Modern Religion, Modern Race

Theodore Vial

Advances the controversial thesis that religion is racialized
Analyzes historical figures generally thought of as being on the radical left side of the theoretical study of religion (Kant, Herder, and Schleiermacher), arguing that even those with the best intentions will racialize religious discourse

Modern Religion, Modern Race

Theodore Vial

Description

Religion is a racialized category, even when race is not explicitly mentioned. Modern Religion, Modern Race argues that because the concepts of religion and race are rooted in the post-Enlightenment project of rethinking what it means to be human, we cannot simply will ourselves to stop using these categories. Only by acknowledging that religion is already racialized can we begin to understand how the two concepts are intertwined and how they operate in our modern world.

It has become commonplace to argue that the category religion is not universal, or even very old, but is a product of Europe's Enlightenment modernization. Equally commonplace is the argument that religion is not an innocent category of analysis, but is implicated in colonial regimes of control and as such plays a role in Europe's process of identity construction of non-European "others." Current debates about race follow an eerily similar trajectory: race is not an ancient but a modern construction. It is part of the project of colonialism, and race discourse forms one of the cornerstones of modern European identity-making. Vial focuses on the development of these ideas in the late-18th and early-19th centuries in Germany. By examining the theories of Kant, Herder, and Schleiermacher, among others, Vial uncovers co-constitutive nature of race and religion, and how the two concepts are used today to make sense of the world. He shows that while we disdain the racist language of some of the founders of the religious studies discipline, our continued use of their theories leads us, unwittingly, to reiterate many of the same distinctions and hierarchies.

Although it may not be time to abandon the very category of religion, with all its attendant baggage, Modern Religion, Modern Race calls for us to critically examine that baggage, and the way in which religion has always carried within it race.

Modern Religion, Modern Race

Theodore Vial

Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter One: Kant and Race
Chapter Two: On Religion: To Schleiermacher's Theoretical Despisers
Chapter 3: Chips from Another German Workshop: Friedrich Max Müller and Friedrich Schleiermacher on Language and Religion
Chapter 4: Modern Communities, National and Religious
Chapter 5: Herder and Schleiermacher as Unfamiliar Sources of Racism
Chapter 6: The Dark Side of Modern Religion
Chapter 7: Modernity and Teleology
Bibliography
Index

Modern Religion, Modern Race

Theodore Vial

Author Information

Theodore Vial, Professor of Theology and Modern Western Religious Thought, Iliff School of Theology

Theodore Vial teaches modern western religious thought. He is the author of Schleiermacher: A Guide for the Perplexed (2013), Liturgy Wars: Ritual Theory and Protestant Reform in Nineteenth-Century Zurich ( 2004); and co-editor of Ethical Monotheism, Past and Present: Essays in Honor of Wendell S. Dietrich (2001). Vial received his B.A. from Brown University and both M.A. and Ph. D. from The University of Chicago.

Modern Religion, Modern Race

Theodore Vial

Reviews and Awards

"This book is a welcome contribution to the discussion about religion and race, which puts the sometimes fierce debates in historical perspective." - Arie L. Molendijk, NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion

"Vial's book is pioneering in demonstrating the intimate link between the emergence of the idea of a generic phenomenon called 'religion' and the development of racial theory among some of the most influential philosophers of the modern era, including Kant, Hegel, Schleiermacher and Herder... He challenges us to rethink other categories as well, such as gender, and to recognise that racism is stamped in our minds as well as our politics and economics. The book is daring and challenging, certain to be debated and disputed, for it is one of the most exciting and brilliant studies of religion and race of our era." - Susannah Heschel, Body and Religion

"[I]n Modern Religion, Modern Race Vial makes a very important contribution to debates on how the study of religion needs to explore its past, and in particular the often ignored overlap between categories of race and religion. For those interested in seeing how white male Enlightenment thinkers helped to create such a mess, this book needs to be read and taught widely." - Malory Nye, Reading Religion