The Politics of Classification
Engaging the Work of Russell McCutcheon
Edited by Willi Braun Edited by Aaron W. Hughes
Paperback (Published)
(August 2026)
ISBN: 9781800506787
6.14 x 9.21 inches
Price: $34.00
On back order
Hardback (Published)
(August 2026)
ISBN: 9781800506770
6.14 x 9.21 inches
Price: $100.00
On back order
Scholars put some of McCutcheon’s ideas into praxis as they struggle with, critique, or apply his work to a variety of topics of contemporary interest in the field of religious studies.
This collection brings together an international team of scholars to assess and think with the work of Russell T. McCutcheon. Though McCutcheon is often accused of bringing the field into disrepute, and thus often ignored or dismissed, the chapters collected here prefer to see him as one of the foremost observers and critics of the intellectual practices associated with the field of religious studies. The volume is divided into two sections. The first deals with theoretical engagements of his works: pushing it in different directions, critiquing certain aspects of it, and seeing if some of his earlier work still holds. The second part provides a collection of more practical applications as scholars working in various subfields (Buddhism, Islam, early Christianity, and Christian Nationalism in the US) use aspects of McCutcheon’s work to illumine those subfields. The result is an important volume to understand the work and contribution of McCutcheon with chapters by leading scholars in the study of religion that will be of use to other scholars and graduate students
Table of Contents
Introduction 1 Willi Braun and Aaron W. Hughes
PART ONE: THEORY
1. Reflections on the Work of Russell T. McCutcheon 13 Bruce Lincoln
2. The McCutcheonian Device and Some Resisting Paradoxes in Critical Studies of Religions 19 Daniel Dubuisson
3. A Versatile Problem-Solver? Studying “Religion” and Societal Structures 35 Teemu Taira
4. “Two Non-Theologians Walk into a Bar…”: A Micro-Historian in Conversation with a Public Intellectual, Each “of Religion” 56 Johannes C. Wolfart
5. Engaging an Engaged Study and Scholar of Religion: Some Past and Present Proposals and Positions 82 Tim Jensen
6. Savior or Undertaker? The Reception of McCutcheon in the German Discourse on the Academic Study of Religion 120 Steffen Führding
7. Having a Blast in the Motel of the Mysteries: A Redescriptive Archaeology 144 Gerhard van den Heever
8. Modern Classification: Redescribing the Way Our Modern Lives Work 176 Mitsutoshi Horii
PART TWO: PRAXIS
9. The Ubiquitous Muslim: Religion, Law, and the Problem of Classification 205 Aaron W. Hughes
10. What if Everything’s “Religious”? Classification and Power in North American Christian Nationalism 223 Julie Ingersoll
11. Paul’s Gentile Adoptees: A Critique of the Framework of “Conversion” 239 Jennifer Eyl
12. “Instant Classic Hot Potato”: The Taxon “Buddhism” in the Study of Religion 257 James B. Apple
13. Classifying Belief in Islam 271 Adil Hussain Khan
14. A Curious Act of Classification: The Case of Paweł M. 293 Barbara Krawcowicz
15. The Last Romantics: Or, Reclaiming the Muse 311 Robyn Faith Walsh
Index 332
Willi Braun is Professor Emeritus of Religion at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Aaron W. Hughes is the Dean’s Professor of the Humanities and the Philip S. Bernstein Professor of Religion at the University of Rochester, New York, USA.
- Edited by Willi Braun
- Edited by Aaron W. Hughes
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