Under Non-Western Eyes: Towards a Sociology of Religion from Other Points of View

The sociology of religion has unsurprisingly modeled its core understanding of religion on Western Christianity. What would the discipline look like, had it arisen in another cultural milieu?

This lecture suggests three alternate visions, based in neo-Confucianism, in 14th-century North African Islam, and in Navajo worldview.  Of each, it asks what this vision enables us to see about Western religion that we currently ignore.

Jim Spickard is professor of sociology at the University of Redlands in southern California. He has published extensively on non-Western social theories, on religious experience, on the ethnographic study of religion, and on religion's role in the contemporary world.

The lecture is open for all to attend.

For further information contact Professor Margit Warburg (warburg@hum.ku.dk).