Representing Religion: Essays in History, Theory and Crisis (Religion in Culture: Studies in Social Contest and Constuction)

If religion is continually in a state of flux how can the study of religion critically examine contemporary religious beliefs and values? 'Representing Religion' critically examines this "crisis of representation". The volume traces the history of religious studies, critiquing the concept that "experience" is central to understanding religion. The views of influential semioticians and philosophers - notably Nietzsche, Saussure, Foucault, Barthes, and Bakhtin - are used to construct a new methodology for the critical study of religion. Representing Religion will be of interest to students and scholars of semiotics as well as theory and method in religious studies. Since Saussure argued that there is an arbitrary, not a natural, relationship between a signifier and what it signifies, the human sciences have been in a crisis of representation, This volume consists of essays which explore the critical and constructive dimensions of that crisis. The critical dimension focuses on the history of Religious Studies, especially phenomenology, showing how it has been predicated on a transcendental, non-empirical concept of subjectivity (Geist). This led to a universalized concept of consciousness and a dehistoricized concept of experience as central to the understanding of religion. Nietzsche's critique of precisely these concepts, as refined and extended by poststructuralist theorists, is applied to this segment of the history of the study of religion.

The constructive dimension of this work combines the methodological insights of Nietzsche, Saussure, Foucault, Barthes, and Bakhtin to form a Nietzschean semiotics which serves as the basis for a new theory of religion. This theory sees religion as the agonistic deployment of semiotic materials both to structure difference and to form trans-generational identities. This book would be of interest to students and scholars of religion who are looking for new ways of doing description and/or theory.

About the Author:
Tim Murphy is Assistant Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Alabama

"Since Saussure argued that there is an arbitrary, not a natural, relationship between a signifier and what it signifies, the human sciences have been in a "crisis of representation." This volume consists of essays which explore the critical and constructive dimensions of that crisis." "The constructive dimension of this work combines the methodological insights of Nietzsche, Saussure, Foucault, Barthes, and Bakhtin to form a "Nietzschean semiotics" which serves as the basis for a new theory of religion. This theory sees religion as the agnostic deployment of semiotic materials both to structure difference and to form trans-generational identities. This book would be of interest to students and scholars of religion who are looking for new ways of doing description and/or theory."--BOOK JACKET