Locating Value in the Study of Religion
Religious studies courses frequently justify their existence with the rhetoric of “value.” While appeasing the socio-economic concerns of college boards, this undermines the work of more critical approaches under the field’s big tent. The following paper responds to this disconcerting trend by casti...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2017
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| In: |
Method & theory in the study of religion
Year: 2017, Volume: 29, Issue: 4/5, Pages: 459-478 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Certeau, Michel de 1925-1986
/ Value
/ Appraisal
/ Religious studies
/ University didactics
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| IxTheo Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AH Religious education NCB Personal ethics NCC Social ethics ZF Education |
| Further subjects: | B
Scriptural Economy
De Certeau
Pedagogy
Value
Theory
Big Tent
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | Religious studies courses frequently justify their existence with the rhetoric of “value.” While appeasing the socio-economic concerns of college boards, this undermines the work of more critical approaches under the field’s big tent. The following paper responds to this disconcerting trend by casting religious studies as an analytical discipline that takes “evaluation” as its object of study. It details a way of navigating the critical turn using Michel de Certeau’s notion of “scriptural economy” as a pedagogical framework for three lower-level, undergraduate classes: REL-101 Signifying Religion: An African American Worldview, REL-226 Introduction to the New Testament, and REL-293 Introduction to Islam. Students theorize religion as a heuristic for studying how bodies are conscribed, prescribed, described, and inscribed in relation to evaluative systems. |
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| ISSN: | 1570-0682 |
| Contains: | In: Method & theory in the study of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700682-12341407 |