04262nam 22007455 450 991096319990332120210108152631.09780226117577022611757X10.7208/9780226117577(CKB)3710000000089343(EBL)1635755(SSID)ssj0001108129(PQKBManifestationID)12392587(PQKBTitleCode)TC0001108129(PQKBWorkID)11086396(PQKB)11313286(StDuBDS)EDZ0000708043(DE-B1597)524823(OCoLC)870951080(DE-B1597)9780226117577(MiAaPQ)EBC1635755(Perlego)1851799(EXLCZ)99371000000008934320200424h20142014 fg engur|n|---|||||txtccrEmpire of Religion Imperialism and Comparative Religion /David ChidesterChicago : University of Chicago Press, [2014]©20141 online resource (398 p.)Description based upon print version of record.9780226117263 022611726X Includes bibliographical references and index.Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Chapter One. Expanding Empire -- Chapter Two. Imperial, Colonial, and Indigenous -- Chapter Three. Classify and Conquer -- Chapter Four. Animals and Animism -- Chapter Five. Myths and Fictions -- Chapter Six. Ritual and Magic -- Chapter Seven. Humanity and Divinity -- Chapter Eight. Thinking Black -- Chapter Nine. Spirit of Empire -- Chapter Ten. Enduring Empire -- Notes -- IndexHow is knowledge about religion and religions produced, and how is that knowledge authenticated and circulated? David Chidester seeks to answer these questions in Empire of Religion, documenting and analyzing the emergence of a science of comparative religion in Great Britain during the second half of the nineteenth century and its complex relations to the colonial situation in southern Africa. In the process, Chidester provides a counterhistory of the academic study of religion, an alternative to standard accounts that have failed to link the field of comparative religion with either the power relations or the historical contingencies of the imperial project. In developing a material history of the study of religion, Chidester documents the importance of African religion, the persistence of the divide between savagery and civilization, and the salience of mediations-imperial, colonial, and indigenous-in which knowledge about religions was produced. He then identifies the recurrence of these mediations in a number of case studies, including Friedrich Max Müller's dependence on colonial experts, H. Rider Haggard and John Buchan's fictional accounts of African religion, and W. E. B. Du Bois's studies of African religion. By reclaiming these theorists for this history, Chidester shows that race, rather than theology, was formative in the emerging study of religion in Europe and North America. Sure to be controversial, Empire of Religion is a major contribution to the field of comparative religious studies.Great Britain -- Colonies -- AfricaImperialism -- Religious aspectsSouth Africa -- ReligionImperialismReligious aspectsReligionHILCCPhilosophy & ReligionHILCCAfrican ReligionsHILCCSouth AfricaReligionGreat BritainColoniesAfricaGreat Britain -- Colonies -- Africa.Imperialism -- Religious aspects.South Africa -- Religion.ImperialismReligious aspects.ReligionPhilosophy & ReligionAfrican Religions200.9171200.9171241Chidester David, authttp://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/aut658698DE-B1597DE-B1597BOOK9910963199903321Empire of Religion4367517UNINA