2000
2015-08-25
10.17192/mjr.2000.5.3757
urn:nbn:de:hebis:04-0004-2000-125-37571
keine Angabe
Sect-Bashing in the Guise of Scholarship: A Critical Appraisal of Select Studies of Soka Gakkai
We began by noting that, although certain kinds of analyses of religion have been rejected by the academic mainstream, older patterns of prejudicial scholarship have tended to persist in the subfield of new religious movements. While there is no sound reason for continuing to permit writers to articulate judgmental points of view in this subfield, popular prejudice against minority religions has served to make many scholars "tone-deaf" to an author's biases against such religious groups. The task the present paper set for itself was to argue against this double standard. The argument was built around an analysis of select scholarship on Soka Gakkai International, an organization chosen because it has been highly controversial and because a reasonable quantity of articles and books had been composed about the group. It was also argued that the scholar's primary goal should always be to articulate a humanly meaningful understanding of a given religion--both an understanding of the world of the participants as well as an understanding of what such religions mean for society as a whole.
urn:nbn:de:hebis:04-0004-2000-125-37571
Sect-Bashing in the Guise of Scholarship: A Critical Appraisal of Select Studies of Soka Gakkai
English
We began by noting that, although certain kinds of analyses of religion have been rejected by the academic mainstream, older patterns of prejudicial scholarship have tended to persist in the subfield of new religious movements. While there is no sound reason for continuing to permit writers to articulate judgmental points of view in this subfield, popular prejudice against minority religions has served to make many scholars "tone-deaf" to an author's biases against such religious groups. The task the present paper set for itself was to argue against this double standard. The argument was built around an analysis of select scholarship on Soka Gakkai International, an organization chosen because it has been highly controversial and because a reasonable quantity of articles and books had been composed about the group. It was also argued that the scholar's primary goal should always be to articulate a humanly meaningful understanding of a given religion--both an understanding of the world of the participants as well as an understanding of what such religions mean for society as a whole.
2015-08-25
2000
2015-08-25
application/pdf
https://doi.org/10.17192/mjr.2000.5.3757
James R.
Lewis
Lewis, James R.
Universitätsbibliothek Marburg
Publikationsserver der Universitätsbibliothek Marburg
1
https://doi.org/10.17192/mjr.2000.5.1
2000
Vol 5 No 1 (2000)
https://journals.uni-marburg.de/0004/cover.png
Institute for Comparative Cultural Research - Study of Religions and Anthropology
Religion
Philosophy and theory of religion
1996
1418722-x
Periodical
urn:nbn:de:hebis:04-00048
Marburg Journal of Religion
1612-2941
Fachbereich Gesellschaftswissenschaften und Philosophie
Deutschhausstraße 9, 35037 Marburg
Marburg
Philipps-Universität Marburg
2000-08-24
5
PeriodicalPart
urn:nbn:de:hebis:04-0004-2000-1252
https://journals.uni-marburg.de/0004/2000/125/cover.png
2015-08-25
https://journals.uni-marburg.de/0004/2000/125/3757/3757.png
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