1111 2 3 4 5 6 7 Religious Studies 8 9 1011 A Global View 1 2 3111 4 5 6 Religious Studies: A Global View is the first book of its kind to survey the 7 field of Religious Studies from a global perspective. In ten chapters focusing 8 on specific geographic regions, a team of international contributors explore 9 the work that is being done in religious studies around the world. They 20111 particularly focus on the work done in the last fifty years, and invite readers 1 to rethink their conceptions of what that study involves: its history, structures, 2 leading figures and key issues. Regions discussed include: Western Europe, 3 Eastern Europe, North Africa and West Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, South and 4 Southeast Asia, Continental East Asia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and the 5 Pacfic Islands, North America, and Latin America. 6 Key topics and themes discussed include the emergence of a global 7 community of Religion scholars, the influence of technology, the history and 8 institutionalization of the discipline, objects, methods and theories in the study 9 of religion, and the demarcation of the field. 30111 Religious Studies: A Global View challenges the assumption that serious 1 thinking about religion is solely a Western undertaking and aims to foster global 2 cooperation in the study of religions. It is the ideal resource for students, 3 researchers, lecturers and teachers interested in how the field of Religious 4 Studies is developing in contemporary academia. 35 Contributors: Gregory D. Alles, Gustavo Benavides, Patrice Brodeur, 6 Lee Chang-yick, Chung Chin-hong, Ezra Chitando, Eugen Ciurtin, Steven 7 Engler, Majella Franzmann, Satoko Fujiwara, He Guanghu, Sylvia Marcos, 8 Anatilde Idoyaga Molina, Paulo Barrera Rivera, Rowena Robinson, Vineeta 9 Sinha, Michael Stausberg, Renée de la Torre. 40111 42222 Gregory D. Alles is Professor of Religious Studies at McDaniel College, 3 Westminster, MD, USA. He is co-editor of Continuum Advances in Religious 411 Studies. 1111 2 3 4 5 6 7 eligious Studies 8 9 1011 1 R 2 A Global View 3111 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 Edited by 1 2 Gregory D. Alles 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 35 6 7 8 9 40111 42222 3 411 First published 2008 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 100016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2008 Editorial material and selection Gregory D. Alles © 2008 Contributors for their contributions All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Religious studies: a global view/edited by Gregory D. Alles. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Religions. I. Alles, Gregory D. BL41.R433 2007 200.71 – dc22 2007010341 ISBN 0-203-93931-X Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0–415–39743–X (hbk) ISBN10: 0–203–93931–X (ebk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–39743–8 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–203–93931–4 (ebk) 1111 2 3 4 5 6 7 ontents 8 9 1011 1 C 2 3111 4 5 6 List of contributors vii 7 List of abbreviations xi 8 9 Introduction 1 20111 Gregory D. Alles 1 2 3 1 Western Europe 14 4 Michael Stausberg 5 6 2 Eastern Europe 50 7 Eugen Ciurtin 8 9 3 North Africa and West Asia 75 30111 Patrice Brodeur 1 2 4 Sub-Saharan Africa 102 3 Ezra Chitando 4 35 5 South and Southeast Asia 126 6 Rowena Robinson and Vineeta Sinha 7 8 6 Continental East Asia 159 9 He Guanghu, Chung Chin-hong, and Lee Chang-yick 40111 42222 3 7 Japan 191 411 Satoko Fujiwara vi CONTENTS 8 Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands 218 Majella Franzmann 9 North America 242 Gustavo Benavides 10 Latin America 269 Steven Engler, Anatilde Idoyaga Molina, Renée de la Torre, Paulo Barrera Rivera, and Sylvia Marcos Afterword: toward a global vision of religious studies 301 Gregory D. Alles Index 323 1111 2 3 4 5 6 7 ontributors 8 9 1011 1 C 2 3111 4 5 Gregory D. ALLES teaches in the Department of Philosophy and Religious 6 Studies at McDaniel College, Westminster, Maryland. His research interests 7 include the history of the study of religions, including the life and works of 8 Rudolf Otto. 9 20111 Gustavo BENAVIDES teaches in the Department of Theology and Religious 1 Studies at Villanova University, with a specialization in Asian religions. The 2 author of numerous articles on the theory and historiography of religion, 3 he co-edits Numen, the journal of the International Association for the 4 History of Religions. 