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  "publishedAt": "2000-01-01T00:00:00.000Z",
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  "textContent": "Raschke - Para/theology - JCRT 2.1 \n\nPara/theology: The Study of Religion and the Science of the Negative\n\nCarl A. Raschke  \nUniversity of Denver\n\n> \"It's a matter of God.\"  \n> \\--Jacques Derrida\n\n  \n\n> Can there be a \"science of religion,\" as the nineteenth century yearned for?\n> \n> Is there indeed a bona fide _Religionswissenschaft_ that compasses and comprehends the whole of what Roman civilization identified as the _religiones_?\n> \n> What would such a \"science\" of religion involve?\n> \n> Can there ever be a \"religiology\" in the same sense there has been for some time a sociology, or an anthropology, or a psychology?\n> \n> Does the subject matter that goes by the name of _religio_ offer itself to the same sort of discursive expansion and methodological execution as the _bios_ of biology?\n> \n> If a \"religiology\" were discernible, how would it actually push forward?\n\nContrary to positivist trends in the so-called \"social sciences\" over the last quarter century, an integral science of religion would require that any theoretical assessment of the _religiones_ be anchored in a formal structure of inquiry, experimentation, and demonstration. Such a formalism has always seemed alien to the study of religion. Ever since Roman classical authors profiled the _religiones_ as \"cultic responsibilities,\" as dark and termagant mysteries impenetrable to the gaze of reason, the idea of a \"scientific\" resolution of the issue has remain essentially problematic.\n\n  \n\nNotes\n\n  \n\n> Carl A. Raschke is professor of religious studies at the University of Denver and senior editor of the Journal for Religious and Cultural Theory. His major books include _The End of Theology_ (The Davies Group, 2000), _Fire and Roses: Postmodernity and the Thought of the Body_ (SUNY 1996), _The Engendering God_ (Westminster Press, 1995), _Painted Black_ (Harper Collins, 1990), _Theological Thinking_ (Scholars Press, 1988). He is the author of over 200 popular and scholarly articles on subjects ranging from postmodern religious thought to computer-mediated education to new religious movements. He is formerly president of the Rocky Mountain-Great Plains Region of the American Academy of Religion and an editor of several series with the American Academy of Religion. He is also a well-known national media personality.\n\n  \n\n> \n\n  *\n\n 2000 Carl A. Raschke. All rights reserved.  \nUpdated 07/28/21.   \nhttp://jcrt.org/archives/02.1/raschke/\n\n---\n\n The word _religiones_ was frequently used by the Roman writers to describe the secret ceremonies and guarded mysteries of the Druids. For works that discuss the Roman view of _religiones_ in this manner as shadowy activities that go on in impenetrable woods, see Peter B. Ellis, _The Druids_ (Grand Rapids MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1995), pp. 58-9. See also Nora Chadwick, _The Celts_ (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1966).\n\n I am of course using the term \"deontology\" here not in its conventional philosophical manner as a form of ethical reasoning, but in the more literal sense as it sums up the method of deconstruction, that is, as an internal critique of ontological thought.\n\n Victor Taylor, _Para/Inquiry_ (New York: Routledge, 2000), p. 3.\n\n _Para/Inquiry_, p. 17.\n\n Jacques Derrida, \"Of An Apocalyptic Tone Newly Adopted in Philosophy,\" trans. John P. Leavey, Jr., in Harold Coward and Toby Foshay, _Derrida and Negative Theology_ (Albany NY: State University of New York Press, 1992), p. 36.\n\n \"Of An Apocalyptic Tone,\" p. 53.\n\n Jacques Derrida, \"Post-Scriptum,\" in _Derrida and Negative Theology_, p. 289.\n\n \"Post-Scriptum,\" p. 299.\n\n Mark Taylor, _About Religion_ (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), p. 40.\n\n Mark Taylor, \"nO nOt nO\", in _Derrida and Negative Theology_, p. 175.\n\n\n _About Religion_, pp. 40-1.\n\n\n Mark Taylor, \"Paralectics,\" in Robert P. Scharlemann (ed.), _On the Other: Dialogue and/or Dialectics_ (Lanham MD: University Press of America, 1991), p. 29.\n\n\n \"Paralectics,\" p. 30.\n\n\n Russ McCutcheon, _Manufacturing Religion: The Discourse on Sui Generis Religion and the Politics of Nostalgia_ (New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997).\n\n\n Jonathan Z. Smith, _To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual_ (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), pp. 101-2.\n\n\n _To Take Place,_ p. 110.\n\n\n _To Take Place_, p. 105.\n\n\n Jonathan Z. Smith, _Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown_ (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), p. 43.",
  "title": "Para/Theology: the Study of Religion and the Science of the Negative"
}