Philosophy and the Study of Religions
Philosophy and the Study of Religions: A Manifesto advocates a radical transformation of the discipline from its current, narrow focus on questions of God, to a fully global form of critical reflection on religions in all their variety and dimensions.
- Opens the discipline of philosophy of religion to the religious diversity that characterizes the world today
- Builds bridges between philosophy of religion and the other interpretative and explanatory approaches in the field of religious studies
- Provides a manifesto for a global approach to the subject that is a practice-centred rather than a belief-centred activity
- Gives attention to reflexive critical studies of 'religion' as socially constructed and historically located
Kevin Schilbrack is Professor and Head of Department of Religion and Philosophy at Western Carolina University. Schilbrack has served as president of the American Academy of Religion for the Southeast, as a senior fellow with Harvard University's Center for the Study of World Religions, and as a participant in a Fulbright-Hays Faculty Development Seminar in Taiwan and Thailand. An award-winning teacher, he has published numerous articles in philosophy and theory of religion, and is the contributing editor of Thinking through Rituals: Philosophical Perspectives (2007) and The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Religious Diversity (forthcoming).