The Religious Studies Project
By The Religious Studies Project
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Podcast Description
The Religious Studies Project (RSP) is a website and podcasting project launched in January 2012, hosted by Christopher R. Cotter and David G. Robertson, and supported by the British Association for the Study of Religions. It features a weekly interview (of around 30 minutes) with leading scholars of Religious Studies (RS) and related fields. The RSP aims to provide engaging, concise and reliable accounts of the most important concepts, traditions, scholars and methodologies in the contemporary study of religion, without pushing a religious or nonreligious agenda or resorting to presenting “fact files” about “World Religions”. RSP material is disseminated under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. and can be distributed and utilised freely, provided full citation is given.
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CleanPodcast: George Chryssides on the Insider/Outsider Problem | The Insider/Outsider (or 'emic' and 'etic' as scholars like to call it) problem is one of the most perennial problems in the academic study of religion. It may sound boring at first, but think about it for just a minute and you will realise that this distinction, relating to where scholars position themselves relating to the subject matter (whatever that may be), permeates not only almost every aspect of academia, but has profound implications for each and every one of us conducts ourselves in relationship with the other people we encounter in our day-to-day lives. Dr George Chryssides joins Chris this week to discuss this fascinating issue. | 20 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPodcast: Graham Harvey on Animism | Animism refers to the belief that souls exist not only in humans, but potentially in animals, in plants, in mountains and even natural forces like the wind. It was of central importance in early anthropological conceptions of religion, most notably in the work of E. B. Tylor. More recently, however, Graham Harvey has challenged the traditional conception of animism, seeking to understand it as "relational epistemologies and ontologies"; in other words, it is a way of living in a community of persons, most of whom are other-than-human. | 12 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPodcast: Donald Wiebe on Theology and Religious Studies | Our interview this week features Chris speaking to Professor Donald Wiebe from the Faculty of Divinity at Trinity College in the University of Toronto on the relationship between Theology and Religious Studies. Out of necessity this interview was not recorded on our normal equipment, and we apologise for the poorer quality of the sound this week. You can also listen to this podcast on iTunes, and subscribe to receive our weekly interviews. The relationship between Theology and Religious Studies is not a simple one. David Ford writes that at its broadest, theology is thinking about questions raised by and about religions (2000:3). These questions are largely directed towards notions of transcendence (typically gods), incorporate doctrinal issues and are “essentially a second-order activity arising from ‘faith’ and interpreting faith” (Whaling, 1999:228-229). Essentially, theology is thinking about religion from within religion - although when most people refer to "Theology", what they mean is "Christian Theology". It is generally accepted - at least as far as most academics are concerned - that there is a distinct difference between religious studies and theology. This is succinctly summarised by Ninian Smart’s statement that “historical and structural enquiries, such as sociology, phenomenology, etc., [...] are the proper province of [the study of] Religion, and the use of such materials for Expressive ends [...is] the doing of Theology” (in Wiebe, 1999:55). As you shall see from this interview, however, things are much more complicated, and Professor Wiebe is particularly qualified to present his own take on the relationship between these two distinct disciplines. His primary areas of research interest are philosophy of the social sciences, epistemology, philosophy of religion, the history of the academic and scientific study of religion, and method and theory in the study of religion. He is the author of a number of books, including Religion and Truth: Towards and Alternative Paradigm for the Study of Religion (1981), The Irony of Theology and the Nature of Religious Thought (1991), and, of particular relevance to this interview, The Politics of Religious Studies: The Continuing Conflict with Theology in the Academy (1999). In 1985 Professor Wiebe, with Luther H. Martin and E. Thomas Lawson, founded the North American Association for the Study of Religion, which became affiliated to the IAHR in 1990; he twice served as President of that Association (1986-87, 1991-92). This interview was recorded at the European Association for the Study of Religions‘ Annual Conference in Budapest in September 2011, where Professor Wiebe also presented a particularly relevant paper with his colleague Luther H. Martin, entitled "Religious Studies as a Scientific Discipline: The Persistence of a Delusion". Out of necessity it was not recorded on our normal equipment, and we apologise for the poorer quality of the sound this week. References: Ford, David F., 2000 [1999]. Theology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Whaling, Frank, 1999. “Theological Approaches” in Peter Connoly (ed.), Approaches to the Study of Religion. London: Cassell, pp. 226-274. Wiebe, Donald, 1999. The Politics of Religious Studies: The Continuing Conflict with Theology in the Academy. New York: St Martin’s Press. | 5 2 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPodcast: Carole Cusack on Invented Religions | What is an "Invented Religion"? Why should scholars take these religions seriously? What makes these “inventions” different from the revelations in other religions? What happens when an author does not want their story to become a religious text? In this interview with David, Carole M. Cusack (Associate Professor in Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney) answers these questions and more, exploring her notion of “Invented Religions” and introducing the listener to a wide variety of contemporary and unusual forms of religion. Discussion flows through a range of topics – from Discordianism and the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to Scientology, Jediism and the New Atheism – and demonstrates how the works of authors such as Thomas Pynchon and Robert A. Heinlein can be transformed by others and take on a life of their own. In her own words, “This is a fiction so good it should be true…” | 29 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPodcast: Armin Geertz on Cognitive Approaches to the Study of Religion | The cognitive study of religion has quickly established itself as the paradigmatic methodology in the field today. It's grounded in the concept that to some degree, religiosity is hard-wired into human brains, a result of evolutionary processes. In this episode, Professor Armin Geertz tells Chris why it deserves its prominent profile, and how it is developing. | 22 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
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CleanPodcast: James Cox on the Phenomenology of Religion | Phenomenology is an important methodology in the study of religions, but can be inaccessible to the student. In this interview, James Cox outlines the phenomenology of religion to David in a clear, concise way, avoiding jargon and placing the methodology in the broader context of the history of European philosophy and comparative religion. | 13 1 12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 6 Episodes |
