Religion in 5 Minutes

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Religion in Five Minutes

Second Edition

Edited by
Aaron W. Hughes [+–]
University of Rochester
Aaron W. Hughes is the Dean’s Professor of the Humanities and the Philip S. Bernstein Professor in the Department of Religion and Classics at the University of Rochester. His research and publications focus on both Jewish philosophy and Islamic Studies. He has authored numerous books, including Situating Islam: The Past and Future of an Academic Discipline (Equinox, 2007); Theorizing Islam: Disciplinary Deconstruction and Reconstruction (Equinox, 2012); Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam (Columbia, 2012); and Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History (Oxford, 2012). He currently serves as the editor of the journal Method and Theory in the Study of Religion.
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).

Religion in Five Minutes provides an accessible and lively introduction to the questions about religious beliefs, behaviours, and institutions that interest many of us, whether or not we personally identify with a religion. The book offers brief essays on a wide range of fascinating questions about religion and its study, such as: How did religion start? What religion is the oldest? Who are the Nones? Why do women seem to play lesser roles in many religions? What’s the difference between a religion and a cult? Is Europe less religious than North America? Is Buddhism a philosophy? How do scholars study religions of groups that no longer exist? All entries are written by an international team of scholars who work on the topics covered; each of its short essays offers readers succinct but also insightful answers along with providing suggestions for further reading.

The second edition of Religion in Five Minutes—the lead volume in a series of more focused books on the religions of the world—includes all of the entries from the first but enlarges that volume by 25%—now with 100 answers to common questions, focusing much of the new material on issues of relevance to religion in Europe, from the presence of crucifixes in public government offices in Germany and controversies around Muslim women’s head coverings in France to the role played by Religious Education in the UK. Because each chapter can be read in about five minutes, the book is an ideal supplementary resource for classes but also an engaging read for those curious about the world around them.

Series: Religion in 5 Minutes

Table of Contents

Preface

Preface to the 2nd edition [+–]
Aaron W. Hughes,Russell T. McCutcheon
University of Rochester
Aaron W. Hughes is the Dean’s Professor of the Humanities and the Philip S. Bernstein Professor in the Department of Religion and Classics at the University of Rochester. His research and publications focus on both Jewish philosophy and Islamic Studies. He has authored numerous books, including Situating Islam: The Past and Future of an Academic Discipline (Equinox, 2007); Theorizing Islam: Disciplinary Deconstruction and Reconstruction (Equinox, 2012); Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam (Columbia, 2012); and Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History (Oxford, 2012). He currently serves as the editor of the journal Method and Theory in the Study of Religion.
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).
.

