Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables
List of Contributors
Michael Stausberg and Steven Engler: Introduction: Aims, Scope, and Organization
Part I. Religion
1: Michael Stausberg & Mark Q. Gardiner: Definition
2: Giovanni Casadio: Historicizing and Translating Religion
3: Michael Stausberg & Steven Engler: Theories of Religion
4: Heinz Streib and Constantin Klein: Religion and Spirituality
5: Lois Lee: Non-religion
Part II. Theoretical Approaches
6: Armin W. Geertz: Cognitive Science
7: Peter Seele & Lucas Zapf: Economics
8: John H. Shaver, Benjamin Grant Purzycki, and Richard Sosis: Evolutionary Theory
9: Darlene Juschka: Feminism and Gender Theory
10: Gavin Flood: Hermeneutics
11: Matthew Day: Marxism
12: Arvind Mandair: Postcolonialism
13: Mark Q. Gardiner and Steven Engler: Semantics
14: Robert A. Yelle: Semiotics
15: Paul-François Tremlett: (Post)-structuralism
16: Philip A. Mellor and Chris Shilling: Social Theory
Part III. Modes
17: Volkhard Krech: Communication
18: David Morgan: Materiality
19: Jeppe Sinding Jensen: Narrative
20: Axel Michaels and William S. Sax: Performance
21: Rosalind I. J. Hackett: Sound
22: David Chidester: Space
23: David Chidester: Time
Part IV. Environments
24: Anne Koch: Economy
25: Benjamin Schonthal: Law
26: Oliver Krüger: Media
27: Adrian Ivakhiv: Nature
28: Pamela Klassen: Medicine
29: Hubert Seiwert: Politics
30: Laura J. Vollmer and Kocku von Stuckrad: Science
Carole M. Cusack: Sports
Alex Norman: Tourism
Part V. Topics
33: Jason C. Bivins: Belief
34: John Corrigan: Emotion
35: Craig Martin: Experience
36: Christoph Auffarth: Gift and Sacrifice
37: Gustavo Benavides: Gods
38: Henrik Bogdan: Initiation and Transitions
39: Manfred Hutter: Priests, Prophets, Sorcerers
40: Hugh B. Urban: Purity
41: Gavin Flood: Salvation
Part VI. Processes
42: Steve Bruce: Differentiation
43: Albert de Jong: The Disintegration and Death of Religions
44: Asonzeh Ukah: Expansion
45: Manuel A. Vásquez and David Garbin: Globalization
46: Jörg Rüpke: Individualization and Privatization
47: Olav Hammer: Tradition and Innovation
48: Jeremy Carrette: Objectification and Commodification
49: Paul Christopher Johnson: Syncretism and Hybridization
Part VII. The Discipline
50: Michael Stausberg: History
51: Thomas A. Tweed: Relevance

About the Author

Michael Stausberg is Professor of Religion at the University of Bergen. He was formerly a fellow at the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultual and Social Studies and is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. His previous publications include Contemporary Theories of Religion: A Critical Companion (Routledge, 2009), Religion and Tourism: Crossroads, Destinations and Encounters (Routledge, 2010), and Zarathustra and
Zoroastrianism (Equinox, 2008). He is co-editor of The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism (with Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina; Wiley Blackwell, 2015) and The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in the Study of Religion
(with Steven Engler; Routledge, 2013). Steven Engler is Professor of Religious Studies at Mount Royal University in Calgary. He is Professor Colaborador in the Programa de Estudos Pós-Graduados em Ciências da Religião at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo and Affiliate Professor with the Department of Religion, Concordia University, Montréal. He is the co-editor of Historicizing Tradition in the Study of Religion (with
Gregory Price Grieve; De Gruyter, 2005).

Reviews

"The Oxford Handbook of the Study of Religion is an impressively thorough treatment, and it's difficult to imagine a single volume that could accomplish a more complete survey of the field of religious studies."--C. Travis Webb, Reading Religion"[A] major new contribution to the growing body of reference volumes in the study of religion At their best, the chapters in this volume place contemporary debates in historical context, introduce key figures, helpfully schematize the literature, puncture stereotypes, relate topics to multiple religious traditions, and suggest avenues for further research."--Liane F. Carlson, Journal of the American Academy of Religion