Encountering Religion

This volume encourages scholars to abandon the conceptual opposition between the 'secular' and the 'religious' to better understand how human beings actively and thoughtfully engage with their worlds and make meaning. It argues that the artificial distinction between a self-conscious and critical 'academic study of religion' and an ideological and authoritarian 'religion' only obscures the phenomenon. Instead, the book calls on intellectuals to approach the field as a site of 'encounter' and 'response', illuminating the agency, creativity, and critical awareness of religious actors.