Religion

1. Is everyone religious? [+–]
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).
.
2. Where does the word religion come from? [+–]
David McConeghy
David McConeghy holds a PhD in religious studies from the University of California, Santa
Barbara. For a decade he taught religious ethics, world religions, and American religious history at colleges in California and Massachusetts. He now works as a freelance software developer in Greater Boston. He published “Narrating the USA’s Religious Pluralism: Escaping World Religions through Media” in After World Religions, Edited by Christopher R. Cotter and David G. Robertson (London: Routledge, 2016).
.
3. What does it take for something to be classified as a “religion”? [+–]
Robyn Faith Walsh
University of Miami
Robyn Faith Walsh is Associate Professor of the New Testament and Early Christianity at
the University of Miami, Coral Gables. An editor at the Database of Religious History, her
articles have appeared in Classical Quarterly and Jewish Studies Quarterly, among other publications. Her first monograph, The Origins of Early Christian Literature: Contextualizing the New Testament within Greco-Roman Literary Culture was recently published with Cambridge University Press.
.
4. Can sports be a religion? [+–]
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).
.
5. What is the difference between religion and mythology? [+–]
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).
.
6. What is the difference between religion and philosophy? [+–]
Nathan Eric Dickman
Nathan Eric Dickman earned his doctorate in Religious Studies from The University of Iowa, specializing in modern religious thought. His research and publications focus on philosophical hermeneutics, philosophy of language, and comparative questions.
.
7. What is the difference between a religion and a cult? [+–]
Jason N. Blum
Davidson College
Jason N. Blum teaches at Davidson College. His research focuses on theory and method in religious studies, and topics at the intersection of philosophy and religion, particularly the relationship between science and religion, religious experience, and religion, society & ethics.
.
8. What is the difference between religion and magic? [+–]
Ian Alexander Cuthbertson
Ian Alexander Cuthbertson is an independent scholar who is broadly interested in exploring how the category “religion” is deployed to legitimize certain beliefs, practices, and institutions while delegitimizing others. Ian lives in England with his wife Virginia and their son Ciaran and often puts pineapple on pizza.
.
9. Do all religious adherents believe in the concept of a higher power? [+–]
Steven W Ramey
University of Alabama
Steven W. Ramey is a Professor in Religious Studies at the University of Alabama, where he also directs the Asian Studies Program.
.
10. Do all religions have sacred books? [+–]
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).
.
11. Do all religions have miracles? [+–]
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).
.
12. How did religion start? [+–]
Nickolas P. Roubekas
University of Vienna
View Website
Nickolas P. Roubekas is assistant professor of Religious Studies at the University of Vienna, Austria. He is the author of An Ancient Theory of Religion: Euhemerism from Antiquity to the Present (Routledge, 2017) and editor of Theorizing “Religion” in Antiquity (Equinox, 2019) and Explaining, Interpreting, and Theorizing Religion and Myth (with Thomas Ryba; Brill, 2020).
.
13. What is the function of religion? [+–]
Rick Moore
University of Chicago
Rick Moore is a doctoral candidate in sociology at the University of Chicago who specializes in the study of religion and secularism in the United States. His research addresses questions of how groups with vastly different perspectives on religion, such as atheists and evangelical Christians, understand what religion is, as well as the political and social implications of their positions.
.
14. What’s the difference between rituals and habits? [+–]
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).
.
15. Can I be spiritual but not religious? [+–]
Michael Stausberg
University of Bergen
Michael Stausberg is Professor of the Study of Religion at the University of Bergen and his publications include Zarathustra and Zoroastrianism, Religion and Tourism, Contemporary Theories of Religion (editor), and Theorizing Rituals (co-editor).
.
16. Is atheism, or secularism, just another religion? [+–]
Craig Martin
St. Thomas Aquinas College
Craig Martin, Ph.D., is Professor of Religious Studies at St. Thomas Aquinas College. He writes on discourse analysis and ideology critique; his most recent books include Capitalizing Religion: Ideology and the Opiate of the Bourgeoisie (Bloomsbury, 2014) and A Critical Introduction to the Study of Religion, 2nd Edition (Routledge, 2017).
.
17. Why is religion so often involved in politics? [+–]
Ian Alexander Cuthbertson
Ian Alexander Cuthbertson is an independent scholar who is broadly interested in exploring how the category “religion” is deployed to legitimize certain beliefs, practices, and institutions while delegitimizing others. Ian lives in England with his wife Virginia and their son Ciaran and often puts pineapple on pizza.
.
18. Why is religion often mentioned in the foundational governing documents, such as Constitutions, in many liberal democracies? [+–]
Patrick Hart
University of Alberta
Patrick Hart is a lecturer in the areas of religious studies and law at the University of Alberta. He completed his PhD in religious studies at the University of Alberta in 2018. His first book, A Prolegomenon to the Study of Paul, was published in 2020, and his articles have been published in journals such as Religion and Theology, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, and The Queen’s Law Journal.
.
19. Would it be correct to classify a country that has an official religion as a theocracy? [+–]
