The Critical Study of Non-Religion: Discourse, Identification and Locality (Bloomsbury Advances in Religious Studies) - Hardcover

Book 10 of 19: Bloomsbury Advances in Religious Studies

Christopher R. Cotter

 
9781350095243: The Critical Study of Non-Religion: Discourse, Identification and Locality (Bloomsbury Advances in Religious Studies)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1350095249 ISBN 13: 9781350095243
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020

Synopsis

This book acts as a bridge between two increasingly entrenched positions in contemporary religious studies-one that is interested in understanding 'religion in the real world', and the other in understanding the discursive processes by which that statement makes sense, or 'critical religion.' Chris Cotter argues that both have a lot to learn from each other, and that rigorous empirical work can be conducted under the religion/non-religion binary and still contribute to the critical project. This book presents a concise and up-to-date critical survey of research on non-religion in the UK and beyond, before presenting the results of extensive research in Edinburgh's Southside which blurs the boundary between 'religion' and 'non-religion'. In doing so, the author demonstrates that these are dynamic subject positions, and phenomena can occupy both at the same time, or neither, depending on who is doing the positioning, and what issues are at stake. This book details an approach which avoids constructing 'religion' as in some way unique, whilst also fully incorporating 'non-religious' subject positions into religious studies. It provides a rich engagement with a wide variety of theoretical material, rooted in empirical data, which will be of interest to those interested in critical, sociological and anthropological study of the contemporary non-/religious landscape.

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About the Author

Chris Cotter is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, UK. He is co-editor of New Atheism: Critical Perspectives and Contemporary Debates (2017) and After World Religions: Reconstructing Religious Studies (2016). He is co-founder, co-editor-in-chief, and co-host of the The Religious Studies Project podcast and Co-Director at the Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network.

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Publisher
Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date
2020
Language
English
ISBN 10 
1350095249
ISBN 13 
9781350095243
Binding
Hardcover
Number of pages
256