Abstract

These essays challenge scholars to rethink the way they discuss race, religion, and their relationship. Building on the work of Jorge Luis Borges, they argue that scholars invent the categories as matters of orientation, useful for crafting axes of social difference. How and when they are deployed is dynamic and should be the object of study, a redescriptive possibility lost when race and religion are essentialized.

Related Media

Both pieces play with Jorge Luis Borges’ challenging short essays, especially their themes of religion, race, and texts.

Bibliography

Richard Newton, “Signifying “Der Rassist” in Religious Studies and the Axes of Social Difference,” Key Categories in the Study of Religion: Contexts and Critiques, edited by Rebekka King (Equinox, 2022), 73-91.

Richard Newton “The Trope Has Been Set: Race and Religion as Critical Entanglement,” in Key Categories in the Study of Religion: Contexts and Critiques, edited by Rebekka King (Equinox, 2022), 123-131.