Stephen L. Young
Brown University
Stephen L. Young has a PhD in Religious Studies from Brown University. His research focuses on the intersections between mythmaking, discourses about deities, and textuality and sacred books in the ancient Mediterranean.
.
20. What is the oldest religion? [+–]
Vaia Touna
University of Alabama
Vaia Touna is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. She is author of Fabrications of the Greek Past: Religion, Tradition, and the Making of Modern Identities (Brill, 2017) and editor of Strategic Acts in the Study of Identity: Towards a Dynamic Theory of People and Place (Equinox, 2019). Her research focuses on the sociology of religion, acts of identification and social formation, as well as methodological issues concerning the study of religion in the ancient Graeco-Roman world and of the past in general.
.
21. How many religions are there? [+–]
Michael J. Altman
University of Alabama
Michael J. Altman is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama where he researches and teaches course on colonialism, Asian religions in America, and critical theory. He holds a Ph.D. in American Religious Cultures from Emory University, a M.A. in Religion from Duke University, and a B.A. in Religious Studies and English from the College of Charleston.
.
22. How does religion spread and what is its appeal? [+–]
Sarah Dees
Iowa State University
Sarah Dees is an assistant professor of Religious Studies at Iowa State University. Her first book, a history of Smithsonian research on Native American religions, will be published by the University of Nebraska Press.
.
23. Why do so many religions seem to contain traces of influence from other religions? [+–]
Linh Hoang
Siena College, New York
Linh Hoang OFM is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Religious Studies Dept. at Siena College in New York. He has published articles and book chapters in the areas of Asian American Catholics, Vietnamese Catholicism, Comparative religion, Migration, Globalization, Historical Theology, and inter-generational religious practices. His book Rebuilding Religious Experience was published in 2007.
.
24. Why do so many people believe that only one religion can be right? [+–]
Nathan Eric Dickman
Nathan Eric Dickman earned his doctorate in Religious Studies from The University of Iowa, specializing in modern religious thought. His research and publications focus on philosophical hermeneutics, philosophy of language, and comparative questions.
.
25. Were the Wars of Religion in France really about religion? [+–]
Daniel Dubuisson
CNRS, Paris
Daniel Dubuisson is Research Director emeritus at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, Paris). He studied and worked with Georges Dumézil until his death in 1986. He has published La Légende royale dans l’Inde ancienne, Râma et le Râmâyana (Economica, Paris, 1986); Mythologies du XXe siècle, Dumézil, Eliade, Lévi-Strauss, (Septentrion, Lille, 1993; translated into Italian, 1995; Romanian, 2003; and English: 20th Century Mythologies, Equinox Publishing, 2006); Anthropologie poétique, Esquisses pour une anthropologie du texte (Peeters, Louvain, 1996); L’Occident et la religion Mythes, science et idéologie (Complexe, Bruxelles, 1998; translated into English: The Western Construction of Religion: Myths, Knowledge, and Ideology, Johns Hopkins, 2003); Dictionnaire des grands thèmes de l’histoire des religions De Pythagore à Lévi-Strauss (Complexe, Bruxelles, 2004); Les Sagesses de l’homme Bouddhisme, paganisme, spiritualité chrétienne (Septentrion, Lille, 2004; translated into Italian, Dedalo, 2007; and English: Wisdoms of Humanity Buddhism, Paganism and Christianity, Brill, 2011); Impostures et pseudo-science L’œuvre de Mircea Eliade (Septentrion, Lille, 2005); Religion and Magic in Western Culture (Brill, 2016).
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26. If everyone worships a god, why are there so many distinctions in religions? [+–]
Leslie Dorrough Smith
Avila University
Leslie Dorrough Smith is Professor of Religious Studies at Avila University and a member of the Women’s and Gender Studies faculty.
.
27. Do people actually believe in their religious practices because they want to, or because of how they were raised? [+–]
Nathan Colborne
Nipissing University
Nathan Colborne is Associate Professor of Religions and Cultures at Nipissing University in North Bay, Ontario, Canada. His areas of focus are religious and political identity and theories of sacrifice.
.
28. Can people belong to more than one religion? [+–]
Ann Taves
University of California at Santa Barbara
View Website
Ann Taves is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Her most recent book is Revelatory Events: Three Case Studies of the Emergence of New Spiritual Paths (Princeton, 2016).
.
29. Who are the “Nones” and why are they so important? [+–]
Mike Graziano
University of Northern Iowa
Michael Graziano specializes in American religious history. He teaches religious studies at the University of Northern Iowa.
.
30. Why would people today self-identify as pagan or heathen when it may be offensive to call people that? [+–]
Suzanne Owen
Leeds Trinity University
Suzanne Owen is a senior lecturer in religious studies at Leeds Trinity University, UK. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh and researches contemporary indigenous and pagan religions.
.
31. Is religion in decline? [+–]
Ian Alexander Cuthbertson
Ian Alexander Cuthbertson is an independent scholar who is broadly interested in exploring how the category “religion” is deployed to legitimize certain beliefs, practices, and institutions while delegitimizing others. Ian lives in England with his wife Virginia and their son Ciaran and often puts pineapple on pizza.
.
32. What does it mean to say that we are now post-secular? [+–]
Matt Sheedy
University of Bonn

