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Discipline Awareness Project:
RELIGIOUS STUDIES
Jim Dooley
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American Academy of Religion. The AAR is North America’s largest professional association in the field of Religious Studies. The AAR was created in the early 1960s from the National Association of Biblical Instructors (NABI). It represents the work of theological, humanistic, and social scientific scholars. Its journal is the international quarterly, Journal of the American Academy of Religion. Religious Studies News is the Academy’s web magazine; it is designed both for students and professionals to report on research trends, and to be a public face of the scholarly study of religion. The AAR’s annual scholarly conference is held each Fall, but individual regions have their own annual meetings. The 2015 Annual Meeting will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, November 21-24. Student memberships are available at a reduced cost.
Association for the Sociology of Religion. The ASR is an international scholarly association that was originally founded in 1938 as the American Catholic Sociological Society. ASR scholarship focuses on comparative, historial and theoretical studies of religion in a sociological context. Its official journal, Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review, is published quarterly for the purpose of advancing scholarship in the sociological study of religion. The ASR 2015 Annual Meeting will be held in Chicago, Illinois, August 20-22. Student memberships are available at a reduced cost.
International Association for the History of Religions. The IAHR was founded in Amsterdam in 1950. and comprises more than 40 national organizations and affiliates dedicated to the scientifu study of religion. IAHR describes itself as “the preeminent international forum for the critical, analytical and cross-cultural study of religion past and present. IAHR is not a forum for confessional, apologetical, or other similar concerns.” IAHR’s main publication is NUMEN: International Review for the History of Religions, published six times per year. IAHR holds its major meeting every five years; the 2015 World Congress will be held in Erfurt, Germany, August 22-29.
North American Association for the Study of Religion. The NAASR is the North American affiliate of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR). The association was founded in 1989 by doctoral students at the University of Toronto’s Center for Religious Studies. Its quarterly, peer-reviewed journal is Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, and emphasizes theoretical work. NAASR holds its annual conference jointly with the American Academy of Religion; the 2015 conference will be in Atlanta, Georgia, November 21-24.
Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. The SSSR was founded in 1949 and is the North American field’s primary association devoted to social scientific studies of religion and interdisciplinary dialogue. The Society promotes the work of scholars representing the fields of sociology, religious studies, psychology, political science, economics, international studies, and others. Its quarterly journal is the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion; many additional articles by SSSR members are published online. SSSR holds annual meetings; the 2015 meeting will be in Newport Beach, California, October 23-25. Student memberships are available at a reduced cost.
Many University Departments of Religious Studies publish lists of academic and professional organizations within the field. For example:
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GMU Philosophy & Religion Databases: http://infowiz.gmu.edu/dbs/subjects/phil
Many University Departments of Religious Studies publish lists of academic journals within the field. For example:
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My Text: Phillips, Jonathan. “Call of the Crusades.” History Today 59.11 (2009): 10-17. Web. 10 July 2015.
On September 16, 2001, just a
few days after the September 11 terrorist attacks
on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center,
President George W. Bush was anxious to explain
that the new War on Terrorism would be a lengthy
endeavor. As reported by the Christian Science
Monitor, Bush stated that “this crusade,
this war on terrorism, is going to take
awhile.” Although the use of the word
“crusade” in this context seemed fairly
innocuous to the American people, the word itself
was extremely upsetting to European citizens and
the Arab world, who associated “crusade”
with the Holy Wars against Islam which began at the
end of the 11th century. In order to explain both
the historical and the mundane uses of the word,
Professor Jonathan Phillips of the University of
London published an article that juxtaposes Pope
Urban II’s crusades with modern imagery and
colloquial useage. Unlike typical scholarly articles, which are produced primarily for academic audiences, articles written for publication in non-academic magazines such as History Today are designed for an educated but still somewhat popular audience. Phillips’s article is designed for popular consumption. At the same time, Phillips wants to have an impact on American and European audiences, so that the word “crusade” can be seen in more ways than just as an attack on Islam. The article is written in a very straightforward style; Phillips is presenting the facts of the matter without any hint of controversial argument. There are no footnotes, and at least nine photographs accompanied the original article (including the one, above, of Pope Urban II preaching the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont). The article is divided into three manageable sections. The first section sets the historical context from the late 11th century to the mid-19th century. The second section, titled “The Secular Version,” deals with the wars of the 20th century, and quotes Lloyd George, Harold Macmillan, and Austen Chamberlain using the word “crusade” to imply a moral imperative – arguably another version of a holy war. The third section deals with the “Decline and re-emergence” of crusader imagery. Phillips concludes by recalling the use of “crusading. . . as a more distant metaphor in countless other circumstances,” such as the American Women’s Temperance Crusade. Religious Studies is a broad, multidisciplinary field that attracts scholars with many and varied interests. Scholars of individual religious traditions (Judaism, Hinduism, Shinto, Christianity) trace the patterns of religious activity within the single tradition. Sociologists of religion analyze how religious activity functions within the society, and may chhose to investigate how religion promotes social change. The history of western civilization is closely connected to the spread of Christianity, but historians can find many other avenues of historical inquiry; the discovery of lost manuscripts – not only copies of lost scriptures, but also of lost correspondence – can add significantly to the body of knowledge. Scholars specializing in comparative religion search for universal themes between different traditions, and increase their understanding of how faiths are related. A new religious tradition may emerge, or suddenly become known, and people want to know about it! In all of the fields, the scholars want their work to be known and understood, and so write very precisely about their discoveries and their insights.
