The Learned Practice of Religion in the Modern University (Scientific Studies of Religion: Inquiry and Explanation) - Hardcover

Donald Wiebe

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1350103438 ISBN 13: 9781350103436

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019

Synopsis

In this book, Donald Wiebe unveils a significant problem in the academic study of religion: that colleges and universities in North America offer an almost exclusively theological account of religion. To explore this issue, Wiebe looks at the religious and moral agendas behind the study of religion, showing that the boundaries between the objective study of religion and religious education as a tool for bettering society have become blurred. As a result, he argues, religious studies departments have fostered an environment where religion has become a learned or scholarly practice, rather the object of academic scrutiny. This book provides a critical history of the failure of 20th and 21st century scholars to follow through on the 19th century ideal of an objective scientific study of religious thought and behaviour. Although emancipated from direct ecclesiastical control and, to some extent, from sectarian theologizing, Wiebe argues that research and scholarship in the academic department of religious studies has failed to break free from religious constraints. He shows that an objective scientific study of religious thought and practice is not only possible, but the only appropriate approach to the study of religious phenomena.

About this title

About the Author

Donald Wiebe is Professor of Religion, Trinity College, University of Toronto, Canada.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1350103438
• ISBN 13: 9781350103436
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256