Matt Sheedy holds a Ph.D. in the study of religion and is a visiting professor of North American Studies at the University of Bonn, Germany. His research interests include critical social theory, theories of secularism and atheism, as well as representations of Christianity, Islam, and Native American traditions in popular and political culture. He is the author of Owning the Secular: Religious Symbols, Culture Wars, Western Fragility (Routledge, 2021).

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The Religions

33. Are there any religions that do not have official leaders? [+–]
Jason W.M. Ellsworth
Dalhousie University/ University of Prince Edward Island
Jason W. M. Ellsworth, a doctoral student in the Social Anthropology at Dalhousie University, is a lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island. His research interests include the anthropology of food, Buddhism in Canada, marketing and economy, transnationalism, and Orientalism.
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34. Is it true that women play a lesser role in most religions? [+–]
Leslie Dorrough Smith
Avila University
Leslie Dorrough Smith is Professor of Religious Studies at Avila University and a member of the Women’s and Gender Studies faculty.
.
35. Why do women in some religions cover up their faces, or even their whole bodies? [+–]
Leslie Dorrough Smith
Avila University
Leslie Dorrough Smith is Professor of Religious Studies at Avila University and a member of the Women’s and Gender Studies faculty.
.
36. Why have Muslim women’s head coverings received such critical attention from the government in France over the past decade or so? [+–]
Carmen Becker
Leibniz University Hannover
Carmen Becker is a political scientist, islamicist and scholar of religion working as a lecturer and researcher at the religious studies unit of the Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany.
.
37. Why do people fight so much over their religious beliefs? [+–]
Craig Martin
St. Thomas Aquinas College
Craig Martin, Ph.D., is Professor of Religious Studies at St. Thomas Aquinas College. He writes on discourse analysis and ideology critique; his most recent books include Capitalizing Religion: Ideology and the Opiate of the Bourgeoisie (Bloomsbury, 2014) and A Critical Introduction to the Study of Religion, 2nd Edition (Routledge, 2017).
.
38. Is there a large difference between the main religions or do they just have minor variations on the same overall idea? [+–]
Steven W Ramey
University of Alabama
Steven W. Ramey is a Professor in Religious Studies at the University of Alabama, where he also directs the Asian Studies Program.
.
39. Is voodoo really a religion? [+–]
Emily D. Crews
University of Chicago Divinity School
Emily D. Crews is the Executive Director of the Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion at the University of Chicago Divinity School. She earned her Ph.D. in the History of Religions from the University of Chicago Divinity School and uses historical and ethnographic methods to make sense of the ways that religion, gender, and the reproductive body are entangled in the formation of personhood.
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40. Why did Romans basically copy the Ancient Greek religion? [+–]
Roger Beck
University of Toronto
Roger Beck, an Emeritus Professor at the University of Toronto, is among the world’s foremost authorities on such ancient Roman mystery cults as Mithraism.
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41. Is Satanism a religion? [+–]
Nathaniel J. Morehouse
John Carroll University
Nathaniel Morehouse (PhD, University of Manitoba, Early Christianity). In addition to his work on the uses of intentional memory creation in the Fourth-Century Christian context, Nathaniel dabbles with the idea of evil and the history of Christmas. His first book, Death’s Dominion: Power, Identity, and Memory at the Fourth Century Martyr Shrine, was published by Equinox in 2016. He lives in NorthEast Ohio where he teaches courses in Religious Studies and Philosophy at John Carroll University and Lakeland Community College.
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42. Who wrote the Bible? [+–]
Stephen L. Young
Brown University
Stephen L. Young has a PhD in Religious Studies from Brown University. His research focuses on the intersections between mythmaking, discourses about deities, and textuality and sacred books in the ancient Mediterranean.
.
43. Do Jews believe in the afterlife? [+–]
Aaron W. Hughes
University of Rochester
Aaron W. Hughes is the Dean’s Professor of the Humanities and the Philip S. Bernstein Professor in the Department of Religion and Classics at the University of Rochester. His research and publications focus on both Jewish philosophy and Islamic Studies. He has authored numerous books, including Situating Islam: The Past and Future of an Academic Discipline (Equinox, 2007); Theorizing Islam: Disciplinary Deconstruction and Reconstruction (Equinox, 2012); Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam (Columbia, 2012); and Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History (Oxford, 2012). He currently serves as the editor of the journal Method and Theory in the Study of Religion.
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44. Why don’t Jewish people believe that Jesus was the Messiah? [+–]
Sheldon Steen
Florida State University
Sheldon Steen is a PhD student in Religions of Western Antiquity at Florida State University. He primarily specializes in early Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature.
.
45. What are the main differences between Protestantism, Catholicism, and Greek Orthodoxy? [+–]
Vaia Touna
University of Alabama
