The Language of the Study of Religion

About the Book

This book discusses the various ways in which people use key terms in the study of religion.  It sorts out the kinds of confusion readers and students new in a field of study encounter when scholars define terms in unusual ways.  The problems of professional jargon are especially keen in the study of religions.  This is true first because words from one religious tradition are used to name foreign phenomena to which they do not quite apply.  Also there are hidden agendas in many word usages to which this book draws attention.  Furthermore, long and wide usage tends to distort or inflate meanings and associations.

A notorious example of the confusion to which this book is addressed is the word "myth."  It is used positively and negatively, to refer to stories and to ideas, with various defining features.  This book does not try to correct and recommend the proper use of such terms.  Instead it describes the history and various applications of each word so that the reader can recognize the particular meaning of any occurrence.

 This can be a handbook for people entering the field of religion studies, either in classes or less formally.  It should help journalists and other writers needing to describe and analyze religious situations with which they are unfamiliar.

Chapter topics include: Religious Experience, Religious Language, Theology and Religious Literature, God Language, Moral Activity, Ritual Activity, and Social Patterns.

About the Author

George Weckman has been teaching courses about religions at Ohio University in Athens for 31 years. He studied the History of Religions at the University of Chicago with Mircea Eliade and Joseph Kitagawa (PhD 1969). His publications include articles in The Encyclopedia of Religion and The Encyclopedia of Monasticism, and a book, My Brothers' Place: An American Lutheran Monastery.