The Sacred Is the Profane

Arnal, William E.; McCutcheon, Russell T.

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199757114.001.0001

Cited by 70 publications

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“…1 On religion as a modern, political concept, see Arnal and McCutcheon (2012); Asad (1993, 2003); Dubuisson (2003); Fitzgerald (1999, 2007, 2011); Martin (2010); McCutcheon (2003, 2005); and Stack et al. (2015).…”

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confidence: 99%

Theses on the critique of “religion”

Martin

2015

Critical Research on Religion

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Those of us who study the history and politics of the concept of religion and its related terms often find that our peers in adjacent disciplines or subdisciplines do not take into account our findings and continue to use the terms naively and unreflexively. Perhaps this is because they are unaware of the problematic norms knotted into the history of the concept or the contested political stakes involved in its use. Or, perhaps they are engaged in just the very sort of politics our subdiscipline documents. When discussing this with one of the editors of CRR, he asked me to outline why those not engaged in the historicization of the concept of religion should take our work into account. How or why would a contemporary sociologist of religion benefit from reading, for example, a discourse analysis of Reformation-era theologico-political rhetoric? To that end, here I put forward the following theses on the critique of the concept of religion, making the case, as boldly and as succinctly as I can, why our work is relevant to all who write on “religion,” and provide references to the essential literature on the subject for those who wish to pursue further reading on the matter.

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confidence: 99%

Theses on the critique of “religion”

Martin

2015

Critical Research on Religion

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“…There are competing classificatory systems used by scholars in determining the object of study (on competing classificatory systems, see Arnal and McCutcheon 2013). What one scholar considers an example of sacrifice would not be considered sacrifice by another scholar-to say nothing of what non-scholars, confessional theologians, violent religious extremists and barbecue aficionados (see below) consider sacrifice.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A better theoretical framework for both sacrifice and ritual in general is clearly needed. Ritual and Sacrifice (and Religion) Definitions of ritual are often far too vague to be useful and, worse, are liable to mobilize a range of a priori judgments about what counts as ritual, as well as what counts as religion (Arnal and McCutcheon 2013;Nongbri 2013). Was the act of 9/11 a ritual of self-sacrifice or mass-murder (McClymond 2008: 160-64)?…”

Section: Ritualization Theory and Sacrificementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The academic study of religion and indeed the term 'religion' itself, in its modern English usage, is largely the product of the Protestant Enlightenment and the European Colonial experience (Arnal and McCutcheon 2013;Nongbri 2013). As a result, Christian, particularly Protestant, interpretive biases have a long history in the field.…”

Section: Sacrifice In Early Christianitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sacrifice in the Ancient Mediterranean: Recent and Current Research

Ullucci

2015

Currents in Biblical Research

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This essay provides a summary and critical assessment of scholarship on sacrifice in the ancient Mediterranean over the last two decades. It focuses on Greek, Roman, Judean and Christian evidence from approximately the eighth century bce to the fifth century ce. Significant attention is paid to theoretical models, which have deeply affected the study of sacrifice. Archeological evidence for sacrifice is considered. The following areas of current scholarly debate are addressed and assessed: (1) the reach and role of religious experts;(2) sacrifice as communication and failed sacrifice; (3) the notion of spiritualization; (4) metaphorical and symbolic uses of sacrifice; and (5) sacrifice and identity. Sacrifice is theorized not as a static category or ontological thing, but a nexus of competitive ritualizations and/or discursive claims, the boundaries of which were actively contested by ancient practitioners and cultural producers.

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“…Milbank’s theological postmodernism and Asad’s postcolonialism invited many responses; a substantial body of critical historical scholarship has emerged to investigate the intellectual history of the study of religion and the relationship between this academic discipline and historical projects from imperialism to nationalism (Arnal and McCutcheon, 2012; Masuzawa, 2005). Following Asad and Milbank, this critical sociology of knowledge presented a formidable epistemological challenge to traditional formations of secularization theory.…”

Section: Precursors Of the Post-secularmentioning

confidence: 99%

The post-secular

Fordahl

2016

European Journal of Social Theory

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In the twentieth century, the social scientific study of religion was dominated by debates surrounding secularization. Yet throughout its reign, secularization theory was subject to a series of theoretical and empirical challenges. Pronouncements of a forthcoming revolution in theory were frequent, yet secularization theory remained largely undisturbed. However, recent years have seen secularization theory decreased in status. Some have located its heir in the post-secular, yet the concept has invited fractious debate. This article surveys a range of engagements with the post-secular, seeking to identify convergences that sit beneath an otherwise divided field. While this survey reveals the failure of the post-secular to fully supplant secularization theory, it does find that central debates in the field today have departed significantly from earlier generations of scholarship, particularly in a reflexivity toward the field’s basic concepts, a skepticism of teleological theories of history, and a renewed focus on the relationship between religion and politics.

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The Sacred Is the Profane

Cited by 70 publications

References 0 publications

Theses on the critique of “religion”

Theses on the critique of “religion”

Sacrifice in the Ancient Mediterranean: Recent and Current Research

The post-secular

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