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Other Texts: "Hamilton on the Louisiana Purchase: A Newly Identified Editorial from the New-York Evening Post." The William and Mary Quarterly 12.2 (1955): 268-281. Web. 9 July 2015.
The Hamilton article carefully explains Alexander Hamilton’s favorable opinions on the subject of America’s acquisition of the Louisiana territory from France, while also highlighting Hamilton’s political distaste for President Thomas Jefferson, under whose administration the territory was purchased. The author establishes Hamilton’s attitudes, and then focuses on an 1803 editorial published in the New-York Evening Post, a paper that the author states Hamilton “had set up as his personal organ” (271). The entire text of the editorial is provided (273-278). Interestingly, the editorial was unsigned, and it was never attributed to Hamilton in any of the editions of Hamilton’s writings (278). The author cites evidence obtained by Hamilton’s son subsequent to Hamilton’s death that shows that Hamilton was, indeed, responsible for the content of the editorial, and that it was most likely dictated by Hamilton and transcribed by the newspaper’s editor, William Coleman. The article refers extensively to secondary sources, and enhances the story with detailed footnotes explaining Hamilton’s opinions and history, as well as the problems associated with establishing authorship.
William Magee’s article, “Instrument of Growth,” analyzes Jane Austen’s enlargement of the scope of “the courtship and marriage convention of the novel of manners” (198). Magee refers to all of Austen’s adult novels. Magee contends that Austen develops “a growing reliance on love in courtship” in her plots, but adjusts “the conventional plot to stress the value of women, particularly her heoines, to their men” (205). Magee bases his interpretations on close readings of the different novels, all of which illustrate in some way Austen’s modifications of what was seemingly a conventional plot devices “to suit her specific purpose in each novel” (207).
Michael Pregill’s article, “The Hebrew Bible and the Quran,” especially compared to Phillips's piece in History Today, is a more typical scholarly article from the field of Religious Studies. The article has about 15 pages of text, lengthy explanatory endnotes that follow The Chicago Manual of Style, and more than two dozen “Works Cited.” Designations of years as CE (Common Era) and BCE (Before Common Era) are preferred over AD (Anno Domini – Year of Our Lord) and BC (Before Christ), in order to make calendar schemes less centered on Christianity. For convience, this convention is followed even when referring to Islam, even though the counting of years in Islam begins with a certain event in Muhammad's life. Pregill departs from the Chicago style by using “Quran” rather than “Koran,” but does not italicize the word. Pregill does not use the personal “I” in his article; avoidance of personal identification is standard practice. In addition to having an Abstract at the start of the article, Pregill separates his text into several sections, all with capsule descriptions as their headings. This style allows the reader to have a better sense of the article's organization, and Pregill can develop his points more effectively. Arabic terminology is transliterated for English readers, and English translations immediately follow each foreign phrase. Quranic and Biblical names are treated the same way. Quranic suras have in-text citations according to standard format; e.g. “Q.26:105-122.” The point of much of the scholarship is to build on what has been written previously, so great care is taken to cite sources accurately and completely. The point of Pregill's article is to consider the number of identifiable biblical “borrowings” found in the Quran (648). One historial interpretation for these has been that Muhammad (the standard spelling) depended on Jewish teachers; therefore, according to some scholars, “Islam is essentially a derivative offshoot of Juadaism” (650). Pregill disagrees with this approach, and argues that it is not only invalid, but also that it can be traced to “medieval polemic against Islam” (643). He builds on the work of several scholars, who he names, to show that contemporary scholarship has not “universally promoted what we have termed the myth of Jewish priority” that was prevalent in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (656). Pregill demonstrates in his article the desire to clarify misapprehensions about a major faith tradition. To do this, he builds his own argument in an organized manner, lays out a solid representation of the strengths and weaknesses of previous arguments, and credits the research of those who have gone before him. This style, more than Phillips's, epitomizes the conventions typically associated with the discipline.
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The Modern Language Association (MLA), the Purdue OWL states, “provides a method for source documentation that is used in most humanities courses. The humanities place emphasis on authoriship, so most MLA citation involves recording the author’s name in the physical text.” The American Psychological Association (APA) is used in most social sciences courses, which according to the Purdue OWL, “place emphasis on the date a work was created, so most APA citation involves recording the date of a particular work in the physical text.” The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Ed., offers specific guidance for “Scriptural References” (14.252-14.255), including Biblical references as well as references from other sacred works (Koran, Upanishads, the Rig-Veda, etc.). The CMS refers “writers working extensively with biblical material” to The SBL Handbook of Style, published by the Society of Biblical Literature. For other “authoritative usage,” writers are encouraged to consult History of Religions, published by University of Chicago Press. Similar resources are listed in the MLA Handbook (MLA 262-263).
