How Should We Talk About Religion?: Perspectives, Contexts, Particularities (Erasmus Institute Books) - Softcover

A diverse group of faculty from various universities and academic specialties--philosophy, history, English, anthropology, art history and Islamic studies--explores how scholars address religion in their fields and how they can share their perspectives across disciplinary boundaries . . . There is something here for everyone . . . Recommended for academic and larger public libraries. "Library Journal"" "Common themes thread their way through these 14 essays. All contributors agree that recriminatory rhetoric does not listen or grant legitimacy to other religions or religious views. If one is to talk about religion, the rhetoric requires a pluralism that does not dissolve into universal relativism. . . Both scholars and laypeople will likely profit from this volume." --Choice "A diverse group of faculty from various universities and academic specialties--philosophy, history, English, anthropology, art history and Islamic studies--explores how scholars address religion in their fields and how they can share their perspectives across disciplinary boundaries . . . There is something here for everyone . . . Recommended for academic and larger public libraries." --Library Journal

In this wide-ranging and timely volume, fourteen scholars address the important question, how should we talk about religion, whether our own or the religion of others? They confront such fundamental topics as the sufficiency of ""reason"" for a full life, the adequacy of our methods of describing and analyzing religion, the degree to which any serious confrontation with the religious experiences of others will challenge our own, and whether there can be a pluralism that does not dissolve into universal relativism. Writing from a diversity of perspectives and academic disciplines - philosophy, classics, medieval studies, history, anthropology, economics, political science, and art history, among others - the contributors illuminate issues at the heart of the most significant cultural, social, and political debates of our day. What emerges is not a univocal answer to the question posed in the title. Instead, by demonstrating how religion is talked about in the languages of very different academic disciplines, the essayists creatively address issues that no one should ignore: fundamentalism, the role of religion in American democracy, the tension between secular liberalism and religious rhetoric, monotheism versus pluralism, and the relationship between poverty and liberation theology.