Religious Intimacies

Scholars of religion have come a long way since William James famously made of religion a matter between man and his maker. For decades now, they have been attentive to the ways in which religion takes shape as the product of broad social forces, focusing on the dynamics of power and culture as heuristics for understanding religious phenomena and experience.



What, however, might they be missing by moving too quickly from one interpretative extreme to the other--and what might we learn about religion by staying in the interstitial space between the individual in her solitude and society as a whole?

Religious Intimacies, edited by Mary Dunn and Brenna Moore, brings together nine scholars of modern Christianity to probe this in-between space. In essays that range from treatments of Jesuit-indigenous relations in early modern Canada to the erotics of contemporary black theology, each contributor makes the case for the study of the presence and power of affective ties and relational dynamics between friends, lovers, and intimate others (even things) as vital to the understanding of religion.

Savantii religiei au parcurs un drum lung de cand William James a facut din faimoasa religie o problema intre om si creatorul sau. De zeci de ani incoace, ei au fost atenti la modurile in care religia prinde forma ca produs al unor forte sociale largi, concentrandu-se pe dinamica puterii si culturii ca euristica pentru intelegerea fenomenelor si experientei religioase. trecand prea repede de la o extrema interpretativa la cealalta - si ce am putea invata despre religie ramanand in spatiul interstitial dintre individ in singuratatea ei si societatea in ansamblu? Intimitatile religioase, editate de Mary Dunn si Brenna Moore, reuneste noua cercetatori ai crestinismului modern pentru a cerceta acest spatiu intermediar.