Failure and Nerve in the Academic Study of Religion

Résumé

Failure and Nerve in the Academic Study of Religion presents a provocative critique of the unwillingness of modern scholars to publicly distinguish research into comparative religion from confessional studies written within denominationally-affiliated institutions. The book offers the nineteenth-century founders of the study of religion as a bracing corrective to contemporary timidity. The issue was first analysed and documented by Donald Wiebe a quarter of a century ago. Here, recognising Wiebe's work, a wide range of contributors active in religious studies reassess the methodology and ambition of contemporary religious research. The book argues that conceptualizing religion as part of the world of human action and experience is the first requirement for the study of religion.