Vaia Touna is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. She is author of Fabrications of the Greek Past: Religion, Tradition, and the Making of Modern Identities (Brill, 2017) and editor of Strategic Acts in the Study of Identity: Towards a Dynamic Theory of People and Place (Equinox, 2019). Her research focuses on the sociology of religion, acts of identification and social formation, as well as methodological issues concerning the study of religion in the ancient Graeco-Roman world and of the past in general.
.
46. Why did St. Paul write all those letters? [+–]
Patrick Hart
University of Alberta
Patrick Hart is a lecturer in the areas of religious studies and law at the University of Alberta. He completed his PhD in religious studies at the University of Alberta in 2018. His first book, A Prolegomenon to the Study of Paul, was published in 2020, and his articles have been published in journals such as Religion and Theology, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, and The Queen’s Law Journal.
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47. Why do some Christians use snakes in their worship? [+–]
Brad Stoddard
McDaniel College, Westminster, Maryland
Brad Stoddard is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland. He has degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, Yale Divinity School, and Florida State University. His research explores religion and public policy, particularly as they relate to criminal justice policies in the era of faith-based initiatives.
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48. Is it true that the English names of the weekdays derive from the names of pre-Christian gods? [+–]
Lauren Horn Griffin
Louisiana State University
Lauren Horn Griffin is assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies and the Department of History at Louisiana State University. Her teaching and research focus on religion, politics, media, and technology.
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49. What is “speaking in tongues”? [+–]
Jennifer Eyl
Tufts University
Jennifer Eyl is an Associate Professor of Religion at Tufts University. Her work focuses on religions of the ancient Mediterranean and theory of religion.
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50. Is it true that religions outside of Christianity have stories of a virgin mother, crucifixion, etc.? [+–]
Robyn Faith Walsh
University of Miami
Robyn Faith Walsh is Associate Professor of the New Testament and Early Christianity at
the University of Miami, Coral Gables. An editor at the Database of Religious History, her
articles have appeared in Classical Quarterly and Jewish Studies Quarterly, among other publications. Her first monograph, The Origins of Early Christian Literature: Contextualizing the New Testament within Greco-Roman Literary Culture was recently published with Cambridge University Press.
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51. Why do some Christians not acknowledge evolution? [+–]
Arthur McCalla
Saint Vincent University
Arthur McCalla (Ph.D. University of Toronto, 1992) is Professor in the Departments of History and Philosophy/Religious Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is an intellectual historian working in the areas of nineteenth-century religious thought and the history of the study of religion.
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52. Why are the crucifixes displayed in some government offices in Germany designated not as religious symbols but, instead, as signs of a cultural heritage? [+–]
Steffen Führding
Leibniz University Hannover
View Website
Steffen Führding teaches at the Department for the Study of Religion at Leibniz University Hannover. He has published on the history of the study of religion and theoretical debates within the discipline, including Jenseits von Religion (transcript, 2015).
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53. Are Mormons Christians? [+–]
Linh Hoang
Siena College, New York
Linh Hoang OFM is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Religious Studies Dept. at Siena College in New York. He has published articles and book chapters in the areas of Asian American Catholics, Vietnamese Catholicism, Comparative religion, Migration, Globalization, Historical Theology, and inter-generational religious practices. His book Rebuilding Religious Experience was published in 2007.
.
54. What is biblical archaeology? [+–]
Aaron W. Hughes
University of Rochester
Aaron W. Hughes is the Dean’s Professor of the Humanities and the Philip S. Bernstein Professor in the Department of Religion and Classics at the University of Rochester. His research and publications focus on both Jewish philosophy and Islamic Studies. He has authored numerous books, including Situating Islam: The Past and Future of an Academic Discipline (Equinox, 2007); Theorizing Islam: Disciplinary Deconstruction and Reconstruction (Equinox, 2012); Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam (Columbia, 2012); and Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History (Oxford, 2012). He currently serves as the editor of the journal Method and Theory in the Study of Religion.
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55. Is Europe less religious than North America? [+–]
Julie Ingersoll
University of North Florida
Julie Ingersoll is Professor of Religious Studies and Religious Studies Program Coordinator at the University of North Florida. Her Ph.D. is from the University of California, Santa Barbara and teaches and writes about religion in American History and Culture, religion and politics and religion and violence.
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56. Were African slaves forced to become Christian when they got to plantations? [+–]
Sarah Dees
Iowa State University
Sarah Dees is an assistant professor of Religious Studies at Iowa State University. Her first book, a history of Smithsonian research on Native American religions, will be published by the University of Nebraska Press.
.
57. Why are there so many radical Muslims in the world today? [+–]
Matt Sheedy
University of Bonn

