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The Study of Religion An Introduction to Key Ideas and Methods

by George D. Chryssides
by Ron Geaves

A student introductory guide to the history and methodology of the study of religion.

  • Imprint: Continuum
  • Pub. date: 28 Aug 2007
  • ISBN: 9780826464491
440 Pages, paperback World rights
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  • Also available in: hardcover
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Description

Increasingly, recognition is given to the importance of methodology in the study of religion and methodological issues are generally taught to first year students in order to equip them for systematic academic study of the topic. Unfortunately many of the theories that relate to methodology are explained in a highly complex way, which even advanced students find it hard to understand.  

This book unravels the complexity of these issues for students by introducing the history and methodology pertaining to the study of religion (including ideas of key theorists) and by discussing the main problems in current scholarship in world religions.

In addition to theories relating to Religious Studies, examples will be drawn from a variety of the world's historical religious traditions, spanning the range of major ones and some minor ones. The student will in this way gain some understanding of the fundamental ideas of the world's religions as well as an introduction to methods of study.  

 

Table of Contents

1. What is Religion? 
2. Levels of Religion.
3. History of Scholarship 
4. 'World Religion'
5. Phenomenology and its Critics. 
6. Authenticity and Diversity. 
7. Gender and Religion.
8. Field Work.
9. Quantitative Data in RS.
10. The Question of Truth.
11. Current Trends.
12. Summary and Conclusions 

Author(s)

George D. Chryssides, George D. Chryssides is Honorary Research Fellow in Contemporary Religion at the University of Birmingham, UK. 

Ron Geaves,

Ron Geaves is Professor of the Comparative Study of Religion at Liverpool Hope University, UK. He is Co-editor of the Journal of Fieldwork in Religion and the Journal of Religions of South Asia.


Reviews

“George Chryssides and Ron Geaves have provided an outstanding companion to the study of religion. While this is an accessible volume that will be welcomed by students and their teachers, it is also a remarkably comprehensive work, rooted in careful scholarship and a prodigious theoretical and empirical knowledge of the field. Those of us teaching religious studies will be indebted to the authors for many years to come.”
Christopher Partridge, Professor of Religious Studies, Lancaster University, UK.

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“Rarely does a book introducing methodologies in the study of religion provide so wide a scope in such a student-friendly manner as does this important new volume co-written by George Chryssides and Ron Geaves…As an introduction to theory and method in the study of religions, Chryssides and Geaves have broken new ground. I strongly commend it as a primary source to be included within programmes in the academic study of religions.”
James L Cox, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Edinburgh, UK

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