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Cited by 31Study and Philosophy of ReligionTheological Perspectives and PracticesPhilosophy, History, and Historiography

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“It’s a Lie. There’s No Truth in It! It’s a Sin!”: On the Limits of the Humanistic Study of Religion and the Costs of Saving Others from Themselves

McCutcheon, Russell T.·2006·Journal of the American Academy of Religion
DOI 10.1093/jaarel/lfj090
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Abstract

Juxtaposing two recent texts that each address the scholar’s role when it comes to issues of difference, this essay investigates how members of our field’s dominant liberal humanistic tradition address potentially competing systems of representation. After comparing the recent work of Robert Orsi with that of Paul Courtright, the essay concludes that, when it comes to those Others whose differences can easily be tolerated or overlooked with little or no cost, scholars in this tradition deploy a different sets of tools than when their work focuses on Others for whom they feel little affinity and whose interests conflict with their own. Failing to understand all scholarship as necessarily involved in acts of translation and redescription—acts that are all equally removed from some posited authentic source—the essay ends by suggesting that we risk the future of our field when we employ different methods for different people, all based on the degree of our personal identification with our subject matter. How many things have to happen to you before something occurs to you? —Robert Frost1

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  • Chōgen's 1185 vow clearly states that Chōgen 'crossed over to the distant Song Country, journeyed to Wutai, and paid reverence to Mañjuśrī's auspicious light.'

    “But the vow clearly states that Ch ō gen ' crossed over to the distant Song Country, journeyed to Wutai, and paid reverence to Mañju ś r ī ' s auspicious light. ' 52”

    From Moving monks and mountains: Chōgen and the cults of Gyōki, Mañjuśrī, and Wutai (2019) · cites this paper as [52]

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Research works printed but not linked: 39

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  2. Borges, Jorge Louis [1989] 1999Collected Fictions. Trans. by Andrew Hurley. New York: Penguin.
  3. Cabezón, José Ignacio 2006 “The Discipline and Its Others: The Dialectic of Alterity in the Study of Religion.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion74/1: 21–38. · DOI
  4. Colas, Dominique [1992] 1997Civil Society and Fanaticism: Conjoined Histories. Trans. by Amy Jacobs. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
  5. Courtright, Paul B. 1985 Ganeśa: Lord of Obstacles, Lord of Beginnings. New York: Oxford University Press.
  6. Covington, Dennis 1995 Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia. New York: Penguin.
  7. Dalrymple, William 2005 “India: The War Over History.” New York Review of Books52/6 (April7): 62–65.
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  10. Godlove, Terry 1994 “Religious Discourse and First Person Authority.” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion6: 147–161. · DOI
  11. Juergensmeyer, Mark [2000] 2001Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Fundamentalism. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  12. Kripal, Jeffrey 1995 Kālī’s Child: The Mystical and the Erotic in the Life and Teachings of Ramakrishna. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  13. 1998 Kālī’s Child: The Mystical and the Erotic in the Life and Teachings of Ramakrishna. 2nd edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  14. Kurson, Ken 2003 “Professor Denies Justifying 9/11 While Doing Exactly the Same.” Chicago Sun-Times, 15March: Editorial Letters, 13.
  15. Laine, James 2003 Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India. New York: Oxford University Press. · DOI
  16. Lincoln, Bruce 1989 Discourse and the Construction of Society: Comparative Studies of Myth, Ritual, and Classification. New York: Oxford University Press.
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  18. 2003 Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  19. McCutcheon, Russell T. 1997 Manufacturing Religion: The Discourse on Sui Generis Religion and the Politics of Nostalgia. New York: Oxford University Press. · DOI
  20. 2001 Critics Not Caretakers: Redescribing the Public Study of Religion. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
  21. 2003 The Discipline of Religion: Structure, Meaning, Rhetoric. London: Routledge.
  22. 2004 “A Few Words on the Temptation to Defend the Honor of a Text.” Bulletin of the Council of Societies for the Study of Religion33/3&4: 90–91.
  23. 2005 “Affinities, Benefits, and Costs: The ABCs of Good Scholars Gone Public.” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion17/1: 27–43. · DOI
  24. 2006 “Relating Smith: Review Essay of Jonathan Z. Smith’s Relating Religion.” The Journal of Religion86/2 (April 2006): 287–297. · DOI
  25. O’Flaherty, Wendy Doniger 1986 “The Uses and Misuses of Other People’s Myths.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion54: 219–239. · DOI
  26. Orsi, Robert A. 1988 The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem, 1880–1950. New Haven: Yale University Press.
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Metadata

Authors
McCutcheon, R. T.
Affiliations
University of Alabama (US)
Corresponding author
McCutcheon, Russell T.
ORCID
McCutcheon, Russell T.
Venue
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
2006-06-30
Volume
74
Issue
3
Pages
720-750
ISSN
  • 0002-7189 (ISSN-L)
  • 1477-4585
DOI
10.1093/jaarel/lfj090
OpenAlex
W2163994421
Cited by
31
References
0
Citations by year
2025: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 3
FWCI
13.26
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Journal of the American Academy of Religion (publishedVersion)
  • Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Study and Philosophy of Religion
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Theological Perspectives and Practices
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Philosophy, History, and Historiography
Keywords
representation of the other, religious differences, methodological pluralism

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