Towards a New Theory of Religion and Social Change: Sovereignties and Disruptions
Ebook
This book argues that neither theories of secularisation nor theories of lived religion offer satisfactory accounts of religion and social change. Drawing from Deleuze and Gauttari's idea of the assemblage, Paul-Francois Tremlett outlines an alternative.
Informed by classical and contemporary theories of religion as well as empirical case studies and ethnography conducted in Manila and London, this book re-frames religion as spatially organised flows. Foregrounding the agency of hon-human actors, it offers a compelling and original account of religion and social change.
This book argues that, at a time of social, economic and political transformation, there is an urgent need to re-think religion through the prism of theories of change.
A new and original contribution to theoretical debates about contemporary religion, social change and society
Draws on the author's ethnographic research from London, Hong Kong and the Philippines
Brings together research and theory from anthropology, sociology, geography, religious studies, history and philosophy
Openings
1. Energy
2. Biology
3. Physics and Chemistry
4. Emergence
Departures
Bibliography
Index
Paul-François Tremlett offers a treasure trove of concepts and methods to describe how social worlds change in relation to the category of religion. His is an inspiring, kaleidoscopic presentation of contemporary theory that draws on ideas about secularization, biology, economics, politics, post-humanism, assemblages, bricolage, music and original artwork to expand and enrich the vision and interdisciplinary toolkit of scholars and students of politics, religious studies, sociology and intellectual history.
A masterful overview of key debates that have shaped current anthropological approaches to religion. It also brings us to the most pertinent claims about seeing the world as a matter of assemblages, flows, complexities, and entanglements of agencies, materialities, spaces.
Assembling key critical theorists with the interactions of grassroots religious activists, Paul-François Tremlett proposes a new approach to religion and social change. Excitingly disruptive, his argument provides tools for understanding and rethinking transformations.
Tremlett's approach is very promising: its strengths lie … in the reorganization of classical approaches, and in this I identify the potential of the text to become a new standard work in religious studies. … I would like to once again praise Tremlett's courageous initiative.
- Title: Towards a New Theory of Religion and Social Change: Sovereignties and Disruptions
- Author: Paul-François Tremlett
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2020
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781474272575, 9781350376496, 1350376493, 1474272576
- Resource ID: LLS:9781474272575
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-04-11T20:51:03Z
Paul-François Tremlett is Lecturer in Religious Studies & Director of Research Degrees (Arts), The Open University, UK. He is the author of Religion and the Discourse on Modernity (2008, Bloomsbury) and Levi-Strauss on Religion (2008).