5 Patrice BRODEUR holds the Canada Research Chair on Islam, Pluralism, and 6 Globalization in the Faculty of Theology and the Sciences of Religion at the 7 University of Montreal. His research interests center on contemporary Islam 8 (politics and gender dynamics, the development of religious studies within 9 the Arab world), as well as on interreligious dialogue and peacebuilding. 30111 Ezra CHITANDO is Associate Professor of History and Phenomenology of 1 Religion at the University of Zimbabwe. He has published on history and 2 method in the study of religion, African Traditional Religions, Christianity 3 in Africa, and religion and HIV & AIDS in Africa, including Singing Culture: 4 A Study of Gospel Music in Zimbabwe (2002). 35 6 CHUNG Chin-hong is an Ilsong Distinguished Professor of Hallym Academy 7 of Sciences at Hallym University in Korea, a member of the National 8 Academy of Sciences, Republic of Korea, and Chief Director of the Korea 9 Institute for Religion and Culture. He specializes in the phenomenology of 40111 religion and is the author of numerous publications, including the recent 42222 Opening and Closing: Reading Religious Culture through the Humanistic 3 Imagination (2006). 411 viii CONTRIBUTORS Eugen CIURTIN is currently a postdoctoral fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies, New Europe College, Bucharest, and of Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris, as well as secretary of the Romanian Association for the History of Religions and RAHR representative to the European Association for the Study of Religions. A scholar with wide-ranging interests and publications, he also edits Archaeus: Studies in the History of Religions and Studia Asiatica: International Journal for Asian Studies. Steven ENGLER is a Religious Studies Instructor in the Humanities Depart- ment at Mount Royal College, Calgary, Canada, and a visiting professor (2005–2006) in the Graduate Program in Ciências da Religião at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, funded by a research fellowship from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP). His recent publications include Historicizing ‘Tradition’ in the Study of Religion (2005), which he edited with Gregory P. Grieve. He is also editor of the book series, ‘Key Thinkers’, from Equinox and co-editor of the Numen book series. Majella FRANZMANN is Professor of Studies in Religion at the University of New England, a small regional university in New South Wales, Australia, and a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Her research interests focus on Gnostic traditions, including Manichaeism and Mandaeism, as well as Syriac texts and women’s religious experience. Among her many publications is Jesus in the Manichaean Writings (2003). Satoko FUJIWARA is Professor of Comparative Culture and Religious Studies at Taisho University in Tokyo, Japan. Her research interests have focused on the methodology of comparison and, more recently, religion and public education. Her many publications include Sei gainen to kindai (The sacred and modernity; 2005). HE Guanghu is Professor of Religious Studies at Renmin University of China in Beijing. Among other volumes, he is the author of Yue Ying Wan Chuan (The Moon in Streams: Religion, Society and Life [2003]) and Bai Chuan Gui Hai (All Rivers Return to the Ocean: Towards a Global Religious Philosophy, forthcoming). His edited volumes include Duihua: Ru Shi Dao yu Jidujiao (Dialog: Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and Christianity [1997]) and Zongjiao yu Dangdai Zhongguo Shehui (Religions and Society in Contemporary China [2006]), and he has translated works of Christian theology and philosophy of religion into Chinese, including John Macquarrie’s Principles of Christian Theology and Paul Tillich’s Systematic Theology. LEE Chang-yick is a Researcher in the Korea Institute for Religion and Culture. The author of Religion and Sport: Body Techniques and Sacrifice (2004), CONTRIBUTORS ix 1111 he is currently working on a book that will compare Mircea Eliade and 2 Jonathan Z. Smith. 3 Sylvia MARCOS is a research associate in Religion and Society with the Escuela 4 Nacional de Antropología e Historia (ENAH) in México and Visiting 5 Professor of Mesoamerican Religions and Gender in the School of Religion 6 7 at Claremont Graduate University. She is the author, most recently, of Taken 8 from the Lips: Gender and Eros in Mesoamerican Religions (2006). 9 Anatilde IDOYAGA MOLINA is Chair of the Centro Argentino de Etnología 1011 Americana (CAEA), a research unit of the Consejo Nacional de Inves- 1 tigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) and a Principal Investigator 2 of CONICET’s Carrera del Investigador Científico.