Matt Sheedy holds a Ph.D. in the study of religion and is a visiting professor of North American Studies at the University of Bonn, Germany. His research interests include critical social theory, theories of secularism and atheism, as well as representations of Christianity, Islam, and Native American traditions in popular and political culture. He is the author of Owning the Secular: Religious Symbols, Culture Wars, Western Fragility (Routledge, 2021).

.
58. What is the difference between radical and non-radical Muslims in terms of the types of Islam? [+–]
Mushegh Asatryan
University of Calgary
Mushegh Asatryan (PhD, Yale 2012) is an Assistant Professor of Arabic and Muslim Cultures at the University of Calgary. His research interests include the interrelation between religion, society, and culture in the medieval Islamic Middle East, and his monograph, Text and Identity in Early Shi‘i Islam: The Ghulat and their Literature, will appear in 2016.
.
59. What do scholars mean by such terms as political Islam or political Buddhism, as well as Hindu Nationalism or Christian nationalism? [+–]
Lauren Horn Griffin
Louisiana State University
Lauren Horn Griffin is assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies and the Department of History at Louisiana State University. Her teaching and research focus on religion, politics, media, and technology.
.
60. Are Muslim theological colleges in such countries as Germany different from the academic field known as Islamic Studies? [+–]
Edith Szanto
American University of Iraq, Sulaimani
Edith Szanto is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani. She completed her PhD in Religious Studies at the University of Toronto. She is currently completing her manuscript on Twelver Shi’ism in contemporary Syria.
.
61. What does jihad really mean? [+–]
Mushegh Asatryan
University of Calgary
Mushegh Asatryan (PhD, Yale 2012) is an Assistant Professor of Arabic and Muslim Cultures at the University of Calgary. His research interests include the interrelation between religion, society, and culture in the medieval Islamic Middle East, and his monograph, Text and Identity in Early Shi‘i Islam: The Ghulat and their Literature, will appear in 2016.
.
62. Are there similarities between Judaism, Christianity and Islam? [+–]
Aaron W. Hughes
University of Rochester
Aaron W. Hughes is the Dean’s Professor of the Humanities and the Philip S. Bernstein Professor in the Department of Religion and Classics at the University of Rochester. His research and publications focus on both Jewish philosophy and Islamic Studies. He has authored numerous books, including Situating Islam: The Past and Future of an Academic Discipline (Equinox, 2007); Theorizing Islam: Disciplinary Deconstruction and Reconstruction (Equinox, 2012); Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam (Columbia, 2012); and Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History (Oxford, 2012). He currently serves as the editor of the journal Method and Theory in the Study of Religion.
.
63. Is Sufism part of Islam? [+–]
Aaron W. Hughes
University of Rochester
Aaron W. Hughes is the Dean’s Professor of the Humanities and the Philip S. Bernstein Professor in the Department of Religion and Classics at the University of Rochester. His research and publications focus on both Jewish philosophy and Islamic Studies. He has authored numerous books, including Situating Islam: The Past and Future of an Academic Discipline (Equinox, 2007); Theorizing Islam: Disciplinary Deconstruction and Reconstruction (Equinox, 2012); Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam (Columbia, 2012); and Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History (Oxford, 2012). He currently serves as the editor of the journal Method and Theory in the Study of Religion.
.
64. What are the main differences between Sunni and Shia Islam? [+–]
Aaron W. Hughes
University of Rochester
Aaron W. Hughes is the Dean’s Professor of the Humanities and the Philip S. Bernstein Professor in the Department of Religion and Classics at the University of Rochester. His research and publications focus on both Jewish philosophy and Islamic Studies. He has authored numerous books, including Situating Islam: The Past and Future of an Academic Discipline (Equinox, 2007); Theorizing Islam: Disciplinary Deconstruction and Reconstruction (Equinox, 2012); Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam (Columbia, 2012); and Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History (Oxford, 2012). He currently serves as the editor of the journal Method and Theory in the Study of Religion.
.
65. Is there anything “African” about African American religions? [+–]
Emily D. Crews
University of Chicago Divinity School
Emily D. Crews is the Executive Director of the Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion at the University of Chicago Divinity School. She earned her Ph.D. in the History of Religions from the University of Chicago Divinity School and uses historical and ethnographic methods to make sense of the ways that religion, gender, and the reproductive body are entangled in the formation of personhood.
.
66. Are Eastern religions as connected to violence as Western religions seem to be? [+–]
Jason W.M. Ellsworth
Dalhousie University/ University of Prince Edward Island
Jason W. M. Ellsworth, a doctoral student in the Social Anthropology at Dalhousie University, is a lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island. His research interests include the anthropology of food, Buddhism in Canada, marketing and economy, transnationalism, and Orientalism.
.
67. Do Native Americans worship nature? [+–]
Sarah Dees
Iowa State University
Sarah Dees is an assistant professor of Religious Studies at Iowa State University. Her first book, a history of Smithsonian research on Native American religions, will be published by the University of Nebraska Press.
.
68. Is yoga religious? [+–]
Steven W Ramey
University of Alabama
Steven W. Ramey is a Professor in Religious Studies at the University of Alabama, where he also directs the Asian Studies Program.
.
69. What is shamanism? [+–]
Suzanne Owen
Leeds Trinity University
Suzanne Owen is a senior lecturer in religious studies at Leeds Trinity University, UK. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh and researches contemporary indigenous and pagan religions.
.
70. Is being a vegetarian a religious thing for some people? [+–]
Jason W.M. Ellsworth
Dalhousie University/ University of Prince Edward Island
Jason W. M. Ellsworth, a doctoral student in the Social Anthropology at Dalhousie University, is a lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Prince Edward Island. His research interests include the anthropology of food, Buddhism in Canada, marketing and economy, transnationalism, and Orientalism.
.
71. What is a diaspora? [+–]
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).
.
72. Isn’t Buddhism more of a philosophy than a religion? [+–]
Nathaniel J. Morehouse
John Carroll University
Nathaniel Morehouse (PhD, University of Manitoba, Early Christianity). In addition to his work on the uses of intentional memory creation in the Fourth-Century Christian context, Nathaniel dabbles with the idea of evil and the history of Christmas. His first book, Death’s Dominion: Power, Identity, and Memory at the Fourth Century Martyr Shrine, was published by Equinox in 2016. He lives in NorthEast Ohio where he teaches courses in Religious Studies and Philosophy at John Carroll University and Lakeland Community College.
.
73. Why do the statues of Buddha sometimes depict him as being overweight? [+–]
Kendall Marchman
Young Harris College
Kendall Marchman received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies at the University of Florida, and is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Young Harris College. His research focuses on Pure Land Buddhism in medieval China.
.
74. I’ve heard the founder of Buddhism was Hindu—so how did the one develop form the other? [+–]
Travis D Webster
Travis D. Webster received his Ph.D. in Indian Subcontinental Studies from the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Sydney, Australia. His area of specialization is the Upaniṣads with a cognitive anthropological approach to Advaita Vedānta.
.
75. Are religions in Asia all connected in some way? [+–]
Kendall Marchman
Young Harris College
Kendall Marchman received his Ph.D. in Religious Studies at the University of Florida, and is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Young Harris College. His research focuses on Pure Land Buddhism in medieval China.
.

The Study of Religion

76. Where did the study of religion come from? [+–]
Michael Stausberg
University of Bergen
Michael Stausberg is Professor of the Study of Religion at the University of Bergen and his publications include Zarathustra and Zoroastrianism, Religion and Tourism, Contemporary Theories of Religion (editor), and Theorizing Rituals (co-editor).
.
77. Who was the first scholar of religion? [+–]
Michael Stausberg
University of Bergen
Michael Stausberg is Professor of the Study of Religion at the University of Bergen and his publications include Zarathustra and Zoroastrianism, Religion and Tourism, Contemporary Theories of Religion (editor), and Theorizing Rituals (co-editor).
.
78. Why is it important that we study religion? [+–]
K. Merinda Simmons
University of Alabama
View Website
K. Merinda Simmons is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Graduate Director of the Religion in Culture MA Program at the University of Alabama. Her books include Changing the Subject: Writing Women across the African Diaspora (Ohio State UP, 2014), The Trouble with Post-Blackness (co-edited with Houston A. Baker, Jr., Columbia UP, 2015), and Race and New Modernisms (co-authored with James A. Crank, Bloomsbury, 2019). She is editor of the book series Concepts in the Study of Religion: Critical Primers (Equinox).
.
79. Is there a difference between religious studies and theology? [+–]
Jason N. Blum
Davidson College
Jason N. Blum teaches at Davidson College. His research focuses on theory and method in religious studies, and topics at the intersection of philosophy and religion, particularly the relationship between science and religion, religious experience, and religion, society & ethics.
.
80. What does it mean to decolonize the study of religion? [+–]
Richard W. Newton, Jr.
University of Alabama
Richard Newton is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. He is author of Identifying Roots: Alex Haley and the Anthropology of Scriptures(Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2020) and former editor of the Bulletin for the Study of Religion. Newton is also curator of the social media professional development network, Sowing the Seed: Fruitful Conversations in Religion, Culture and Teaching (SowingTheSeed.org).

