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Theology and Religious Studies in Higher Education: Global Perspectives
'This book should be read by everyone interested in the nature of religion, how academics should approach religion, and the place of religion in late modernity.' (Professor Gavin Flood, Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies)
'In its wide-ranging coverage, this book offers good insight and illuminating perspectives on the debate.' (Dr Bettina Schmidt, School of Theology and Religious Studies, Bangor University)
Theology and religious studies co-exist in the majority of departments in higher education institutions within the UK, yet there has been very little debate or discussion on how these two disciplines relate to one another in this context and on a more general level. This new collection of essays aims to redress the balance and to add to fruitful discussion in this area. Including essays by some of today's leading academics on the sometimes contentious relationship between religious studies, or the study of religions, and theology, this volume is international in scope, with contributions from scholars from the UK, USA, South Africa, Netherlands, Sweden and Iran. Many of the essays offer a contextualised account of the evolving relationship between the disciplines. The contributors address such issues as:
- the place of theology within today's universities
- the problem of clashing methodologies in theology and religious studies
- the possibility for a 'theological religious studies'
- approaching the study of religions without theology
- interdisciplinary approaches for bridging the theology/religious studies divide
- the place of biblical studies in the theology/religious studies debate
The volume is edited by Dr Darlene Bird, formerly Subject Co-ordinator for Theology at the Subject Centre, and Dr Simon Smith, Co-director of the Subject Centre, and grew from the conference 'Theology and Religious Studies or Theology vs Religious Studies?' held at St Anne's College, Oxford, on the 6th-7th July 2006.
David Jasper, of the University of Glasgow, describes it as, 'a fascinating, coherent and highly readable book which is of interest to anyone concerned with not only this particular debate within the academy but also the whole nature of higher education in the arts today in our multicultural societies, and the question of the pursuit of interdisciplinarity...We are indebted to Darlene Bird and Simon Smith for bringing these writings together and allowing them to speak with intelligence, diversity and in a genuinely academic spirit.' His full review, in the Oxford Journal Literature and Theology, can be read here: http://litthe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/24/1/96.
'Theology and Religious Studies in Higher Education: Global Perspectives' is published by Continuum International Publishing Group. See the entry on Amazon to buy a copy of Theology and Religious Studies in Higher Education: Global Perspectives.
This page was originally on the website of The Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies. It was transfered here following the closure of the Subject Centre at the end of 2011.
