{"id":4476,"date":"2012-07-16T10:49:29","date_gmt":"2012-07-16T16:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4476"},"modified":"2012-07-16T10:52:21","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T16:52:21","slug":"critical-theory-mere-description-and-pagan-studies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4476","title":{"rendered":"Critical Theory, Mere Description, and Pagan Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some thoughts after reading Markus Davidsen’s review<\/a> of the Handbook of Contemporary Paganis<\/a>m<\/em>\u2014and, by extension, of the entire field of Pagan studies.<\/p>\n

Part of his critique <\/a>does resonate with me. It raises an issue that I have thought about too.<\/p>\n

When I saw that the first authority cited was Russ McCutcheon<\/a>, I had a pretty good idea of where it was going.\u00a0 McCutcheon is a former editor of the journal in which the essay appeared, among other things.<\/p>\n

Davidsen himself identifies with the critical theorists such as McCutcheon who “no longer study religion or religious activity as such, but aim to analyze how people talk about religion, which social constructions people label religion, and how the resulting discourses serve to legitimate power structures.”<\/p>\n

He stumbles in a couple of spots. For example, he seems to think that Unitarians, despite their name, are Christians, and therefore the Wiccans in Unitarian congregations must not be purely Pagan but somehow Christian as well. Yes, all of you in CUUPS <\/a>are Christians\u2014or so Markus Davidsen thinks.<\/p>\n

Here we simply have a Danish scholar who does not know the history of an American religious denomination.<\/p>\n

To move on to the substance, however\u2014Davidsen regrets that so much study of religion takes place in by “religionists” who are “field-directed.” Of course, some of that is rooted in history and some is the job market: institutions often want someone to “teach Asian religions” or whatever.<\/p>\n

Davidsen notes the absence of Ronald Hutton from the handbook, but given Hutton’s emphasis on the history of ideas and such chapters titles as “Finding a Goddess,” he would probably have dismissed him as a descriptive religionist as well.<\/p>\n

But now the resonance. He faults much of the writing in that Brill Handbook (including mine) as being too “descriptive.” Nolo contendere.<\/em>\u00a0 I have often wondered if in Pagan studies (and in the study of new religious movements in general) we regard descriptive work as (a) necessary and (b) easier\u2014or at least more obvious, easier to think about.<\/p>\n

Necessary because, after all, don’t we have to adequately describe something before we can theorize about it? Of course, the horizon of the perfect description is always receding before us. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

But how would the sort of critical theory that Davidsen calls for be applied to Pagan studies, and who is doing it? Certainly I would never say that Pagan studies should be immune to critical theory. Yes, talk and write about “which social constructions people label [Pagan] religion, and how the resulting discourses serve to legitimate power structures,” or whatever you like. But it won’t be the only way that people do Pagan studies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some thoughts after reading Markus Davidsen’s review of the Handbook of Contemporary Paganism\u2014and, by extension, of the entire field of Pagan studies. Part of his critique does resonate with me. It raises an issue that I have thought about too. When I saw that the first authority cited was Russ McCutcheon, I had a pretty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5,4],"class_list":["post-4476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-paganism","tag-scholarship"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1ac","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1101,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1101","url_meta":{"origin":4476,"position":0},"title":"A New 3-Volume Work in Pagan Studies","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Barbara Jane Davy, author of Introduction to Pagan Studies (The Pagan Studies Series) has a new edited collection out of source documents for Pagan studies.Paganism (Critical Concepts in Religious Studies) lists on Amazon at an \"institutional\" price, like the other edited collection that I recently mentioned.From the publisher's site:This new\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7724,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7724","url_meta":{"origin":4476,"position":1},"title":"Core Books in Pagan Studies","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently completed an article on contempoary Paganism for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, so when it appears, I can at least say that I have been published by Oxford UP. Yay me. But is there still a market for academic encyclopedias in this day when undergrads must be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"magical religion","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/magical-religion.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2371,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2371","url_meta":{"origin":4476,"position":2},"title":"Seeking AAR Pagan Studies Papers","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"After reading the Call for Papers, now is the time to submit proposals for the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group's sessions at the American Academy of Religion annual meeting. We have two topics this year: What does Pagan studies offer to academic analysis and critique? How do historical constructions of \u201cpaganism\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7176,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7176","url_meta":{"origin":4476,"position":3},"title":"We Might as well Wear Lineages on our Chests","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Academic bloggers Megan Kate Nelson and Elizabeth Covart are re-thinking the way that we wear badges at conventions\u2014and other forms of labeling. What might work better than NAME and INSTITUTION (or for the non-affiliated, CITY)? In Nelson's post, I like \"Academic lineage, a la Game of Thrones. Everyone always asks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"academia\"","block_context":{"text":"academia","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=academia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6232,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=6232","url_meta":{"origin":4476,"position":4},"title":"Contemporary Pagan Studies Group’s Call for Papers","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The process to submit papers for the Contemporary Pagan Studies Group's sessions at next November's American Academy of Religion meeting is now open. The submission deadline is March 3, 2014. More information and links can be found here. Call for Papers We invite individual papers, papers, sessions, and roundtable proposals\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8434,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8434","url_meta":{"origin":4476,"position":5},"title":"CFP: 2017 AAR Contemporary Pagan Studies Group","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"All the calls for the 2017 annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion are now online. The meeting itself will be held 18\u201321 November in Boston. The Pagan studies theme is \"Witch Hunts: Rhetorical, Historical and Contemporary.\" The term \u201cwitch hunt\u201d is used as a rhetorical strategy in contemporary\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4476"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4481,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4476\/revisions\/4481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}