Entanglements

Russell T. McCutcheon [+–]

University of Alabama

Russell T. McCutcheon is University Research Professor and, for 18 years, was the Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. He has written on problems in the academic labor market throughout his 30-year career and helped to design and run Alabama’s skills-based M.A. in religion in culture. Among his recent work is the edited resource for instructors, Teaching in Religious Studies and Beyond (Bloomsbury 2024).

Entanglements attempts to argue against those who claim that scholarship on the category religion is only of secondary interest, in that it fails to do primary research on real religions. The volume collects eighteen responses, written across twenty years, that each exemplify the inevitably situated, give-and-take nature of all academic debate. These essays call into question the often used distinction between primary and secondary sources, between description and analysis. Published here in their original form, each contribution is accompanied by new, substantive introduction describing the context of each response and explaining how each shows something still at stake in the academic study of religion–whether its the rhetoric used to authorize competing scholarly claims or the difficulty involved in suspending our commonsense view of the world long enough to study the means by which we have come to see it that way.

An ethnography of scholarly practice written mainly for earlier career readers–whether undergraduate or graduate students or even tenure-track faculty–Entanglements tackles the notion that some scholarship is more pristine, and thus more valuable, than others, thereby modeling for scholars earlier in their careers some of the obstacles and arguments that may face them should their research interests be judged unorthodox.

Preliminaries

Preface [+–] ix-xii

Entanglements attempts to argue against those who claim that scholarship on the category religion is only of secondary interest, in that it fails to do primary research on real religions. The volume collects eighteen responses, written across twenty years, that each exemplify the inevitably situated, give-and-take nature of all academic debate. These essays call into question the often used distinction between primary and secondary sources, between description and analysis. Published here in their original form, each contribution is accompanied by new, substantive introduction describing the context of each response and explaining how each shows something still at stake in the academic study of religion–whether its the rhetoric used to authorize competing scholarly claims or the difficulty involved in suspending our commonsense view of the world long enough to study the means by which we have come to see it that way. An ethnography of scholarly practice written mainly for earlier career readers–whether undergraduate or graduate students or even tenure-track faculty– Entanglements tackles the notion that some scholarship is more pristine, and thus more valuable, than others, thereby modeling for scholars earlier in their careers some of the obstacles and arguments that may face them should their research interests be judged unorthodox.

Sources [+–] xiii-xiv

Introduction [+–] 1-11

Chapter 1

Naming the Unnameable? Theological Language and the Academic Study of Religion (1990) [+–] 12-27

This essay responds to two articles published in Studies in Religion. In his introduction, the author admits that he no longer recognizes his current self when re-reading the original article.

Chapter 2

Ideology and the Problem of Naming: A Reply (1991) [+–] 28-42

This article argues that the proper object of study for the student of religion is the means by which classification systems are created, authorized and implemented.

Chapter 3

Returning the Volley to William E. Arnal (1998) [+–] 43-50

Chapter 4

Of Strawmen and Humanists: A Reply to Bryan Rennie (1999) [+–] 51-58

Chapter 5

A Brief Response from a Fortunate Man (2000) [+–] 59-72

Chapter 6

Who Sets the Ground Rules? A Response to “Comparativism, Then and Now” (2000) [+–]

Chapter 7

Artifacts Not Relics: A Response to “Missing Links in the Study of Religions! (2000) [+–] 82-90

Chapter 8

Filling in the Cracks with Resin: A Response to John Burris’s “Text and Context in the Study of Religion” (2003) [+–] 91-117

Chapter 9

A Few Words on the Temptation to Defend the Honor of a Text (2004) [+–] 118-127

Chapter 10

Theorizing the Politics of “Religion”: Rejoinder to Rober A. Segal (2005) [+–] 128-135

Chapter 11

The Perils of Having One’s Cake and Eating it Too: Some Thoughts in Response (2005) [+–] 136-148

Chapter 12

Theses on Professionalization (2007) [+–] 149-161

Chapter 13

A Response to Professor Robert Campany’s “Chinese Religious History and its Implications for Writing ‘Religion’ (2008) [+–] 162-176

Chapter 14

“As it Was in the Beginning…”: The Modern Problem of the Ancient Self (2010) [+–] 177-194

Chapter 15

A Direct Question Deserves a Direct Answer: A Reply to Atalia Omer’s “Can a Critic be a Caretaker too?” (2012) [+–] 195-213

Chapter 16

Recovering the Human: A Tale of Nouns and Verbs: A Rejoinder to Ann Taves (2012) [+–] 214-224

Chapter 17

Three Dots and a Dash [+–] 225-236

Chapter 18

The Sacred is the Profane (2012) [+–] 237-253

End Matter

Afterword [+–] 254-255

References [+–] 256-271

Index [+–] 272-287

Reviews

The book will be of interest to religious-studies scholars of all stripes and sub-disciplines. ..the compelling dynamism, complexity, and value of the theorist of religion’s arguments is difficult to deny. The volume provides a nuanced picture of a controversial figure in the field and in doing so undermines myriad caricatures of that scholar’s positions, arguments, and stances. …the book is certainly the most helpful work I’ve encountered… in terms of professionalization in religious studies. Where are other books of this stature intended to support early career scholars?
Religion

McCutcheon is a gifted essayist. His ‘‘Theses on Professionalization’’ present a model of practicality and clarity and should be essential reading.
Religious Studies Review

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Marking Place in the Field of Religion

Russell T. McCutcheon [+–]

University of Alabama

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