Theory for Religious Studies

Routledge proudly announces theory4, a new series that presents concise overviews of the major theorists, written with a particular discipline in mind. Theory is now part of every discipline's set of tools; these volumes are tailored to the needs of students and scholars in a given field. Focusing on the great theoretical figures since the end of the nineteenth century, each volume will contain twenty to thirty entries. Each entry will give the reader a brief description of that thinker's ideas and crucial innovations in light of a specific discipline, along with a highly selected list of recommended primary and secondary readings. The inaugural volume, Theory for Religious Studies, will be followed by volumes in history, art, film, music, and other disciplines. Theory for Religious Studies presents the key theoretical influences on religious studies since the 1960s - an essential guide to the figures and ideas animating religious studies today. Drawing on their complementary knowledge of Eastern and Western religious traditions, William Deal and Timothy Beal begin with four foundational figures - Marx, Nietzsche, Saussure, and Freud - and go on to provide guided introductions to Althusser, Bakhtin, Barthes, Bataille, Baudrillard, Benjamin, Bourdieu, Butler, Cixous, Deleuze and Guattari, Derrida, Foucault, Gadamer, Irigaray, Kristeva, Lacan, Lefebvre, Levinas, Lyotard, Merleau-Ponty, Said, Spivak, White, Williams, and Zizek. Brisk, thoughtful, and engaging, this will be an essential first volume for anyone at work in religious studies today.