Critics Not Caretakers : Redescribing the Public Study of Religion (Paperback, 2 ed)

Part I. Background  1. "Not Nearly Critical Enough": Studying Religion as Part of the Humanities  Part II. Redescribing Religion as Something Ordinary  Introduction  2. More than a Shapeless Beast: Lumbering Through the Academy with the Study of Religion  Introduction  3. Redescribing "Religion" as Social Formation: Toward a Social Theory of Religion Part III. Dispatches from the Theory Wars  Introduction  4. Writing a History of God: "Just the Same Game Wherever You Go"  Introduction  5. Explaining the Sacred: Theorizing on Religion in the Late-Twentieth Century  Introduction  6. "We’re All Stuck Somewhere": Taming Ethnocentrism and Trans-Cultural Understandings  Introduction  7. The Economics of Spiritual Luxury: The Glittering Lobby and the World’s Parliament of Religions  Introduction  8. "My Theory of the Brontosaurus ...": Postmodernism and "Theory" of Religion Part IV. Culture Critics and Caretakers  Introduction  9. A Default of Critical Intelligence: The Scholar of Religion as Public Intellectual  10. Talking Past Each Other: The Issue of Public Intellectuals Revisited Part V. Going Public: Teaching Theory  Introduction  11. Our "Special Promise" and the Role of Scholars of Religion as Teachers  12. Redescribing "Religion and..." Film: Teaching the Insider/Outsider Problem  13. Methods and Theories in the Classroom: Teaching the Study of Myths and Rituals  14. Theorizing in the Introductory Course: A Survey of Resources Part VI. This Messy Mix of Historical Human Performance  Afterword to the Second Edition  References  Index