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The Blackwell Companion to the Study of Religion

Author:	Robert A Segal
Published By:	Blackwell (Oxford)
Pages:	471
Price:	£85
ISBN:	0 631 23216 8

Reviewed by Chris Skilton.

The Blackwell Companion to the Study of Religion

Robert A Segal

Blackwell

Oxford

2005

471 

£85   

ISBN 0 631 23216 8

The volume is part of a series of “Companions to Religion”. This magisterial survey of the Study of Religion is divided into two parts. Part 1 explores nine different approaches to religion (Anthropology, Comparative Study, Economics, Literature, Phenomenology, Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology and Theology). The guiding philosophy of the editor, Robert Segal, is exemplary:

“What counts is that the subject matter - religion - be connected to the rest of human life…rather than separated from it by the siege-like defensiveness of religionists…religion is best deciphered when it is connected to as much of the rest of human life as is possible” (Introduction xvii)

The book fulfils these aims well, bringing insights from each of these different disciplines to religion, albeit that all the authors hold or have held professorial chairs in the States or England. This brings some narrowness of perspective to the book which is unfortunate. I suspect that readers of Ministry Today will find the chapters a demanding read, albeit a useful summary of the issues raised by the interface of each area of study with religion. There is a comprehensive bibliography at the end of each section, although some guidance through a long list of books and articles would have been helpful.

Part 2 of the book takes 15 topics which are deemed to feature most regularly in the study of religions. These include Body, Death and Afterlife, Fundamentalism, New Religious Movements, Pilgrimage. As in Part 1 these provide a useful introduction to the topic, drawing on examples from a wide range of religions. Readers may find insights drawn from across major world religions to be helpful illustrations of these different themes. They are necessarily brief articles (10-15 pages each typically) and having gained an overview it will be necessary to turn elsewhere for more detail. Those who dip into this work may be disappointed that there is little reference in any of the articles to the major religious texts - surely a primary way of studying religions.

The cost of the book, at least in its hardback version, militates against many ministers being able to afford it, but it’s worth dipping into in a library for those wanting to explore a particular approach or theme for the first time.