.
81. What is exegesis? [+–]
Aaron W. Hughes
University of Rochester
Aaron W. Hughes is the Dean’s Professor of the Humanities and the Philip S. Bernstein Professor in the Department of Religion and Classics at the University of Rochester. His research and publications focus on both Jewish philosophy and Islamic Studies. He has authored numerous books, including Situating Islam: The Past and Future of an Academic Discipline (Equinox, 2007); Theorizing Islam: Disciplinary Deconstruction and Reconstruction (Equinox, 2012); Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam (Columbia, 2012); and Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History (Oxford, 2012). He currently serves as the editor of the journal Method and Theory in the Study of Religion.
.
82. What do you do when you do fieldwork in religion? [+–]
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).
.
83. What is Religious Education (RE) and is it just a version of the academic study of religion adopted in schools in the UK? [+–]
David G. Robertson
Open University / Religious Studies Project
View Website
David G. Robertson is Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University, co-founder of the Religious Studies Project, and co-editor of the journal Implicit Religion. His work applies critical theory to the study of alternative and emerging religions, and to “conspiracy theory” narratives. He is the author of UFOs, the New Age and Conspiracy Theories: Millennial Conspiracism (Bloomsbury 2016), co-editor of After World Religions: Reconstructing Religious Studies (Equinox 2016) and the Handbook of Conspiracy Theories and Contemporary Religion (Brill 2018). Twitter: @d_g_robertson.
.
84. Is it true that some nations in Europe fund theological education in their public schools? [+–]
Aaron W. Hughes
University of Rochester
Aaron W. Hughes is the Dean’s Professor of the Humanities and the Philip S. Bernstein Professor in the Department of Religion and Classics at the University of Rochester. His research and publications focus on both Jewish philosophy and Islamic Studies. He has authored numerous books, including Situating Islam: The Past and Future of an Academic Discipline (Equinox, 2007); Theorizing Islam: Disciplinary Deconstruction and Reconstruction (Equinox, 2012); Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam (Columbia, 2012); and Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History (Oxford, 2012). He currently serves as the editor of the journal Method and Theory in the Study of Religion.
.
85. In what ways can religion be legally discussed in U.S. public schools? [+–]
Mike Graziano
University of Northern Iowa
Michael Graziano specializes in American religious history. He teaches religious studies at the University of Northern Iowa.
.
86. Do scholars of religion study texts or do they study the religion firsthand, like an anthropologist might? [+–]
Richard W. Newton, Jr.
University of Alabama
Richard Newton is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. He is author of Identifying Roots: Alex Haley and the Anthropology of Scriptures(Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2020) and former editor of the Bulletin for the Study of Religion. Newton is also curator of the social media professional development network, Sowing the Seed: Fruitful Conversations in Religion, Culture and Teaching (SowingTheSeed.org).

.
87. What do scholars mean when they talk about “the material turn” in the study of religion? [+–]
Linh Hoang
Siena College, New York
Linh Hoang OFM is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Religious Studies Dept. at Siena College in New York. He has published articles and book chapters in the areas of Asian American Catholics, Vietnamese Catholicism, Comparative religion, Migration, Globalization, Historical Theology, and inter-generational religious practices. His book Rebuilding Religious Experience was published in 2007.
.
88. Is it possible to study religion academically and still be religious? [+–]
Richard W. Newton, Jr.
University of Alabama
Richard Newton is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. He is author of Identifying Roots: Alex Haley and the Anthropology of Scriptures(Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2020) and former editor of the Bulletin for the Study of Religion. Newton is also curator of the social media professional development network, Sowing the Seed: Fruitful Conversations in Religion, Culture and Teaching (SowingTheSeed.org).

