Fieldnotes in the Critical Study of Religion: Revisiting Classical Theorists, edited by Vaia Touna & Richard Newton. Published by Bloomsbury. Part of the Critiquing Religion: Discourse, Culture, Power Series. The spine is a teal color and the cover design is a purple marble.
Part of Bloomsbury Academic’s Critiquing Religion: Discourse, Culture Power series, edited by Craig Martin and Bloomsbury, edited by Craig Martin. Learn more at the official book page.

This book introduces students to the so-called classics of the field from the 19th and 20th centuries, whilst challenging readers to apply a critical lens.

Instead of representing scholars and their works as virtually timeless, each contributor provides sufficient background on the classic work in question so that readers not only understand its novelty and place in its own time, but are able to arrive at a critical understanding of whether its approach to studying religion continues to be useful to them today. Scholars discussed include Muller, Durkheim, Freud and Eliade.

Fieldnotes in the Critical Study of Religion: Revisiting Classical Theorists therefore offers a novel way into writing both a history and ethnography of the discipline, helping readers to see how it has changed and inviting them to consider what-if anything-endures and thereby unites these diverse authors into a common field.

Table of Contents

Preface: Taking Notes in the Field of Religious Studies: Critical Methods, Vaia Touna (The University of Alabama, USA)

Introduction: Revisiting the Past…, Again, Aaron W. Hughes and Russell T. McCutcheon (The University of Alabama, USA)

1. Friedrich Max Muller, Brent Nongbri (MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society, Norway)

2. William James, Emily Clark (Gonzaga University, USA)

3. Edward B. Tylor, Mitsutoshi Horii (Shumei University, Japan)

4. Joseph Kitagawa, Christopher M. Jones(Washburn University, USA)

5. James Frazer, Krista Dalton(Kenyon College in Gambier, USA)

6. Wilfred Cantwell Smith, Edith Szanto (The University of Alabama, USA)

7. Sigmund Freud, Robyn Walsh (University of Miami, USA)

8. Gerardus van der Leeuw, Tenzan Eaghll (Mahidol University, Thailand)

9. Rudolf Otto, Martha Smith Roberts (Fullerton College, USA)

10. Carl Jung, Lauren Griffin (Lousisana State Unviersity, USA)

11. Bronislaw Malinowski, Brett Esaki(University of Arizona, USA)

12. Mircea Eliade, Joseph Winters (Duke University, USA)

13. Max Weber, Andrew Tobolowsky (College of William and Mary, USA)

Afterword: Revisiting Classics and Plotting Futures for the Field of Religious Studies, Richard Newton (The University of Alabama, USA)

Bibliography

Richard Newton and Vaia Touna, eds. 2023. Fieldnotes in the Critical Study of Religion: Revisiting Classical Theorists. London, Bloomsbury. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/fieldnotes-in-the-critical-study-of-religion-9781350251649/.