Uncertainty and the Limits of Culture

Public discourse about religion is increasingly dominated by the assumption that to be religious is to be certain about absolute truths. Broadly shared among pundits and politicians, and widely disseminated in the media, this assumption rests on the idea that religion functions chiefly as a generati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journal of religion & society
Main Author: Schaefer, Richard (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Creighton University 2015
In: The journal of religion & society
Year: 2015, Volume: 17
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Summary:Public discourse about religion is increasingly dominated by the assumption that to be religious is to be certain about absolute truths. Broadly shared among pundits and politicians, and widely disseminated in the media, this assumption rests on the idea that religion functions chiefly as a generative source of meaning and is therefore best understood as culture. This essay challenges this reduction of religion to culture. Looking at both scholarly and popular instances of this attitude, it shows how it is insufficient to account for the dynamics of religion in history.
ISSN:1522-5658
Contains:Enthalten in: The journal of religion & society
Persistent identifiers:HDL: 10504/68492