Blurb:

This essay focuses on the relationship of scholarly normativity and political pressure. Drawing on the work of Russell T. McCutcheon and Thomas Gieryn, the author argues that scholars are always engaged as public intellectuals and involved in negotiating the boundaries of what can count as real scholarship. In a “post-truth world” the study of religion is challenged to recognize the constructedness of the stories it tells, but at the same time has to demonstrate the value of a perspective that constantly questions normative claims in scholarship and the broader society.