Many of you probably had a good idea of what "religion" meant when you came to Pitt and thus imagined that you knew what "Religious Studies" meant. As you have taken Religious Studies classes, perhaps, you have come to realize that both terms, "religion" and "Religious Studies," are quite complex and have multiple layers of meaning.
Next week, the Department will host one of the leading theorists in the field of Religious Studies for two events, a small seminar on Wednesday and a public lecture on Thursday. Religious Studies majors are welcome at both events.
THE DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES ANNOUNCES TWO TALKS BY
Professor Russell T. McCutcheon
Department of Religious Studies, University of Alabama
SEMINAR: “On the Limits of the Humanistic Study of Religion”
Wednesday, December 6
2:00 pm
4500 Wesley W. Posvar Hall
All welcome
Reading in advance: “’It’s a Lie. There’s No Truth in It! It’s a Sin!’: On the Limits of the Humanistic Study of Religion and the Cross of Saving Others from Themselves.” For a copy, email rocky@pitt.edu
LECTURE: “Religion’s Roots and Tangled Branches, or Fighting the War on Terror with Authentic Fakes”
Thursday, December 7
4:00 pm
4127 Sennott Hall
Reception to follow
A leading voice in the field of the theory of religion, Russell T. McCutcheon has published widely in the areas of the history of scholarship on myths and rituals, the history of the publicly-funded academic study of religion as practiced in the U.S. as well as the relations between the classification “religion” itself and the rise of the nation-state. Among is many published works are Religion and Domestication of Dissent, or How to Live in a Less than Perfect Nation (2005), The Discipline of Religion: Structure, Meaning and Rhetoric (2003), Manufacturing Religion: The Discourse on Sui Generis Religion and the Politics of Nostalgia (1997, 2003) and Critics Not Caretakers: Redescribing the Public Study of Religion (2001). Dr. McCutcheon is currently President of the Council of Societies for the Study of Religion (CSSR) and the Associate Director of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR).
