This workshop intends to tackle a recent disciplinary divide in the study of religion: that of cognitive vs. cultural-interpretive approaches to religion. This debate, ultimately, reveals the renewed urge to discuss issues of methodology and heuristics in social sciences. We propose to tackle this by exploring a theme that may incorporate both heuristics: the pragmatic dimensions of religious transmission. We suggest that this can be done through an investigation along three axes of religious action: discipline, aesthetics and imagination.

For this exploratory workshop (understood as an informal roundtable) we welcome scholars working in the anthropology of religion and interested in these theoretical issues. Using our own case studies as examples, we intend to present and submit to discussion a theoretical proposal regarding ‘religious pragmatics' and the politics of religious transmission, based on the three axes mentioned above. We hope to promote a lively debate on the limits and potential of such a proposal.

If you are interested in participating, contact Ruy Blanes (ruy.blanes@gmail.com) for more information.

Organisation:
Ruy Llera Blanes (ICS, Portugal)
Arnaud Halloy (Univ. Nice, France)
Vlad Naumescu (CEU, Budapest, Hungary)