Aronov Lecture
2006-7

On Wednesday, March 7, 2007, at 7:00 p.m., Professor Tomoko Masuzawa, of the University of Michigan, delivered the Department of Religious Studies' fifth annual Aronov Lecture. The title of her talk was "Return of the What?--or Why We Should Care about the (Mere) Concept of Religion."

Given that this year has been the 175th anniversary of the University of Alabama as well as the College of Arts & Sciences, Dean Robert Olin (above) assisted in funding this year's lecture and was invited to welcome guests.

Following the Dean's opening remarks, Prof. Steven Ramey--chair of our public speakers committee (above)--introduced Prof. Tim Murphy (below) who, in turn, introduced the evening's lecturer.

Prof. Murphy's
Introductory Comments

The historian of American religion, William Scott Green makes an interesting point about the American view of "religion" as a "native category," by which he means: "A native category is a fundamental concept, a basic classification, that people use to identify and explain to themselves what is happening to them. A classification is a native category if it is so elemental in a society that it carries cultural weight and so familiar that people use it constantly and intuitively; they know what it means without needing to define it." Green further notes that part of the specifically American way of holding "religion" as a native category is both reflected in and reproduced by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. As he puts it:

"Because of the First Amendment, religion is a native category of American culture. The Constitution assumes religion as a given. Americans use religion prominently both to distinguish our culture from others ... and to differentiate individuals within our culture. A consequence of the First Amendment is that Americans take religion for granted as a meaningful and conventional trait of being human. But because religion is a native category, we grasp it intuitively rather than spell it out. We think better with religion than we do about it."

In other words, Americans are in the habit of distinguishing a sphere of activity called "religion" from other spheres of activity such as culture, art, morality, and especially politics.

All of this is well and good except for one fact, a fact discovered by anthropologists, linguists, and historians: prior to their contact with Europeans, which usually came about in the context of being colonized, most non-European cultures throughout the world did not have a word that even roughly corresponded to the Latinate "religio" or religion, and neither in their mental nor in their practical organization of themselves did they give evidence of a unique sphere of activity called "religion."

This raises many questions, not the least of which is: have Europeans "discovered" religion in these cultures or have they imposed their own system of classification upon these "others"? Put another way: prior to, or outside of the European colonization of most of the planet, was there or is there such a thing as "world religions"?

This is, in general terms, the problem which our speaker tonight, Dr. Tomoko Masuzawa, has dealt with in her most recent book, The Invention of World Religions: Or, How European Universalism Was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism and Diversity.

Professor Masuzawa received her Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara and, after teaching for some time in Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, she currently holds the position of Professor in the Program in Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan. She was co-chair of the Critical Theory and Discourses on Religion Group in the American Academy of Religion for many years and is currently President of the North American Association for the Study of Religion. Her areas of interest include: Discourses on Religion; History of the Human Sciences (19th to 20th century); History of the Study of Religion; Critical Theory and Hermeneutics; and Psychoanalysis.

Tim Davis, a recent graduate of our Department who is currently teaching Spanish in the public school system, came to town for the lecture. He is pictured here with his big sister Kim, also a graduate who is now nearly completion of her M.A. in French Literature.

And yes, Betty Dickey was there too. Where would we be without Betty?

Thanks to Betty Dickey and Donna Martin for helping to plan and host this event. Thanks also to the College of Arts & Sciences for assisting with its funding. Finally, we have Jennifer "Did the flash go off?" Alfano to thank for the pictures.

Prof. Masuzawa's lecture traced the overlap between the emergence in Europe of discourses on language, race, and religion--all of which functioned, in the 19th C, as ways for Europeans to conceptualize and thereby come to know the seemingly "exotic Other" who was then becoming known to them through colonial contact.

Among those early enough to get the good seats in the front were REL majors/minors and graduates (left to right): Justin Nelson, Chris Hurt, Kim David, Tim Davis, Brooks Harvard, Zach Price, and Joe Kimbrough.

Gorgas Library's recently renovated room has become the home for all REL public events.

While Marcia Barrett--the special collections Catalog Librarian who oversees the REL collection--looks on, Prof. George Williamson, whose own work is on modern German history, poses a question following the lecture.

Prof. Masuzawa's lecture challenged those attending to consider whether such terms as "world religions" passively name pre-existent social phenomena (that are clearly distinguishable from other social phenomena) or, instead, whether such concepts actively constitute the things that they seem merely to name.

Zach Price, REL senior, poses a question of his own, following her lecture.

Prof. Steve Jacobs, who holds the Departments endowed chair in Judaic Studies, thanked Prof. Masuzawa for coming to Tuscaloosa, and presented her with a framed copy of the flyer that advertised her talk.

Time for some refreshments: Forrest McSweeney (left), a student in REL 213, and Chris Crotwell, a double major in REL and Philosophy. Background right: Dr. Jim Hall, Director of New College.

While most in attendance were students in our classes, a number of faculty and staff from other units also attended.

Prof. Maha Marouan, center, speaks with Prof. Masuzawa and Profs. Ramey and McCutcheon, after the lecture.

A fun time was had by all.

Resources

Interested in Prof. Masuzawa's first book, on the quest for origins in the study of religion?

Interested in reading more on colonialism and the history of the study of religion? Try the following article.

Interested in Prof. Murphy's course on "Religion, Religious Studies, and Colonialism"?

A particularly good example of how the category "world religions" is used by dominant groups to organize information about "others."

Need a primer on defining religion?

Learn more about Prof. Masuzawa's lunchtime discussion