Since the downfall of the phenomenology of religion as the leading paradigm in the study of religion in the 1960s, theoretical and methodological discussions surrounding the nature and identity of the study of religion as an academic discipline have proliferated. The essays included in this volume approach these debates from a variety of angles. Based on a series of talks held at the University of Hannover over the last few years, the essays are intended to be understood as diagnostic works in progress and thus as working papers, all of which strive to point out important problems and perspectives in the field of theories and methodology and to draw attention to the future of the discipline. Using developments in Hanover as a launch pad, the volume forms the basis for further insights into the direction of the study of religion as a discipline at large.

Drawing on their wide experience in the undergraduate classroom, the contributors address basic but current issues in university teaching. This book provides practical commentary and invites instructors to consider how to address the learning needs of their students, while taking into account the wider structural requirements of administrations, governments, or credentialing agencies. Consisting of about forty, readable, short entries – on topics ranging from curriculum, grading, group work, digital humanities and large lectures, to learning management systems, office hours, online/remote courses, recruiting and seminars – this book provides a wealth of practical help and reassurance to teachers working with undergraduate students. This book is a valuable tool for early instructors in universities and colleges, showing them how to impact a class's success. It provides a critical background on the issues involved whilst also offering suggestions on how to navigate the competing demands on teachers.

This book analyzes the changes and shifts in religious education in Europe over the past 50 years. In a post-secular age, it has become increasingly difficult to make sharp distinctions between what is religious and non-religious, confessional and non-confessional. Reforms in religious education in Sweden in the 1960s appeared as part of a process of wider secular liberalization, giving more credence to the idea of absolute neutrality in religious education. However drastic shifts in society, culture and the European religious landscape raise the need for a reevaluation of the foundations of religious education. Drawing on a range of case studies from across Europe, this book will appeal to students and scholars of religious education as well as post-secular education more generally.

Informed by ‘critical religion’ perspective in Religious Studies and postcolonial self-reflection in Sociology, this book interrogates the ideas of ‘religion’ and ‘the secular’ in social theory and Sociology. It argues that as long as social theory and sociological discourse embed the religion-secular distinction and locate themselves on the ‘secular’ side of the binary, Sociology will continue to serve the very ideologies it tries to subvert – namely Western modernity/coloniality.

In this volume, questions are addressed revolving around religious literacy and education. The term religious literacy is explored as the ability to discern and analyze intersections of religion with social, political, and cultural life in pluralistic societies. Questions about what types of religious literacies are possible in a non-confessional, and even secular, educational context are in focus. It delves into the intricate relationship between religious literacy, religious education in the Nordic countries, and the development of subject knowledge and generic abilities. The Nordic countries, as modern secular welfare states with shared characteristics, provide an intriguing framework for comparison. The exploration of variations in the organization, content, and goals of religious education in Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden sheds light on the process of shaping educational content within specific historical and societal contexts and the anthology broadens its scope by incorporating global perspectives from the Indian, Italian, and Indonesian contexts. The volume features contributions from 18 researchers who explore empirical, methodological, and theoretical aspects of religious literacy and education. The concept of religious literacy, encompassing both knowledge and generic skills, proves to be indispensable for navigating the diverse religious and non-religious worldviews present in pluralistic societies. Tailored for students, educators, education researchers, and policymakers, this anthology contributes to the ongoing discourse on religious literacy. It not only provides valuable insights into the Nordic educational landscape but also fosters a global dialogue on the crucial role of education in understanding diverse worldviews.

Taking its cue from Robert A. Segal’s work, Explaining, Interpreting, and Theorizing Religion and Myth: Contributions in Honor of Robert A. Segal offers a set of essays by renowned scholars addressing the persisting question of how to approach religion and myth as academic categories.

