Postcolonial Philosophy of Religion

These essays analyze contemporary problems in the Philosophy of Religion in a historical context. They take the opportunity to correct Eurocentric biases that distort knowledge not only of religions from beyond the West, but of the West's own traditions.

The present collection of writings on postcolonial philosophy of religion takes its origins from a Philosophy of Religion session during the 1996 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion held in New Orleans. Three presentations, by Purushottama Bilimoria, Andrew B. Irvine, and Bhibuti Yadav, were to be offered at the session, with Thomas Dean presiding and Kenneth Surin responding. (Yadav, unfortunately could not be present because of illness. ) This was the ?rst AAR session ever to examine issues in the study of religion under the rubric of the postcolonial turn in academia. Interest at the session was intense. For instance, Richard King, then at work on the manuscriptof the landmark Orientalism and Religion, was present; so, too, was Paul J. Grif?ths, whose s- sequent work on interreligious engagement has been so noteworthy. In response to numerous audience appeals, revised versions of the presentations eventually were published, as a Dedicated Symposium on 'Subalternity', in volume 39 no. 1 (2000) of Sophia, the international journal for philosophy of religion, metaphysical theology and ethics. Since that time, the importance of the nexus of religion and the postcolonial has become increasingly patent not only to philosophers of religion but to students of religion across the range of disciplines and methodologies. The increased inter- tionalization of the program of the American Academy of Religion, especially in more recent years, is a signi?cant outgrowth of this transformation in conscio- ness among students of religion.

First collection of its kind, dedicated to giving the reader a deep and wide-ranging sense of current postcolonial approaches to philosophy of religion Includes contributions by leading postcolonial scholars and younger thinkers, thereby introducing the reader to the field as it has been shaped thus far and as it is taking shape in the present Final section clarifies intersections with feminist and postmodern philosophy of religion, enabling the reader to clearly grasp commonalties as well as distinctive features of postcolonial inquiry Sections focused on India and the Americas give rich introductions to the broad impact of postcolonial inquiry in the rethinking of religions and of philosophy

Autorentext

Andrew B. Irvine is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Maryville College, Maryville, Tennessee. His publications include articles on Latin American liberation theology, theology and neuroscience, and theology and political philosophy.

Purushottama Bilimoria is Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Studies at Deakin University in Australia and Senior Research Fellow, University of Melbourne; Visiting Professor at State University of New York (Stony Brook), and Columbia University. His areas of specialist research and publications cover classical Indian philosophy and comparative ethics; Continental thought; cross-cultural philosophy of religion, diaspora studies; bioethics, and personal law in India.

Klappentext

The essays in this volume take up the history of philosophy of religion and contemporary problems within the discipline. They pursue these tasks as opportunities to correct Eurocentric biases that distort knowledge not only of religions originating beyond the West, but of the West's own traditions.

This is the first collection of its kind. The contributions re-examine colonial experience in India and the Americas, offering discussion of broad methodological issues, critical re-readings of influential Western interpreters of religion, and arguments that explore blindspots and insights typical of colonial difference when viewed through "non-Western" eyes.

The volume is aimed at advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and professional scholars in philosophy, religion, and related fields. Readers will benefit from its broad coverage of regions, traditions and problems, and the balance of philosophical critique and reconstruction.

Inhalt
Introduction: The State of Philosophy of Religion and Postcoloniality.- Surveying the Scene.- What Is the Subaltern of the Philosophy of Religion?.- Philosophy of Religion as Border Control: Globalization and the Decolonization of the Love of Wisdom (philosophia).- The Third Eye and Two Ways of (Un)knowing: Gnosis, Alternative Modernities, and Postcolonial Futures.- India.- Mispredicated Identity and Postcolonial Discourse.- On the Death of the Pilgrim: The Postcolonial Hermeneutics of Jarava Lal Mehta.- Western Idealism Through Indian Eyes: A Cittamatra Reading of Berkeley, Kant and Schopenhauer.- An Approximate Difference: Proximity and Oppression in the West's Encounter with Sikhism.- Max Müller and Textual Management: A Postcolonial Perspective.- Auto-immunity in the Study of Religion(s): Ontotheology, Historicism and the Theorization of Indic Phenomena.- America.- The Meaning and Function of Religion in an Imperial World.- Cultural Participation and Postcoloniality: A U.S. Case Study.- Imperial Somatics and Genealogies of Religion: How We Never Became Secular.- De-colonial Jewish Thought and the Americas.- Enduring Enchantment: Secularism and the Epistemic Privileges of Modernity.- Uneasy Intersections.- Uneasy Intersections: Postcolonialism, Feminism, and the Study of Religions.- Postcolonial Discontent with Postmodern Philosophy of Religion.- Afterword: Religion and Philosophy between the Modern and Postmodern.