Encountering Religion

Responsibility and Criticism After Secularism

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Philosophy, Religious
Cover of the book Encountering Religion by Tyler Roberts, Columbia University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Tyler Roberts ISBN: 9780231535496
Publisher: Columbia University Press Publication: September 17, 2013
Imprint: Columbia University Press Language: English
Author: Tyler Roberts
ISBN: 9780231535496
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication: September 17, 2013
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Language: English

Tyler Roberts encourages scholars to abandon rigid conceptual oppositions between "secular" and "religious" to better understand how human beings actively and thoughtfully engage with their worlds and make meaning. The artificial distinction between a self-conscious and critical "academic study of religion" and an ideological and authoritarian "religion," he argues, only obscures the phenomenon. Instead, Roberts calls on intellectuals to approach the field as a site of "encounter" and "response," illuminating the agency, creativity, and critical awareness of religious actors.

To respond to religion is to ask what religious behaviors and representations mean to us in our individual worlds, and scholars must confront questions of possibility and becoming that arise from testing their beliefs, imperatives, and practices. Roberts refers to the work of Hent de Vries, Eric Santner, and Stanley Cavell, each of whom exemplifies encounter and response in their writings as they traverse philosophy and religion to expose secular thinking to religious thought and practice. This approach highlights the resources religious discourse can offer to a fundamental reorientation of critical thought. In humanistic criticism after secularism, the lines separating the creative, the pious, and the critical themselves become the subject of question and experimentation.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Tyler Roberts encourages scholars to abandon rigid conceptual oppositions between "secular" and "religious" to better understand how human beings actively and thoughtfully engage with their worlds and make meaning. The artificial distinction between a self-conscious and critical "academic study of religion" and an ideological and authoritarian "religion," he argues, only obscures the phenomenon. Instead, Roberts calls on intellectuals to approach the field as a site of "encounter" and "response," illuminating the agency, creativity, and critical awareness of religious actors.

To respond to religion is to ask what religious behaviors and representations mean to us in our individual worlds, and scholars must confront questions of possibility and becoming that arise from testing their beliefs, imperatives, and practices. Roberts refers to the work of Hent de Vries, Eric Santner, and Stanley Cavell, each of whom exemplifies encounter and response in their writings as they traverse philosophy and religion to expose secular thinking to religious thought and practice. This approach highlights the resources religious discourse can offer to a fundamental reorientation of critical thought. In humanistic criticism after secularism, the lines separating the creative, the pious, and the critical themselves become the subject of question and experimentation.

More books from Columbia University Press

Cover of the book The Risks of Prescription Drugs by Tyler Roberts
Cover of the book Food of Sinful Demons by Tyler Roberts
Cover of the book Garden Variety by Tyler Roberts
Cover of the book The Hermeneutic Nature of Analytic Philosophy by Tyler Roberts
Cover of the book Transgender 101 by Tyler Roberts
Cover of the book LoveKnowledge by Tyler Roberts
Cover of the book Psychoanalysis and the Human Sciences by Tyler Roberts
Cover of the book The Future as Catastrophe by Tyler Roberts
Cover of the book Chop Suey, USA by Tyler Roberts
Cover of the book The Columbia Anthology of Chinese Folk and Popular Literature by Tyler Roberts
Cover of the book Between Ally and Partner by Tyler Roberts
Cover of the book Ecological Economics for the Anthropocene by Tyler Roberts
Cover of the book Ed Koch and the Rebuilding of New York City by Tyler Roberts
Cover of the book The Future of Mainline Protestantism in America by Tyler Roberts
Cover of the book The Sacred Universe by Tyler Roberts
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy