RT Article
T1 'Senses': Assessing a Key Term in David Chidester's Analysis of Religion
JF Journal for the study of religion
VO 31
IS 2
SP 161
OP 179
A1 Strijdom, Johan ca. 21. Jh.
LA English
YR 2018
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1663237786
AB The purpose of this article is to illustrate and assess Chidester's use of the 'senses' as an analytical term in his study of religion. Under 'senses' Chidester includes not only the five conventional senses of Aristotle, but also analyzes metaphorical uses of the senses in religious discourse, the visions and dreams of mystics and shamans, and eventually new media as extensions of the human senses. Chidester's analysis of the senses in European Christian discourses on the one hand, and in colonial and postcolonial African indigenous religion and imperial religious studies on the other hand, is compared and assessed. Although he does not offer a systematic comparison of these case studies, I argue that his analysis lends itself to an explicit comparison of the senses as material aspects of religion and show how his contextualized and historically nuanced analysis of the senses in religion and religious studies informs a critical study of religion. Since critical assumes judgment, values need to be explicated in terms of critical theories, which in my view need further elaboration.
K1 African Indigenous Religions
K1 analytical terms in religious studies
K1 Critical Theory
K1 Dreams
K1 interior senses in medieval European theories and practices
K1 Media
K1 Senses
K1 Visions
DO 10.17159/2413-3027/2018/v31n2a7