Rhetoric Race and Religion
For centuries, European Christians (and their American descendants) mostly categorized religious systems according to their similarities and differences vis-à-visChristianity. There were monotheistic or highly evolved religions versus “primitive” or “idolatrous” religions. There were universal religions versus ethnic, narrow-minded religions (that formulation demoted Judaism in comparison with the previous sentence). Some of those taxonomic schemes suggested a positive appraisal of other religious systems, but only to the extent that they resembled Christianity. [The above mostly represents a very loose and incomplete summary of Jonathan Z. Smith’s brilliant essay, “Religion, Religions, Religious.”]
Given that nearly all scholars of religion are aware of the way that Europeans imposed definitions of religion on other peoples, it is surprising that one encounters with some frequency scholars who repeat the condescension of their predecessors. I posted on this phenomenon last August but was reminded of it again this past week.
This summer I’m teaching the equivalent of World Religions for the first time. Throughout July, I will be an “anxious” contributor to this blog. Perhaps Buddhism will help, with its suggestion that such anxiety can indeed be overcome.
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