T
HE STUDY OF RELIGIONS IS A global enterprise. I do not mean what some
might mean by that phrase: that scholars of religions have been leaders in
globalizing the university curriculum, studying and teaching about all, or at
least many different, regions of the globe. In some parts of the world, that
may be true. Especially in North America and Europe, scholars of religion, as
distinct from theologians (see below), have generally studied the religions of
other times and places, and in those contexts, the study of religion may make
a real contribution to deparochialization.^1 But what I have in mind is something
rather different. Scholars of religions are found throughout the world, on every
continent and in every religious tradition. It is not merely the object of study
that is global. The scholars who are at work crafting knowledge about religions
are spread throughout the globe, too.
But while the study of religions is a global enterprise, it largely lacks a global
vision. Conceptions of the discipline or field—I will not commit myself to either
term—remain decidedly parochial, both explicitly in theoretical analysis and
implicitly in scholarly practice. That is true in North America and Western
Europe, where even with the best of intentions scholars may be dismissive of
or completely unaware of scholarly work being done elsewhere.^2 It is also true
in other parts of the globe, where scholars, when they look outside of their
own regions, generally look to North America and Western Europe for
instruction and guidance.^3 In this respect, the study of religions is not much
different from other humanistic disciplines. The ‘asymmetric ignorance’ that
Dipesh Chakrabarty ascribes to history is largely true in the study of religions,
too: ‘Third-world historians feel a need to refer to works in European history;
historians of Europe do not feel any need to reciprocate’ (Chakrabarty 2000:
28). In the production of knowledge as in many other arenas, globalization
too often implies Europeanization or, especially since the end of World War
II, Americanization.
There are distinct signs today that a global community of scholars of
religions is emerging. Consider just one set of examples. From 2000 to 2006
national associations for the study of religions have affiliated with the
International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR) from Austria
(2000), Brazil (2000), Greece (2005), Romania (2005), Slovakia (2000), and
Turkey (2005).^4 So have regional associations from Africa (2000), East Africa
(2000), Europe (2000), and South and Southeast Asia (2005). During the same
period the IAHR convened international congresses in Durban, South Africa
(2000), and Tokyo, Japan (2005). It sponsored special and regional conferences
in Cracow, Poland (2000), Cambridge, England (2001), Paris, France (2002),
Wellington, New Zealand (2002), Bergen, Norway (2003), Delhi, India (
and 2005), Legon, Ghana (2004), Santander, Spain (2004), Yogyakarta,
Indonesia (2004), Thessaloniki, Greece (2006), and Bucharest, Romania (2006).
In addition, it lent its support to conferences in Tenerife, The Canary Islands2