The study of American religion: looming through the glim

• Published in: Religion (London. 1971) 2012-07, Vol.42 (3), p.425-437
• Main Author: Callahan, Richard J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 19th century; American religions; Expansion; Geography; Ideology; lived religion; Methodology; oceanic studies; Popular culture; Protestantism; Racism; Religion; Religious studies; Social networks; Texts; U.S.A
• ISSN: 0048-721X; 1096-1151
• DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2012.681874

The study of American religion has been expanding to include new perspectives, previously neglected characters, and new geographic insights, driven by critical reflection on the assumptions and ideologies that historically have shaped the field, such as its focus on institutions, doctrines, and texts, its nationalistic westward-expansion historical narrative, and its Protestant biases. The past two decades have seen illuminating work emerge on race and gender, popular culture, class, and the marketplace. But we need to push beyond filling in gaps in the historical record to engage methodological and theoretical concerns in the academic study of religion. Exploring the development of theories of religion in the context of global networks of exchange shaped by 19 th -century seafarers is one example of how Tom Tweed's recent call in this journal for a geographic and temporal expansion of the study of religion in America might raise new questions and perspectives for the field.