If it's not Authentic, it's not a Religion
Fabricating Authenticity - Jason W.M. Ellsworth
Teemu Taira [+]
University of Helsinki
View Website
Teemu Taira is Senior Lecturer in the Study of Religion, University of Helsinki. His publications include Media Portrayals of Religion and the Secular Sacred (Ashgate 2013, co-authored with Kim Knott & Elizabeth Poole), Taking ‘Religion’ Seriously: Essays on the Discursive Study of Religion (Brill 2022) and more than 70 articles in journals and edited volumes.
Description
In this chapter, Taira unpacks the legal criteria for classifying certain groups as “authentic religions” and how those criteria are applied in the case of the Temple of the Jedi Order in the UK. In considering which groups are or are not granted legal (and protected status), Taira argues that these criteria reify a Christo-centric definition and legal classification of religion which fabricate non-normative religions as “inauthentic.”