Description
Book SynopsisThe Western Construction of Religion not only provides a critical assessment of the whole history of religionas it is understood in the West but offers better ways of constructing the study of this central part of human experience.
Trade ReviewThis book stands out among recent examinations of 'religion' and is a valuable point of reference for related work in the field. -- Steven Engler Religious Studies Review 2006 In this important book, Dubuisson offers what could be described as a Feuerbachian critique of religious studies, including comparative, sociological, and especially anthropological accounts of the phenomenon taken to be 'religion.' Choice 2004 A very rich synthesis, this book brings together the various stages of work by a critical and theoretical researcher of anthropology. Science Humaine
Table of ContentsContents:Introduction: Religion, the West, and the History of ReligionsI The West and Religion1. A Central Concept The Mirror of the West Singular Universes Religio and Religion Texts, Corpora, and Hypertext Cosmographical Issues2. A Paprdoxical Subject Religions or Religious Phenomena? History or Histories?3. An Uncertain Anthropological Calling A Nebula of Definitions An Absence of Criteria Imprecise and Shifting Boundaries Arbitrary Typologies A Scattering of Monographs Arbitrary, Narcissistic ObjectivizationII Order and History4. Christianity and the West A Unique History Interiorization and Universalization Autonomy and Imperialism5. Continuities A General Topic A Major Paradigm Exemplary ThesesIII The Genealogy of a Western Science6. The History of Religions in the Nineteenth Century Ubiquitous Prejudices Myths and Science A Science of Its Time7. Three Twentieth-Century Debates The Sociological Explanation "Historians" and Phenomenologists The Invention of Homo religiosusIV From Religions to Cosmographic Formations8. The West, Religion, and Science9. ProlegomenaNotes Index
