Religion, Post-Religionism, and Religioning: Religious Studies and Contemporary Cultural Debates

The interaction between the contemporary study of religion and contemporary cultural debates has tended to be marked by indifference, and there have been relatively few attempts to engage with the discourses of postmodern theory. In this paper I examine some of the ways in which recent anthropologists have sought to question some of their basic disciplinary assumptions with regard to the 'culture concept', particularly by putting forward strategies of 'writing against culture' or by writing culture in more dynamic terms (as cultural or culturing). This insight, which is relevant in itself to the contemporary study of religion, can be extended to a re-evaluation of the 'religion' concept, which I suggest could be reconstructed in terms of practice theory as religious practice or religioning. In conclusion I argue that to maintain its relevance within the broad field of contemporary humanities scholarship, the discipline of religious studies needs to aligrt itself more clearly (theoretically and methodologically) with the dynamic interface between the approaches of cultural anthropology, cultural theory, and other postmodern' theoretical discourses

Decolonizing the Study of Religion

As with many other subject areas within the humanities, the contemporary study of religion is the product of European colonial history and remains firmly embedded in what Aníbal Quijano (2007) described as the ‘colonial matrix of power’. This article explores questions about how to respond to these structures of history — in particular what the concept of ‘decolonization’ may mean and how it may be applied within the context of the study of religion. Such decolonization should be approached as not simply an exercise in ‘diversity’ but rather as a challenge to (and potentially a dismantling of) the field of study. Such an approach is relevant not only to those scholars who identify within the disciplinary boundaries of the ‘study of religion’ (or religious studies), but much wider to the broad academic study of (what is thought of as) ‘religion’ within humanities and social sciences. This article is, in short, an attempt to map out some of the key points about such a decolonization, in terms of curriculum and research practice, on the disciplinary level and within the wider institutional structures of the academy

Being Tamil, being Hindu:Tamil migrants’ negotiations of the absence of Tamil Hindu spaces in the West Midlands and South West of England

This paper considers the religious practices of Tamil Hindus who have settled in the West Midlands and South West of England in order to explore how devotees of a specific ethno-regional Hindu tradition with a well-established UK infrastructure in the site of its adherents’ population density adapt their religious practices in settlement areas which lack this infrastructure. Unlike the majority of the UK Tamil population who live in the London area, the participants in this study did not have ready access to an ethno-religious infrastructure of Tamil-orientated temples and public rituals. The paper examines two means by which this absence was addressed as well as the intersections and negotiations of religion and ethnicity these entailed: firstly, Tamil Hindus’ attendance of temples in their local area which are orientated towards a broadly imagined Hindu constituency or which cater to a non-Tamil ethno-linguistic or sectarian community; and, secondly, through the ‘DIY’ performance of ethnicised Hindu ritual in non-institutional settings

The analysis of race in the study of religion

No abstract available

Book review: George D. Chryssides, Exploring New Religions. London and New York, Cassell, 1999, x+405 pp., 49.95(hardback)ISBN0304336513,49.95 (hardback) ISBN 0 304 33651 3, 24.95 (paperback) ISBN 0304 33652 1.

No abstract available

Hare Krishna and Sanatan Dharm in Britain: the campaign for Bhaktivedanta Manor

Bhaktivedanta Manor, the main centre for ISKCON (the ‘Hare Krishna movement') in Britain, has been under threat of closure for over ten years. The centre—which is a place of pilgrimage for many thousands of Indian Hindus in Britain—is considered by its local authority to be used inappropriately, since it does not have the required planning permission to be a place of public worship. In their view, Bhaktivedanta Manor should be used only as a theological college. ISKCON have challenged this position, and through a series of legal and political battles have tried to prevent the local authority from taking enforcement action. The campaign against closure by ISKCON demonstrates the large support this ‘new’ religion has among the Hindu population of Britain, and indeed has played an important part in developing the relationship between Hindus and the Hare Krishna movement. But the campaign also demonstrates a key point about the role of religious freedom within British law, as the series of legal challenges by ISKCON have highlighted how the right to religious worship is subject to other factors, such as planning regulations

Religion: The Basics

No abstract available

Book review: Syncretism/Anti-Syncretism: The Politics of Religious Synthesis Charles Stewart & Rosalind Shaw, eds., 1994 London: Routledge 215 pp., £37.50 (hb), £12.99 (pb) ISBN 0-415-11117-X

No abstract available

Book review: Religion and Hopi Life in the Twentieth Century. John D. Loftin, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1991 192 pp, US$19.95

No abstract available