David Chidester
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520297654
- eISBN:
- 9780520969933
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520297654.003.0013
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This chapter recalls how one theorist and historian of theory in the study of religion, Walter H. Capps, wrestled with the problem of religious change. Capps focused his research on studying the ...
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This chapter recalls how one theorist and historian of theory in the study of religion, Walter H. Capps, wrestled with the problem of religious change. Capps focused his research on studying the dynamics of contemporary religious change against the background of changing narratives of the history of the study of religion. At a meeting of the International Association for the History of Religions in 1973 in Finland, Capps delivered a paper in which he combined these interests by suggesting new ways to understand the “second-order tradition” of the study of religion and calling for new attention to dynamic processes of change in studying religion. Beginning with this presentation, this chapter examines how Capps imagined new ways of narrating the history of the study of religion that were characterized by dynamism, multiplicity, and flexibility and how he developed a theory of change based on the oscillation of binary oppositions.Less
This chapter recalls how one theorist and historian of theory in the study of religion, Walter H. Capps, wrestled with the problem of religious change. Capps focused his research on studying the dynamics of contemporary religious change against the background of changing narratives of the history of the study of religion. At a meeting of the International Association for the History of Religions in 1973 in Finland, Capps delivered a paper in which he combined these interests by suggesting new ways to understand the “second-order tradition” of the study of religion and calling for new attention to dynamic processes of change in studying religion. Beginning with this presentation, this chapter examines how Capps imagined new ways of narrating the history of the study of religion that were characterized by dynamism, multiplicity, and flexibility and how he developed a theory of change based on the oscillation of binary oppositions.
David Chidester
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226117263
- eISBN:
- 9780226117577
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226117577.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
Providing a new history of the study of religion, Empire of Religion locates knowledge about religion and religions within the power relations of imperial ambitions, colonial situations, and ...
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Providing a new history of the study of religion, Empire of Religion locates knowledge about religion and religions within the power relations of imperial ambitions, colonial situations, and indigenous innovations. The book uncovers the material mediations—imperial, colonial, and indigenous—in which knowledge about religion was produced during the rise of an academic study of religion between the 1870s and the 1920s in Europe and North America. Focusing on one colonial contact zone, South Africa, as a crucial site of interaction, the book shows how imperial theorists such as Friedrich Max Müller, E. B. Tylor, Andrew Lang, and James Frazer depended upon the raw materials provided by colonial middlemen who in turn depended upon indigenous informants and collaborators undergoing colonization. Reversing the flow of knowledge production, African theorists such as W. E. B. Du Bois, S. M. Molema, and H. I. E. Dhlomo turned European imperial theorists of religion into informants in pursuing their own intellectual projects. By developing a material history of the study of religion, Empire of Religion documents the importance of African religion, the persistence of the great divide between savagery and civilization, and the salience of complex mediations in which knowledge about religion and religions was produced, authenticated, and circulated within imperial comparative religion. Empire of Religion shows how knowledge about religion and religions was entangled with imperialism from European empires to the neoimperial United States.Less
Providing a new history of the study of religion, Empire of Religion locates knowledge about religion and religions within the power relations of imperial ambitions, colonial situations, and indigenous innovations. The book uncovers the material mediations—imperial, colonial, and indigenous—in which knowledge about religion was produced during the rise of an academic study of religion between the 1870s and the 1920s in Europe and North America. Focusing on one colonial contact zone, South Africa, as a crucial site of interaction, the book shows how imperial theorists such as Friedrich Max Müller, E. B. Tylor, Andrew Lang, and James Frazer depended upon the raw materials provided by colonial middlemen who in turn depended upon indigenous informants and collaborators undergoing colonization. Reversing the flow of knowledge production, African theorists such as W. E. B. Du Bois, S. M. Molema, and H. I. E. Dhlomo turned European imperial theorists of religion into informants in pursuing their own intellectual projects. By developing a material history of the study of religion, Empire of Religion documents the importance of African religion, the persistence of the great divide between savagery and civilization, and the salience of complex mediations in which knowledge about religion and religions was produced, authenticated, and circulated within imperial comparative religion. Empire of Religion shows how knowledge about religion and religions was entangled with imperialism from European empires to the neoimperial United States.
David Chidester
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520297654
- eISBN:
- 9780520969933
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520297654.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This chapter situates religious formations in the contact zones and power relations of colonial situations. Referring to the settlement of a distant territory by foreigners, colonialism entails the ...
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This chapter situates religious formations in the contact zones and power relations of colonial situations. Referring to the settlement of a distant territory by foreigners, colonialism entails the use of military force and political power to create and maintain a situation in which colonizers gain economic benefits by exploiting trade, raw materials, and the labor of indigenous people. For the study of religion, colonialism calls attention to the role of religion in intercultural contact; the force of religion in the conquest and control of indigenous populations; and the changing character of religious subjectivity and agency, especially in relation to the inherent violence of colonialism. These issues are examined by referring to the analysis of anticolonial theorists, such as Mohandas K. Gandhi, Frantz Fanon, and Eduardo Mondlane. While colonialism has played an important role in the history of religions, it has also shaped the modern categories of religion and religions.Less
This chapter situates religious formations in the contact zones and power relations of colonial situations. Referring to the settlement of a distant territory by foreigners, colonialism entails the use of military force and political power to create and maintain a situation in which colonizers gain economic benefits by exploiting trade, raw materials, and the labor of indigenous people. For the study of religion, colonialism calls attention to the role of religion in intercultural contact; the force of religion in the conquest and control of indigenous populations; and the changing character of religious subjectivity and agency, especially in relation to the inherent violence of colonialism. These issues are examined by referring to the analysis of anticolonial theorists, such as Mohandas K. Gandhi, Frantz Fanon, and Eduardo Mondlane. While colonialism has played an important role in the history of religions, it has also shaped the modern categories of religion and religions.