Fresh new perspectives on the study of religion, ranging from SoulCycle to Mark Twain American Examples: New Conversations about Religion, Volume Two, is the second in a series of annual anthologies produced by the American Examples workshop hosted by the Department of Religious Studies at The University of Alabama. In the latest volume from this dynamic academic project, nine scholars with diverse topics and methodologies vividly reimagine the meaning of all three words in the phrase “American religious history.” The essays use case studies from America, broadly conceived, to ask trenchant theoretical questions that are of interest to scholars and students beyond the subfield of American religious history. Cody Musselman uses a Weberian analysis to explore questions of identity, authority, and authenticity in the world of SoulCycle while Zachary T. Smith finds commonality between the rhetoric and practices of scholarship and mixed martial arts. Erik Kline provides a new perspective on the psychedelic mysticism of the 1960s, and Brook Wilensky-Lanford takes stock of the cultural power of parody in Mark Twain’s last work of fiction. Christopher Cannon Jones examines the reciprocal relationship between religious texts and cultural contexts by comparing early Mormon missions to Hawai‘i and Jamaica and Lindsey Jackson explores what debates over circumcision can tell us about gender stereotypes and motherhood. Dana Lloyd uses the 1988 Supreme Court decision in Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association as a case study in order to consider how Indigenous religion and sovereignty have been understood and adjudicated in the American legal system. Matt Sheedy studies the identity categories of “atheist” and “ex-Muslim” and Brad Stoddard uses ethnographic fieldwork to evaluate the role of religious pluralism in regulating and policing correctional institutions. Editors Samah Choudhury and Prea Persaud provide an introduction that reconsiders the trajectory of the American Examples project in light of the siege on the US Capitol in January 2021 and the continuing COVID pandemic. Visit americanexamples.ua.edu for more information on upcoming workshop dates and future projects. CONTRIBUTORS Michael J. Altman / Samah Choudhury / Lindsey Jackson / Christopher Cannon Jones / / Erik Kline / Dana Lloyd / Cody Musselman / Prea Persaud / Matt Sheedy / Zachary T. Smith / Brad Stoddard / Brook Wilensky-Lanford

The revised essays collected here, four of which are published for the first time, continue a longstanding argument made by McCutcheon and others: that the study of religion would benefit from self-conscious scrutiny of its tools, the interests that may drive them, and the effects that might follow their use. The chapters examine a variety of contemporary sites in the modern field where this thesis can be argued, whether involving the anachronistic use of of the category religion when studying the ancient world to current interest in so-called critical religion or critical realist approaches. Moreover – contrary to some past characterizations of such critiques – a constructive way forward for the field is once again recommended and, at several sites, exemplified in detail: redescribing not only religion as something ordinary but also our tendency to create the impression of exceptional and thus set-apart things, places, and people. Aimed at scholars and students alike, the book is an invitation to examine our own scholarly practices and thereby take a more active role in shaping the field in which we carry out our work as scholars of this thing we call religion.

Three Facets of Public Health and Paths to Improvements provides an overview on how specific indicators like the environment, culture and behavior play a role in developing improved outcomes for public health in local, regional, national and global health policy and concerns. Divided into three sections, the book examines the impact of the environment and social determinants on public health. It also illustrates the interrelation of these facets as predictors of public health, explores their institutional, organizational and individual impacts, and considers the way multiple stakeholders must engage to improve conditions that impact health. The book utilizes various research methods, including fundamental, systematics, qualitative and quantitative. Readers can use the information to inform future research and better understand an existing health problem and outcomes. - Offers a multisectoral (MSA) approach to understanding environmental, behavioral and social facets of public health - Includes an expert analysis (e.g., qualitative, quantitative) approach in relation to policy and existing problems - Combines an analytic approach with educational presentation to engage diverse readership

Until the 1990s, secularism was understood largely as exclusion of religion from the public domain. However, in the last two decades, the world has witnessed the return of religion as a medium and subject of national, regional, and global politics. With such a shift, the previously unquestioned Western values of modernity and secularism find themselves at loggerheads with the increasing assertion of religious identity, which results in difference-based conflicts. This antagonism also gives rise to a vibrant, religiously pluralistic civil society and speaks of a post-secular turn in modern Southeast Asian democracies. Secularism, Religion, and Democracy in Southeast Asia tries to understand the rise of religion in modern democracies and how everyday economic, social, and political conditions aid this post-secular phenomenon in Southeast Asia. Setting itself apart from most studies of religion in Southeast Asia through its regional focus, this volume explores the ideas, practices, state responses, and anxieties related to the religious–secular divide in this geopolitical region.