1st Edition
Orientalism and Religion Post-Colonial Theory, India and "The Mystic East"
By Richard King
Copyright 1999
296 Pages
by
Routledge
294 Pages
by
Routledge
294 Pages
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
Orientalism and Religion offers us a timely discussion of the implications of contemporary post-colonial theory for the study of religion. Richard King examines the way in which notions such as mysticism, religion, Hinduism and Buddhism are taken for granted. He shows us how religion needs to be reinterpreted along the lines of cultural studies. Drawing on a variety of post-structuralist and post-colonial thinkers, such as Foucault, Gadamer, Said, and Spivak, King provides us with a challenging series of reflections on the nature of Religious Studies and Indology.
Introduction; Chapter 1 The power of definition; Chapter 2 Disciplining religion; Chapter 3 Sacred texts, hermenetics and world religions; Chapter 4 Orientalism and Indian religions; Chapter 5 The modern myth of ‘Hinduism’; Chapter 6 ‘Mystic Hinduism’; Chapter 7 Orientalism and the discovery of ‘Buddhism’; Chapter 8 The politics of privatization; Chapter 9 Beyond Orientalism? Notes Bibliography Index;
Biography
Richard King teaches Religious Studies at the University of Stirling. He is the author of Early Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism.
'Its restained and well-mannered passion and its balance of scholarly consideration and intellectual concern, make this book well worth reading.' - World Faith Encounters
`It represents an erudite and important contribution to debate on the relationship between colonialism and the Academy' - Clinton Bennett, Modern Believing
`for those of us who concentrate on India, on her history, culture, religions and on her contemporay search for post-colonial identity, King's religious studies contribution may actually displace Said'