So, what would be the expected or standard style? I approached John Turner, Ph.D., Associate Professor and the GMU Undergraduate Academic Advisor for Religious Studies, and presented the question. According to Professor Turner: I’m afraid there isn’t a simple answer to your question because of the interdisciplinary nature of Religious Studies (which is not a discipline but rather a subject and therefore an aggregation of disciplines).
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The similarities and differences between members of my group I saw quite a bit of commonality between our interests and the ways we approached our respective disciplines. All of us are essentially active in the field of history – American, European, or Religious – and two of us are actually history majors. Two of us are English majors with a shared interest in certain authors, although we are pursuing different concentrations. (Amy is focusing on creative writing, and my literary focus is on early modern British literature.) We seemed genuinely interested in each other’s fields and projects, and we worked well together; given more time, we could have built considerably upon these commonalities. Those of us who are in the fields of history and literature are interested in the stories we as members of a certain society tell each other. We want to find out what “really happened,” we want to see a little bit beyond the obvious, and we want to pass along new stories as well as the old ones. Historians look at documents, identify trends, and make connections between events. Scholars of literature read carefully to see how authors tell old stories in new ways to highlight new ideas and convey new meanings, and to reflect their own understanding of the world in which they find themselves. In this regard, history and literary art are intertwined; history informs the literature, and literature can preserve and change the world.
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A working definition of scholarship in Religious Studies Scholarship in the multidisciplinary field of Religious Studies is rooted in the objective description of the individual religious tradition. Each tradition, or faith, emerges from a society in a certain way and helps define that society. To that extent, one religion is not viewed by scholars as being “correct” while another is “incorrect.” As societies change, the religious traditions generally change, as well. My own interests are the history of religions and the sociology of religion; scholars in these fields pay particular attention to the sacred texts and stories, especially how they evolve over long periods of time. The main emphasis is to describe the traditions accurately and honestly, without trying to make them appear to be other than they are.
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“Academic Journals.” University of North Carolina, Charlotte, Department of Religious Studies. Web. 18 July 2015. http://religiousstudies.uncc.edu/information-students/graduate-resources/academic-journals-and-publications The Chicago Manual of Style. 16th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Print. “Citation Chart.” Purdue University. The OWL at Purdue. October 2014. Web. 18 July 2015. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20110928111055_949.pdf Ford, Peter. “Europe cringes at Bush ‘crusade’ against terrorists." The Christian Science Monitor. 19 Sep. 2001. Web. 19 July 2015. http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0919/p12s2-woeu.html “Hamilton on the Louisiana Purchase: A Newly Identified Editorial from the New-York Evening Post.” The William and Mary Quarterly 12.2 (1955): 268-281. Web. 9 July 2015. http://www.jstor.org.mutex.gmu.edu/stable/1920508 “Symmetry in religious symbols.” Image. Wikipedia for School. Symmetry, n.d. Web. 18 July 2015. http://schools-wikipedia.org/images/84/8429.png Magee, William H. “Instrument of Growth: The Courtship and Marriage Plot in Jane Austen’s Novels.” The Journal of Narrative Technique 17.2 (1987): 198-208. Web. 13 July 2015. http://www.jstor.org.mutex.gmu.edu/stable/30225182 MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. New York: MLA, 2009. Print. Phillips, Jonathan. “Call of the Crusades.” History Today 59.11 (2009): 10-17. Web. 10 July 2015. http://search.proquest.com.mutex.gmu.edu/docview/202817323 "Pope Urban II Preaches the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont." Photograph of illustration from the 12th-century French Book of Offices. History Today 59.11 (2009): 10. Web. 10 July 2015. http://www.historytoday.com/sites/default/files/urbanii.jpg Pregill, Michael E. “The Hebrew Bible and the Quran: The Problem of the Jewish ‘Influence’ on Islam." Religion Compass 1/6 (2007): 643-659. Web. 15 July 2015. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2007.00044.x/full Product Information: SBL Handbook of Style, 2nd Ed. Society of Biblical Literature. 2014. Web. 19 July 2015. https://secure.aidcvt.com/sbl/ProdDetails.asp?ID=069023C “Professional Associations in the Study of Religion.” University of Alabama, Department of Religious Studies. Web. 13 July 2015. http://rel.as.ua.edu/aboutrelresources3.html “Religious Studies Undergraduate Journals.” University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. Web. 18 July 2015. http://www.uwec.edu/Philrel/resources/rels-journals.htm Turner, John. “Re: Question About Citation Style.” Message to the author. 15 July 2015. E-mail.
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