| Popis: |
In the last few decades, several academic fields have begun to devote attention to an analysis of their respective critical terms and concepts. Publishers including the University of Chicago Press and Routledge have initiated entire book series on ‘critical terms’ within various fields, and a number of volumes along these lines have been produced. This genre of critical-reflective scholarship on key terms first emerged within the academic domains of arts and literature, but was soon followed by volumes devoted to the study of religion, particular religious traditions, and other fields. The present volume seeks to add to this existing scholarship on analytical concepts; it presents studies on a selection of categories that have been recurrent in the religious discourses of China. It is thus part of an attempt to start a new detailed and critical vocabulary, one that is grounded in religious and intellectual history, and that helps facilitate the analysis of contemporary religious phenomena in China. This volume further builds on – and seeks to integrate – recent scholarship that has also assessed values and ideas, both those central to Chinese religious culture and those imported from other cultural contexts. The ever-increasing number of published studies on Chinese religions (and religion in China) has created an urgent need for us to deepen our discussion about the field. This applies not only to the topics of study methodologies and research foci, which we mainly discuss in Volume I of this series, but also of the key categories and values that constitute the conceptual framework of the religious landscape in China. This volume takes as its focus one set of important concepts in Chinese religions, examining their intellectual histories within religious communities and among scholars in related academic fields. Methodologically, this volume also connects to the ideaof ‘conceptual history’ (better known as Begriffsgeschichte) and the pioneering theoretical studies by Reinhart Koselleck, which are also addressed critically; some authors in this volume refer directly to this trend of scholarship. |
