The first generation of the proper academic study of religion might be
said to span the half century from 1963 to 2013. Supreme Court Justice
Clark's 1963 opinion clarifying that any liberal "education is not
complete without a study of comparative religion or the history of
religion and its relationship to the advancement of civilization"
allowed the legal teaching of religion in secular universities. The
end of the first generation might be marked by the 2013 retirement of
Professor Jonathan Z. Smith (1938-2017) from the University of Chicago
where he had taught since 1968. Arguably no scholar has made a greater
contribution than did Smith to establishing a proper academic study of
religion.In _The Proper Study of Religion_, Sam Gill charts an
innovative course of development for the academic study of religion by
creatively engaging the legacy of Jonathan Z. Smith, Gill's teacher
and mentor for fifty years. Their careers coincided with the explosive
expansion of the study of religion in secular universities in the US
that began in the mid-1960s. Using an engaging narrative style, Gill
builds on Smith's work exploring an extensive range of absorbing and
foundational topics including: comparison as essential to academic
technique and to human knowledge itself; the important role of
experience, richly understood, both to academic studies of religion
and to religions as lived; play, philosophically understood, as a core
dynamic of Smith's entire program; the relationship of academic
document-based studies to the sensory-rich real world of religions;
and self-moving as providing a biological and philosophical foundation
on which to develop and expand upon a proper academic study of
religion. The foregrounding of human self-movement, new to the study
of religion, is informed by Gill's experience as a dancer and student
of dancing in cultures around the world. This book honors the work of
an unforgettable giant of a man while also offering critical
assessments and innovative ideas in the effort to advance the
remarkable legacy of Jonathan Z. Smith.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780197527245
Publisert
2020
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxford University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter