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Jonathan Z. Smith (1938-2017) was unquestionably one of the most important and influential voices of critical reflection within the academic study of religion in the last century. His work explored the nature and history of religious phenomena across cultures-from ancient Jewish practices to Maori cults, from early Christianity to mass suicide in the twentieth century-while critiquing the assumptions underlying the very category of "religion."
This important volume offers the first full critical assessment of the influence of Jonathan Z. Smith's thought on the subject of religion. Christopher I. Lehrich systematically examines and develops a critical overview that will assist others in engaging more fully with Smith's scholarship.
This book is an essential reading for students and scholars interested in the work of Jonathan Z. Smith as well as the history of religion more broadly.
List of contents
Introduction 1. Biography 2. No data for religion: classification and definition 3. Magic rather than science: comparison 4. Laboratories for comparison: founders and traditions 5. An enterprise undertaken in bad faith: disciplines and professions 6. What’s the difference?: toward reconstruction Epilogue
About the author
Christopher I. Lehrich is the author of The Language of Demons and Angels and The Occult Mind and the editor of On Teaching Religion: Essays by Jonathan Z. Smith. He was formerly Vice President of the North American Association for the Study of Religion.
Summary
Jonathan Z. Smith (1938-2017) was unquestionably one of the most important and influential voices of critical reflection within the academic study of religion in the last century. This important volume offers the first full critical assessment of the influence of Jonathan Z. Smith’s thought on the subject of religion.
