Contributors
List of Images
Preface and Acknowledgements
INTRODUCTION
Destabilizing the Sacred: A Critical History of Religions
Hugh B. Urban and Greg Johnson
PART I. MYTH AND NARRATIVE
1. (Mythical) Battles in Medieval Scandinavia: Battle Narratives
and the
Construction of Society
Nicolas Meylan
2. Myth, Third Rome, and the Uses of Ressentiment: An Essay in Myth
Criticism
Ivan Strenski
3. How the Arthashastra and the Kamasutra Got Away With Their
Critiques of
Dharma
Wendy Doniger
4. Authority Apart from Truth: Superhero Comic Book Stories as
Myth
Kevin Wanner
5. Myths and Utopias, Critics and Caretakers: In Defense of
Revisionist History
Stefan Arvidsson
PART II. RITUAL AND PRACTICE
6. Ritual, Advocacy, and Authority: The Challenge of Being an
Irreverent Witness
Greg Johnson
7. Death, Nationalism, and Sacrifice: Ritual, Violence, Politics,
and Tourism in
Northeast India
Hugh B. Urban
8. Becoming Zarathustra
Jean Kellens
PART III. GENDER AND SEXUALITY
9. Where Men are Knights and Women are Princesses: Gender Ideology
in Brazil's Valley of the Dawn
Kelly E. Hayes
10. Straightening Out the Gods' Gender
Kathleen Self
11. Norn, Vampire, Female Christ: Myth and Myth-Making in Sweden's
First
Feminist Novel
Stefanie von Schnurbein
PART IV. POWER, POLITICS, AND THE POLITICS OF SCHOLARSHIP
12. Historicizing the Elephant in the Room
Russell T. McCutcheon
13. What is Religion? Between Christocentric Paradigm and
Anthropological Relativism
Claude Calame
14. Rereading Charlie Hebdo: Of Irreverence and Laïcité
S. Romi Mukherjee
Afterword: An Interview with Bruce Lincoln on Religion, Comparison,
and the Politics of Scholarship
Index
Hugh B. Urban is a professor of religious studies and South Asian
studies in the Department of Comparative Studies at Ohio State
University. He is the author of nine books, including The Church of
Scientology: A History of a New Religion (2011) and Zorba the
Buddha: Sex, Spirituality and Capitalism in the Global Osho
Movement (2016).
Greg Johnson is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and
Director of the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies
at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is the author of Sacred
Claims: Repatriation and Living Tradition and co-editor of Handbook
of Indigenous Religion(s) (2017).
"... these provocative essays constitute a fine, thoughtful, and
original treatment. Summing up: Recommended" -- CHOICE
"Irreverence and the Sacred offers fresh perspectives on one of the
most influential theorists in religious studies. The book also
contains deeply self-conscious explorations of how scholars of
religion approach their work; the authors describe the processes
they use in specific projects and the dilemmas they have faced
while conducting their research. On occasion authors in this volume
even express regret that perhaps they could have approached
particular projects differently. This process of self-description
and reflection on the part of the authors unifies this book far
more than any field of study or response to specific writings of
Lincoln. It is the
insight into this grappling on how to best conduct scholarly work
and the application of religious studies theory to such a wide
variety of subjects that make this such an immensely valuable
resource." -- Melody Everest, Reading Religion
"Using Bruce Lincoln's work as a compass, the contributors to this
volume eschew a feel-good approach to religious studies. Rather
than focus on meaningless categories such as 'the sacred,' they
encourage us to reflect on the mundane nature of religion. The
results are challenging, provocative, and often irreverent. The
editors are to be congratulated for continuing to push the
boundaries of the field in important and controversial
directions."--Aaron W.
Hughes, Philip S. Bernstein Professor of Religion and Classics,
University of Rochester
"While Bruce Lincoln's scholarship has established him as a leading
figure in religious studies, the field remains in desperate need of
scholars pressing and applying the kind of approach Lincoln
advocates. His mode of and ideas on historiography provoke as much
as they influence, and the field would be better if scholarsDLeven
in their critiquesDLtook seriously the questions and issues
thinkers like Lincoln continue to pose for our academic work. That
is
exactly what this collection delivers."--K. Merinda Simmons,
Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of
Religious Studies, University of Alabama
"Bruce Lincoln's voice is one of the most important on the critical
end of the academic study of religion; no one I know of has done
more than he to theorize and adapt neo-Marxist or Marxian
approaches to the subject matter of our field. The volume does an
excellent job of surveying his major works, extending Lincoln's
work to a new data set, demonstrating its usefulness, or offering
criticisms of his work, demonstrating how his approach might be
modified so as
to be more sophisticated than it already is."--Craig Martin,
Associate Professor of Religious Studies, St. Thomas Aquinas
College
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