.
89. Does the academic study of religion deny the existence of god? [+–]
Blair Alan Gadsby
Maricopa County Community College District
Blair Alan Gadsby is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Centre for Religious Studies (M.A., 1992) and is currently Adjunct Faculty of Religious Studies at Mesa Community College in Arizona teaching World Religions, among other courses. He is also researching the religious pluralism on the east African coast in the city of Mombasa in Kenya, where he lived in the 1980s and witnessed firsthand the multi-religious civic harmony that can be achieved in a dominantly Islamic region.
.
90. Should the study of religions be mandatory in US schools? [+–]
Julie Ingersoll
University of North Florida
Julie Ingersoll is Professor of Religious Studies and Religious Studies Program Coordinator at the University of North Florida. Her Ph.D. is from the University of California, Santa Barbara and teaches and writes about religion in American History and Culture, religion and politics and religion and violence.
.
91. Why do many scholars in such places as Britain seem to focus their work on issues of religious diversity and interreligious dialogue? [+–]
David G. Robertson
Open University / Religious Studies Project
View Website
David G. Robertson is Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University, co-founder of the Religious Studies Project, and co-editor of the journal Implicit Religion. His work applies critical theory to the study of alternative and emerging religions, and to “conspiracy theory” narratives. He is the author of UFOs, the New Age and Conspiracy Theories: Millennial Conspiracism (Bloomsbury 2016), co-editor of After World Religions: Reconstructing Religious Studies (Equinox 2016) and the Handbook of Conspiracy Theories and Contemporary Religion (Brill 2018). Twitter: @d_g_robertson.
.
92. How do you study the religions of cultures that no longer exist? [+–]
Vaia Touna
University of Alabama
Vaia Touna is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa. She is author of Fabrications of the Greek Past: Religion, Tradition, and the Making of Modern Identities (Brill, 2017) and editor of Strategic Acts in the Study of Identity: Towards a Dynamic Theory of People and Place (Equinox, 2019). Her research focuses on the sociology of religion, acts of identification and social formation, as well as methodological issues concerning the study of religion in the ancient Graeco-Roman world and of the past in general.
.
93. What is the cognitive science of religion? [+–]
Robyn Faith Walsh
University of Miami
Robyn Faith Walsh is Associate Professor of the New Testament and Early Christianity at
the University of Miami, Coral Gables. An editor at the Database of Religious History, her
articles have appeared in Classical Quarterly and Jewish Studies Quarterly, among other publications. Her first monograph, The Origins of Early Christian Literature: Contextualizing the New Testament within Greco-Roman Literary Culture was recently published with Cambridge University Press.
.
94. Is the study of religion related to other academic disciplines? [+–]
Jennifer Eyl
Tufts University
Jennifer Eyl is an Associate Professor of Religion at Tufts University. Her work focuses on religions of the ancient Mediterranean and theory of religion.
.
95. Why do we need the study of religion if we already have historians, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists and folklorists? [+–]
Paul-Francois Tremlett
Open University
View Website
Paul-François Tremlett is a senior lecturer in religious studies at the Open University. His research interests include classical and contemporary anthropological and sociological theories of religion and the broad constitution of religion as a site of study in societies experiencing rapid social change. He is the author of Towards a New Theory of Religion and Social Change: Sovereignties and Disruptions (Bloomsbury 2021) and co-edited Ritual and Democracy: Protests, Publics and Performances (Equinox, 2020). He also co-edits the Bloomsbury Series ‘Religion, Space and Place’.
.
96. Can’t I just learn about religion in my church, mosque, or temple? [+–]
Brent A Smith
Grand Valley State University
Dr. Brent A. Smith is Assistant Professor in the Religious Studies Program at Grand Valley State University, a 25,000 student public university in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. He received his Masters from the Divinity School of the University of Chicago in 1983, his Doctorate from Meadville Theological School in 1984, and served Unitarian Universalist Churches for 26 years before coming to GVSU in 2010.
.
97. Can one study one’s own religion objectively? [+–]
Rebekka King
Middle Tennessee State University
View Website
Rebekka King, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Middle Tennessee State University. Her research focuses on the negotiation of boundaries within North American Christianity. Her first book (under contract with NYU Press) charts the development of progressive Christianity in North America as a movement that spurned Christian orthodoxy in pursuit of a resolutely skeptical faith. She teaches courses on method and theory, anthropology of religion, and contemporary Christianity.
.
98. What is this CE and BCE dating system that I’ve seen used throughout this book? [+–]
Aaron W. Hughes
University of Rochester
Aaron W. Hughes is the Dean’s Professor of the Humanities and the Philip S. Bernstein Professor in the Department of Religion and Classics at the University of Rochester. His research and publications focus on both Jewish philosophy and Islamic Studies. He has authored numerous books, including Situating Islam: The Past and Future of an Academic Discipline (Equinox, 2007); Theorizing Islam: Disciplinary Deconstruction and Reconstruction (Equinox, 2012); Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam (Columbia, 2012); and Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History (Oxford, 2012). He currently serves as the editor of the journal Method and Theory in the Study of Religion.
.

The Future

99. What is the future of “religion”? [+–]
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).
.
100. What is the future of religion? [+–]
Aaron W. Hughes
University of Rochester
Aaron W. Hughes is the Dean’s Professor of the Humanities and the Philip S. Bernstein Professor in the Department of Religion and Classics at the University of Rochester. His research and publications focus on both Jewish philosophy and Islamic Studies. He has authored numerous books, including Situating Islam: The Past and Future of an Academic Discipline (Equinox, 2007); Theorizing Islam: Disciplinary Deconstruction and Reconstruction (Equinox, 2012); Muslim Identities: An Introduction to Islam (Columbia, 2012); and Abrahamic Religions: On the Uses and Abuses of History (Oxford, 2012). He currently serves as the editor of the journal Method and Theory in the Study of Religion.
.

ISBN-13 (Hardback)
9781800506749
Price (Hardback)
£70.00 / $90.00
ISBN-13 (Paperback)
9781800506756
Price (Paperback)
£23.95 / $28.95
ISBN (eBook)
9781800506763
Price (eBook)
Individual
£23.95 / $28.95
Institutional
£550.00 / $700.00
Publication
01/10/2025
Pages
340
Size
216 x 140mm
Readership
students and general readers

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