About the "Studying Religion" Site
The "Studying Religion" site--designed in the summer of 2005 but continually updated--provides a brief introduction not to religion but, instead, ways of defining and therefore studying religion. Although there are many sites on the web where one can learn assorted and curious facts about the religions of the world, there are few introductory resources where one can learn about the history and requirements of religion's study--where one can consider the scholarly tools required for studying religion as an aspect of human culture as opposed to judging this or that religion's adequacy or truth. Moreover, those scholarly resources that are available on the web often portray religion as an item of deeply personal meaning that is somehow removed from history and culture, instead of taking seriously that those beliefs, practices, and institutions that we name as religion--whatever else they may or may not be--are items of observable human history and culture that can be studied.
An elaborated and enlarged version of this site is available as a book from Equinox Publishers in the U.K. (distributed in North American by David Brown Books). The book is intended not only for the introductory course as well as general readers but also as a resource to begin almost any course in the academic study of religion. For more information on this book, please visit the Equinox's site.
Using the Site
The site is hardly exhaustive; instead, think of it as a primer for those who are interested in learning more about studying religion as an element of human behavior. Its main pages--which can be read separately but are best read in sequence--sketch general issues in the modern study of religion that will surely require greater study by the interested student. "Studying Religion" is therefore just a place to start. To facilitate moving beyond this introduction, the names of significant scholars, past and present, are linked to discussions of their major contributions to the field along with a selection of suggested web- and print-based resources on each scholar's work. Also, a number of technical terms used throughout the site are linked to more detailed commentaries.
Although direct quotations to other scholarly sources are kept to a minimum on the site's main pages, where they are used readers will find a *; hovering the cursor over this will display the citation in a small text box and clicking it will take readers to a brief commentary on a page entitled "Notes." At the end of the note, [< Back] returns readers to the place where that source was cited in the main text.
Note: If the entire navigation frame on the left of the screen is not visible, consider selecting "View" from your brower's main menu and re-adjusting the text size.
About the Site's Host
This
site is supported and hosted by the Department
of Religious Studies at the University
of Alabama, a publicly-funded university in the U.S. Private funds
and grants did not support its creation.
This Department is typical of many programs in the study of religion that
can now be found throughout the U.S.'s system of state-funded universities.
It was founded in the mid- to late 1960s when the university intentionally
moved away from its previous practice of relying on local campus ministers
and chaplains to teach courses, on a voluntary nature, largely based on
the Protestant seminary model (e.g., offering courses on such topics as
the New Testament, Old Testament, Church History, Systematic Theology,
etc.). Instead, scholars trained in historical, critical methods, were
hired to teach the study of religion in a cross-cultural, comparative
manner, in which similarities and differences among behaviors and institutions
were studied as opposed to being assessed in terms of which were better
or weaker, primary or derivative. Now, forty years later, the study of
religion as carried out in this Department is rather different from the
practice of theology, in any of its many forms (whether liberal or conservative);
for, unlike theology's search for absolute truth, deep meaning, enduring
value, or the will of God or gods, the academic study of religion is an
element of the human sciences, making it (like its peer academic disciplines
in the modern university) an exercise in the description, comparison,
interpretation, and explanation of human behaviors.
If you are interested in learning more information on the history of this
Department, then please click the logo, above, and read the introduction
to a collection of essays published by the Department's faculty in 2004.
Or go here
to obtain a PDF copy of the most recent issue of our newsletter.
About the Site's Creators
Kim
Davis (far left), Christine Scott (middle), and Karissa
Rinas (right) are all recent graduates of the University of Alabama's
B.A. major in the academic study of religion. Kim and Christine helped
develop the site during the summer of 2005, while Kim was pursuing an
M.A. in French Literature at the University of Alabama and Christine was
preparing to enroll in the M.A. in Religious Studies at Georgia State
University. Karissa, whose interests include the cognitive science of
religion, was employed in the Department in the summer of 2007 andupdated
the site, adding new biographical entries.
Russell T. McCutcheon was trained at Queen's University and the University
of Toronto, both in Canada, earning his Ph.D. from Toronto's Graduate
Center for the Study of Religion in 1995. He has worked at the University
of Tennessee, Knoxville (1993-1996), Southwest Missouri State University,
Springfield (1996-2001), and, since 2001, at the University of Alabama,
Tuscaloosa, where he served as Chair of the Department of Religious Studies
(2001-2009).