Synopses & Reviews
In Religious Affects Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the notion that religion is inextricably linked to language and belief, proposing instead that it is primarily driven by affects. Drawing on affect theory, evolutionary biology, and poststructuralist theory, Schaefer builds on the recent materialist shift in religious studies to relocate religious practices in the affective realmandmdash;an insight that helps us better understand how religion is lived in conjunction with systems of power. To demonstrate religionand#39;s animality and how it works affectively, Schaefer turns to a series of case studies, including the documentary Jesus Camp and contemporary American Islamophobia. Placing affect theory in conversation with post-Darwinian evolutionary theory, Schaefer explores the extent to which nonhuman animals have the capacity to practice religion, linking human forms of religion and power through a new analysis of the chimpanzee waterfall dance as observed by Jane Goodall. In this compelling case for the use of affect theory in religious studies, Schaefer provides a new model for mapping relations between religion, politics, species, globalization, secularlism, race, and ethics.and#160;
Review
andquot;Blending seamlessly the most fecund insights of affect theory, evolutionary biology, and critical animal studies, as well as feminist, queer, and postcolonial theories of materiality and embodiment, this bold and trenchant challenge to the ideology of human exceptionalism and its accompanying linguistic fallacyandmdash;the refusal to analyze religion and power outside of language and textsandmdash;offers a revolutionary and more capacious approach to religion that recovers its visceral intensity and animal generativity.andquot;and#160;
Review
andquot;Writing on the side of apes, awesome animality, and the creaturely dimensions of human religious experience, Donovan O. Schaefer powerfully and persuasively shows how much religious studies has to benefit from its encounter with affect theory and critical animal studies. Religious Affects is urgent, necessary, and utterly compelling reading.andquot;
Synopsis
Making a case for the use of affect theory in religious studies, Donovan O. Schaefer challenges the notion that religion is inextricably linked to language and cognition, contending instead that religion is primarily driven by affect and that non-human animals have the capacity to practice religion.
About the Author
Donovan O. Schaefer is Departmental Lecturer in Science and Religion at the University of Oxford.and#160;
Table of Contents
Acknowledgmentsand#160; ix
Introduction. Species, Religious Studies, and the Affective Turnand#160; 1
1. Religion, Language, and Affectand#160; 19
2. Intransigence: Power, Embodiment, and the Two Types of Affect Theoryand#160; 36
3. Teaching Religion, Emotion, and Global Cinemaand#160; 60
4. Compulsion: Affect, Desire, and Materialityand#160; 92
5. Savages: Ideology, Primatology, and Islamaphobiaand#160; 120
6. Accident: Animalism, Evolution, and Affective Economiesand#160; 147
7. A Theory of the Waterfall Dance: On Accident, Language, and Animal Religionand#160; 178
Conclusion. Under the Roseand#160; 206
Notesand#160; 219
Bibliographyand#160; 261
Index