Beyond Phenomenology: Rethinking the Study of Religion

About the Author Gavin Flood is Academic Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and the author of An Introduction to Hinduism (CUP 2004). Product Description This book argues that the understanding and explanation of religion is always historically contingent. Grounded in the work of Bakhtin and Ricoeur, Flood positions the academic study of religion within contemporary debates in the social sciences and humanities concerning modernity and postmodernity, particularly contested issues regarding truth and knowledge. It challenges the view that religions are privileged, epistemic objects, argues for the importance of metatheory, and presents an argument for the dialogical nature of inquiry. The study of religion should begin with language and culture, and this shift in emphasis to the philosophy of the sign in hermeneutics and away from the philosophy of consciousness in phenomenology has far-reaching implications. It means a new ethic of practice which is sensitive to the power relationship in any epistemology; it opens the door to feminist and postcolonial critique, and it provides a methodology which allows for the interface between religious studies, theology, and the social sciences. Review Religious Studies Review, January 2001Highlights: "Flood has written a book that will attract a wide group of readers…That his thesis is coherent and clearly stated is beyond question; that he commands an impressive knowledge of theorists within and outside of the study of religion is most evident."Reviewed in: Culture and Religion, 1.2? (2000)Highlights: "an excellent introduction to the relationship between critical theory and religious studies methodology…a pioneering work."Reviewed in: Themelios 26.2 (Spring 2001)Highlights: "Those who have appreciated Gavin Flood's work…will not be surprised to learn that this is a thorough and constructive analysis of key ideas within contemporary academic religious studies…two of the book's important contributions are that it finally nails down the myth of phenomenological activity and neutrality, and, that it indicates ways in which particular positions, including faith positions, might legitimately operate within religious studies…an important and stimulating book." "Flood's work is invaluable. He is clearly raising interesting and important issues."- Journal of Contemporary Religion, 2001