Irreverence and the Sacred

Hugh B. Urban is a professor of religious studies and South Asian studies in the Department of Comparative Studies at Ohio State University. He is the author of nine books, including The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion (2011) and Zorba the Buddha: Sex, Spirituality and Capitalism in the Global Osho Movement (2016).

Greg Johnson is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He is the author of Sacred Claims: Repatriation and Living Tradition and co-editor of Handbook of Indigenous Religion(s) (2017).

Stefan Arvidsson is a professor in the Study of Religions at Linnaeus University. He is the author of several books, including Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science (2006).

Claude Calame is Directeur d'Études at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He is the author of numerous books, including Greek Mythology: Poetics, Pragmatics and Fiction (English translation, 2009).

Wendy Doniger is the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor in the History of Religions at the University of Chicago. She is the author of more than forty books, including, most recently, The Hindus: An Alternative History (2010), On Hinduism (2014), Redeeming the Kamasutra (2016), and The Ring of Truth (2017).

Kelly E. Hayes is an associate professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She is the author of Holy Harlots: Femininity, Sexuality, and Black Magic in Brazil (2011).

Greg Johnson is an associate professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado. Boulder. He is the author of Sacred Claims: Repatriation and Living Tradition (2007).

Jean Kellens is an Honorary Professor at the Collège de France. He is the author of numerous works on Indo-Iranian languages and religions, including Zarathustra and Zoroastrianism (2000).

Bruce Lincoln is the Caroline E. Haskell Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago. He is the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Between History and Myth: Stories of Harald Fairhair and the Founding of the State (2014), Discourse and the Construction of Society: Comparative Studies of Myth, Ritual, and Classification, 2nd Ed. (2014), and Politique du paradis: Religion et empire en Perse achéménide (2015).

Russell McCutcheon is a professor and chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. He is the author of numerous books, including Manufacturing Religion: The Discourse on Sui Generis Religion and the Politics of Nostalgia (1997) and Entanglements: Marking Place in the Field of Religion (2014).

Nicolas Meylan is a lecturer in the Institut Religions, Cultures, Modernité at the University of Lausanne and in the Faculty of Letters at the Université de Genève. He is the author of the forthcoming How to Deal with Kings: Discourses of Magic in Medieval Icelandic Polemics against the Kings in Norway.

S. Romi Mukherjee is an assistant professor at the Sciences Po-Paris. He is the author of Durkheim and Violence (2010).

Stefanie von Schnurbein is a professor of Modern Scandinavian Literatures at the Nordeuropa Institute, Humboldt Universität. She is the author of numerous works, including Religions als Kulturkritik: Neugermanisches Heidentum im 20. Jahrhundert (1992).

Ivan Strenski is Holstein Family and Community Professor of Religious Studies. He is the author of several books, including Why Politics Can't be Freed from Religion and The New Durkheim: Essays on Philosophy, Religious Identity, and the Politics of Knowledge.

Kathleen Self is an associate professor of Religious Studies at St. Lawrence University. Her research focuses on conversion in the Middle Ages, in particular the conversion of Iceland to Christianity.

Hugh B. Urban is a professor of Religious Studies and South Asian Studies at Ohio State University. He is the author of several books, including Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics and Power in the Study of Religion (2003) and The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion (2011).

Kevin Wanner is acting chair and a professor in the Department of Comparative Religion at Western Michigan University.

"... these provocative essays constitute a fine, thoughtful, and original treatment. Summing up: Recommended" -- CHOICE

"Irreverence and the Sacred offers fresh perspectives on one of the most influential theorists in religious studies. The book also contains deeply self-conscious explorations of how scholars of religion approach their work; the authors describe the processes they use in specific projects and the dilemmas they have faced while conducting their research. On occasion authors in this volume even express regret that perhaps they could have approached particular projects differently. This process of self-description and reflection on the part of the authors unifies this book far more than any field of study or response to specific writings of Lincoln. It is the insight into this grappling on how to best conduct scholarly work and the application of religious studies theory to such a wide variety of subjects that make this such an immensely valuable resource." -- Melody Everest, Reading Religion

"Using Bruce Lincoln's work as a compass, the contributors to this volume eschew a feel-good approach to religious studies. Rather than focus on meaningless categories such as 'the sacred,' they encourage us to reflect on the mundane nature of religion. The results are challenging, provocative, and often irreverent. The editors are to be congratulated for continuing to push the boundaries of the field in important and controversial directions."--Aaron W. Hughes, Philip S. Bernstein Professor of Religion and Classics, University of Rochester

"While Bruce Lincoln's scholarship has established him as a leading figure in religious studies, the field remains in desperate need of scholars pressing and applying the kind of approach Lincoln advocates. His mode of and ideas on historiography provoke as much as they influence, and the field would be better if scholars—even in their critiques—took seriously the questions and issues thinkers like Lincoln continue to pose for our academic work. That is exactly what this collection delivers."--K. Merinda Simmons, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Religious Studies, University of Alabama

"Bruce Lincoln's voice is one of the most important on the critical end of the academic study of religion; no one I know of has done more than he to theorize and adapt neo-Marxist or Marxian approaches to the subject matter of our field. The volume does an excellent job of surveying his major works, extending Lincoln's work to a new data set, demonstrating its usefulness, or offering criticisms of his work, demonstrating how his approach might be modified so as to be more sophisticated than it already is."--Craig Martin, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, St. Thomas Aquinas College