The Craft of Religious Studies

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Introduction

   • Jon R. Stone

   Pages 1-17

3. Methods in My Life

   • Ninian Smart

   Pages 18-35

4. From Great Neck to Swift Hall: Confessions of a Reluctant Historian of Religions

   • Wendy Doniger

   Pages 36-51

5. There is No Religion There

   • Frits Staal

   Pages 52-75

6. Climbing the Foothills of Understanding

   • John Hick

   Pages 76-97

7. From History to Religion

   • Jacob Neusner

   Pages 98-116

8. Theological Autobiography

   • James M. Robinson

   Pages 117-150

9. Half a Life in Religious Studies: Confessions of an ‘Historical Historian’

   • Martin E. Marty

   Pages 151-174

10. On Theory-Driven Methods

    • Rodney Stark

    Pages 175-196

11. On Studying Religion

    • Andrew M. Greeley

    Pages 197-212

12. Of Churches, Courts, and Moral Order

    • Phillip E. Hammond

    Pages 213-239

13. Religion as Life and Text: Postmodern Re-figurations

    • Edith Wyschogrod

    Pages 240-257

14. Retracings

    • Mark C. Taylor

    Pages 258-276

15. Who Are You Really, and What Were You Before?: Reflections on a Thinking Life

    • Giles Gunn

    Pages 277-299

16. The Rest is History

    • Ivan Strenski

    Pages 300-324

17. Back Matter

    Pages 325-335

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A collection of essays by distinguished scholars in the academic study of religion, The Craft of Religious Studies represents the variety of research and analytical methods that researchers employ when examining religious phenomena, whether personally or socially expressed. Autobiographical in cast, this collection points to diversity of approaches in the academic study of religion and highlights the interdisciplinary nature of the field. While the ways scholars approach the study of religion in human culture vary, the common ground among them - as seen in these fourteen contributions - remains their quest for understanding more so than the paths toward understanding they have chosen.

• Analytical Method
• religion
• religious studies

• University of California, Berkeley, USA

  Jon R. Stone

Jon R. Stone currently teaches at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of On the Boundaries of American Evangelicalism (SMP).

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