• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: 2011 Presidential Address: Empire and the Study of Religion
  • Contributor: Pui-lan, Kwok
  • Published: American Academy of Religion, Oxford University Press, 2012
  • Published in: Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 80 (2012) 2, Seite 285-303
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfs003
  • ISSN: 1477-4585; 0002-7189
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: The origin and development of the study of religion have been shaped by the social and political forces of empire in Europe and the United States, and by the cultural imaginary of empire. Tracing the development of the field from 1600 to 1800, its institutionalization in the second half of the nineteenth century, and its coming to the United States in the early twentieth century, my article argues that the field needs to change to catch up with its time. Three reasons are given for this change: the call for paradigm shifts by radical scholars in the field, transnational development in academia, and future job prospects.