Religion as Site Rather Than Religion as Category: On the Sociology of Religion's Export Problem
The sociology of religion is not well known for exporting theory to other subdisciplines, for which the author suggests three causes: a lack of interest in religion from other sociologists, a focus on “normal science” rather than exportable theory, and an insistence that religion is a sui generis an...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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Published: |
Oxford Univ. Press
2014
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In: |
Sociology of religion
Year: 2014, Volume: 75, Issue: 4, Pages: 579-593 |
Online Access: |
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Summary: | The sociology of religion is not well known for exporting theory to other subdisciplines, for which the author suggests three causes: a lack of interest in religion from other sociologists, a focus on “normal science” rather than exportable theory, and an insistence that religion is a sui generis analytic category. The author then suggests how this third cause can be remedied by no longer thinking of religion as an analytic category but rather as a site though which religious actors can be studied. Doing so would shift religion to a pragmatic, native category, thereby allowing an easier export of concepts discovered while studying religious groups, in the tradition of sociological classics like taboo and charismatic authority. |
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ISSN: | 1759-8818 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Sociology of religion
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/socrel/sru054 |