Inside, Outside and the Space in-between: Territories and Boundaries in the Study of Religion

Authors

  • KIM KNOTT University of Leeds

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33356/temenos.4597

Abstract

Insider/outsider issues are of central importance for the definitions of religion and for the identity of religious groups, for the subjectivity and relationships of their adherents, for methodological issues within the study of religions and for the relationship between non-theological and thological studies of religion. Conceptions of 'inside', 'outside' and 'boundary', the emotions surrounding them, their origins in the social relations of body, family and strangers, and the metaphors used to depict and manage them all provide important insights for thinking about religions, how they are studies and by whom. A discussion of socio-spatial and cognitive linguistic theories of categorisation, containment and boundary-making is followed by several case studies in which territories and boundaries are explored with reference to the relationship between 'religion' and 'magic' in medieval Europe, the Enlightenment construction of 'religion', 'religions' and 'non-religion', and briefly, the disciplinary engagement of religious studies and theology. The application of the concept of the 'sacred' to these boundaries and the spaces they produce is considered.

Downloads

Published

2008-01-01

How to Cite

KNOTT, K. (2008). Inside, Outside and the Space in-between: Territories and Boundaries in the Study of Religion. Temenos - Nordic Journal for the Study of Religion, 44(1). https://doi.org/10.33356/temenos.4597

Issue

Vol. 44 No. 1 (2008)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2008 Temenos - Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 Unported License.

Author's Guarantee

  • The Author acknowledges that the Work will be publicly accessible on the Internet and that such access will be free of charge for the readers.
  • The Author guarantees that the Work is her/his original work that has not been published before and cannot be construed as copying or plagiarism. Furthermore, the Author confirms that the Work contains no statement that is unlawful, defamatory or abusive or in any way infringes the rights of others.
  • The Author confirms that she/he has secured all written permissions needed for the reproduction in the Publication of any material created by a third party.

User Rights

Under the CC BY 4.0 license, the Author/s and users are free to:

  • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially,
  • However, the Work must be attributed to the original Author and source of publication.

The license of the published metadata is Creative Commons CCO 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)

Author Rights

The Authors maintain the right to:

  • copyright, and other proprietary rights relating to the Work,
  • the right to use the substance of the Work in future own works,
  • the right to self-archiving/parallel publishing (publisher's PDF allowed).

Rights of Publisher

  • The Publisher reserves the right to make such editorial changes as may be necessary to make the Work suitable for publication in the publication, e.g. style of punctuation, spelling, headings and the like.
  • The Publisher will publish the Work if the editorial process is successfully completed and reserves the right not to proceed with publication for whatever reason.
  • The publication entitles the author to no royalties or other fees. This agreement will be governed by the laws of Finland.