposes metatheoretical constraints on the nature of such theories, theoretical constraints on the way that “religion” must be characterized, and methodological constraints on the way that religious phenomena must be analyzed.
Religious Studies | 2012
Mark Q. Gardiner; Steven Engler
This article argues that – despite the value of distinguishing between insiders and outsiders in a contingent and relative sense – there is no fundamental insider–outsider problem . We distinguish weak and strong versions of ‘insiderism’ (privileged versus monopolistic access to knowledge) and then sociological and religious versions of the latter. After reviewing critiques of the sociological version, we offer a holistic semantic critique of the religious version (i.e. the view that religious experience and/or language offers sui generis access to knowledge). We argue that all evidence for mental states is overt, public, and observable, and, hence, that there can be no significant difference in the access to knowledge of insiders and outsiders.
Religion | 2011
Steven Engler; Michael Stausberg
This article introduces the themes and articles of a special symposium on new directions in the organizational structures and pedagogical emphases of religious studies programs around the world. The thematic focus of this symposium is the range of ways that specific religious studies departments and programs have recently experienced dramatic changes, whether in response to financial, administrative, and other external pressures (‘crisis’) or as a proactive step, aiming at greater student success or manifesting an innovative vision of the nature and function of the discipline (‘creativity’). The authors begin by addressing the nature and status of the study of religion\s as an academic discipline. They then discuss some of challenges that it faces in light of economic and political pressures.
Religion | 2013
Michael Stausberg; Steven Engler
Monographs and, increasingly, articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Religion are the preferred genre of writing up research and advancing scholarship in our discipline. Further genres of scholarly publication include edited volumes on a variety of topics (often based on conferences), reference works such as lexica and encyclopedias, and multi-author field guides such as companions or handbooks (see McCutcheon 2007 and Engler 2008 for review essays). While these rank as high-prestige ventures, this is generally not the case with another important genre of academic writing, the textbook. Textbooks are often regarded as not really worthy of the attention of serious research scholars. Yet we will argue that textbooks are important for the discipline. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a textbook as a ‘book used as a standardwork for the study of a particular subject; now usually one written specially for this purpose.’ The two words ‘study’ and ‘standard’ point toward the distinctive goals of textbooks: they are pedagogically oriented and, as such, they aim for a degree of completeness and consistency that implicitly offers a normative standard of what students at a given level should know about the area. In the study of religion\s one finds relatively few advanced textbooks as compared to other disciplines, such as economics, history, psychology, sociology, etc. In our discipline, however, there is no sharp line between textbooks and introductory overviews. The latter provide basic information on a given topic (i.e., what the respective authors consider most relevant). Religion, 2013 Vol. 43, No. 2, 131–134, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2013.781882
Method & Theory in The Study of Religion | 2009
Steven Engler
This article works with theory of ritual in order to begin addressing a series of questions raised by Brazilian spirit possession rituals (in Kardecism and Umbanda). Four contributions to theory of ritual highlight relevant conceptual issues: Humphrey and Laidlaw on non-intentionality; Bloch on deference; Houseman and Severi on social relations; and Kapferer on virtuality. Strawson’s philosophical distinction between objective and reactive attitudes toward intentionality is used to make a case (i) that certain formal aspects of ritual (indexicals) serve to (ii) mark culturally-variable attitudes to agency within rituals, which are related to, but fundamentally distinct from, non-ritual attitudes to agency.
Religion | 2014
Steven Engler
Scholars in the humanities are increasingly exposed to the use of bibliometrics for evaluating and ranking scholars, publications, and publication venues. Those working in the social sciences, and more so in the natural sciences, have been actively involved with such issues for some time. The first section of this essay suggests that bibliometric measures are inherently biased against work in the study of religion\s, and the humanities and social sciences more generally. In part this reflects a basic tension between the objects of bibliometric methods and the goals of academic scholarship. At the same time, I make a case for the limited value of bibliometrics in making quantitative comparisons within and across clearly delimited disciplinary contexts. In that light, the second section of the essay offers some quantitative data on journals in our corner of academia. These data offer some interesting observations, and, at the same time, they reinforce the need for scholars of religion\s to pay more attention to the value and limitations – the benefits and risks – of bibliometrics. Bibliometrics is the comparative quantitative analysis of (primarily academic) publications. Awide range of things can be measured: e.g., numbers of documents, pages, or citations; types of publications; numbers and national origin of (co-) authors; number and type of items checked out by library patrons; length of titles in articles; number and size of footnotes in texts; number of downloads from a journal website; number of relevant ‘likes’ on Facebook or mentions on Religion, 2014 Vol. 44, No. 2, 193–219, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2014.893680
Religion | 2013
Michael Stausberg; Steven Engler
In this issue Religion acknowledges the contributions made by our anonymous referees. The list below (compiled by our editorial assistant, Knut Auckland) contains the names and institutional affiliation of 185 colleagues from 27 countries who have reviewed submissions for Religion in the course of the two-year-period 2011–12. We asked all refereeswhether theywould agree to have their names published. Five referees did not respond to this request and, accordingly, their names do not appear. This is a practice that we inaugurated when we became co-editors in 2008. The first such list – covering the period 2008–9 and published in 2010 (pp. 149–151) – comprised 154 names from 23 countries. Unfortunately, the relevant data for the year 2010 was not preserved in the process of the journal’s transition from one publisher to another. We can only express our gratitude to the 2010 referees collectively. We apologise that we are unable to acknowledge their contributions explicitly. We publish this list as a public acknowledgment of the fact that the journal could not exist in its present form were it not for the generous contributions of time, energy and expertise made by our colleagues. As a token of gratitude the publisher offers a discount voucher to all referees. We are confident that all would have contributed regardless. Our published review policy is now integrated in the journal’s ‘Instruction for Authors’ http://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode= rrel20&page=instructions. For ordinary submissions, Religion continues with its established practice of double-blind reviewing. For the two-year period 2011–12, the average time from submission to initial decision was 44 days; the median was 47 days. Ninety percent of submissions were assessed in less than 90 days. For the same period (2011–12), Religion accepted 17 percent of unsolicited submissions. This ratio keeps on changing across the years; the acceptance rate was higher in 2011 (26 percent accepted) than in 2012 (13 percent), but the change does not reflect a deliberate editorial policy. At the time of writing (17 June), for 2013 we have accepted 17 percent of the manuscripts for which the review process is completed. Peer-review is the major quality-control mechanism employed by the journal. To begin with, peer-review filters out content judged by the referees as inappropriate Religion, 2013 Vol. 43, No. 4, 457–462, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2013.837664
Teaching Theology and Religion | 2002
Steven Engler; Irene Naested
This note presents a method for teaching students to analyze and interpret images in the religious studies classroom. The technique uses two separate exercises: first analyzing images as works of art and then as conveyors of discipline-specific information. Drawing on the work of Edmund Feldman, our technique grounds interpretation in a methodical description of the basic components and characteristics of images. By helping students to conceptualize the formal qualities of an image as a first exercise, this technique allows them to more confidently address the challenging task of relating aspects of a given image with key concepts of religious studies. This simple first step toward interpreting religious images can help students profit more from texts, videos, lectures, field trips, and further studies in the field.