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Book: Constructing Data in Religious Studies

Chapter: 13. Serial Killers and Scholars of Religion

DOI: 10.1558/equinox.34178

Blurb:

This chapter responds to Craig Martin’s discussion of the realist/anti-realist debate and its importance to the academic study of religion. Building on Martin’s call to take anti-realism seriously, this response begins to imagine how an anti-realist theoretical framework could become a part of the field's self-definition. Could anti-realism provide a foundation for the academic study of religion to construct itself as a field that acknowledges the strength of second-order critical thought as its central form and content? As a framework that renders visible the creation of both religion and scholars of religion, the author suggests that anti-realism can be generative of the field’s value.

Chapter Contributors

  • Martha Smith-Roberts ([email protected] - mlsmith) 'University of California, Santa Barbara'