David Chidester
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520297654
- eISBN:
- 9780520969933
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520297654.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This chapter examines the emergence of a category, “belief in spiritual beings,” which drove certain “intellectualist” assumptions about the essence, origin, and persistence of religion. Like many ...
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This chapter examines the emergence of a category, “belief in spiritual beings,” which drove certain “intellectualist” assumptions about the essence, origin, and persistence of religion. Like many terms in the study of religion in Europe during the late nineteenth century, animism arose through a global mediation in which an imperial theorist, in this case the father of anthropology, E. B. Tylor, relied on colonial middlemen, such as missionaries, travelers, and administrators, for evidence about indigenous people all over the world. Among other colonial sources, E. B. Tylor relied on the Anglican missionary Henry Callaway for data about Zulu people in South Africa. Drawing on Callaway’s reports about Zulu dreaming and sneezing, Tylor distilled his basic definition of religion as belief in pervading and invading spirits. Against a broad imperial and colonial background, this chapter explores the historical emergence and ongoing consequences of the category animism in the study of religion.Less
This chapter examines the emergence of a category, “belief in spiritual beings,” which drove certain “intellectualist” assumptions about the essence, origin, and persistence of religion. Like many terms in the study of religion in Europe during the late nineteenth century, animism arose through a global mediation in which an imperial theorist, in this case the father of anthropology, E. B. Tylor, relied on colonial middlemen, such as missionaries, travelers, and administrators, for evidence about indigenous people all over the world. Among other colonial sources, E. B. Tylor relied on the Anglican missionary Henry Callaway for data about Zulu people in South Africa. Drawing on Callaway’s reports about Zulu dreaming and sneezing, Tylor distilled his basic definition of religion as belief in pervading and invading spirits. Against a broad imperial and colonial background, this chapter explores the historical emergence and ongoing consequences of the category animism in the study of religion.
Arie L. Molendijk
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198784234
- eISBN:
- 9780191826832
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198784234.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions, Hinduism
The edition of the fifty massive volumes of the Sacred Books of the East (1879–1910) was one of the most ambitious and daring editorial projects of late Victorian scholarship. The German-born ...
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The edition of the fifty massive volumes of the Sacred Books of the East (1879–1910) was one of the most ambitious and daring editorial projects of late Victorian scholarship. The German-born philologist, orientalist, and religious scholar Friedrich Max Müller (1823–1900) persuaded Oxford University Press to embark on this venture. ‘Müller’s grand design’ was supported financially by the India Office of the British empire and Oxford University Press. Müller resigned from his Oxford chair of comparative philology to become the general editor of this megaproject. He engaged an international team of renowned scholars (among whom James Legge, James Darmesteter, Hendrik Kern, Julius Eggeling, Thomas William Rhys Davids, Kashinath Trimbak Telang, and Hermann Oldenberg) to translate the ‘sacred texts’. The series used and defined categories of the study of culture, especially of religion. Religious studies was often called ‘comparative religion’ at the time, indicating the importance of the comparative method for this emerging discipline. The edition also contributed significantly to the Western perception of the ‘religious’ or even ‘mystic’ East, which was textually represented in English translations. This book is a study in intellectual history, in particular the history of the study of religions (1860–1900). A close reading of Müller’s work is combined with theoretical reflection on the defining moments in the making of the Sacred Books of the East series. The focus is on Max Müller’s conceptualization, management, and ambitions in bringing this grand project to a conclusion.Less
The edition of the fifty massive volumes of the Sacred Books of the East (1879–1910) was one of the most ambitious and daring editorial projects of late Victorian scholarship. The German-born philologist, orientalist, and religious scholar Friedrich Max Müller (1823–1900) persuaded Oxford University Press to embark on this venture. ‘Müller’s grand design’ was supported financially by the India Office of the British empire and Oxford University Press. Müller resigned from his Oxford chair of comparative philology to become the general editor of this megaproject. He engaged an international team of renowned scholars (among whom James Legge, James Darmesteter, Hendrik Kern, Julius Eggeling, Thomas William Rhys Davids, Kashinath Trimbak Telang, and Hermann Oldenberg) to translate the ‘sacred texts’. The series used and defined categories of the study of culture, especially of religion. Religious studies was often called ‘comparative religion’ at the time, indicating the importance of the comparative method for this emerging discipline. The edition also contributed significantly to the Western perception of the ‘religious’ or even ‘mystic’ East, which was textually represented in English translations. This book is a study in intellectual history, in particular the history of the study of religions (1860–1900). A close reading of Müller’s work is combined with theoretical reflection on the defining moments in the making of the Sacred Books of the East series. The focus is on Max Müller’s conceptualization, management, and ambitions in bringing this grand project to a conclusion.
