Religion and Modernity PhD

[JDD]

It goes by different names, but most schools call it Religion and Modernity. My question is: how does one prepare for Ph.D studies in this concentration? Does each school have its own list of requirements? Whereas biblical studies or history programs have very clear-cut guidelines, it appears as though this field is a free-for-all. I'm wondering how I might best orient my Masters studies to increase my chances of attending a TT Ph.D for Religion and Modernity. Any advice?

[sacklunch]

Unfortunately, this isn't the best forum for those interests (Marx- may chime in here?). I suggest you contact current doctoral students (not professors; their responses will be general, if they say anything) in programs of interest and ask these very questions. Because, as you say, what's expected is all over the map, you should only really take recs from those in the field who have made it into a program. 

[marXian]

I agree with both of you: People are all over the place under "Religion and Modernity."  But I think I can try and categorize the kinds of approaches to this subfield that I think are out there.

1. Religion and Modernity as Philosophy of Religion, 1650-1950

People like Mark Cladis and Thomas Lewis at Brown or Tom Carlson at UCSB would fall under this heading. They're interested in the ways that "religion" gets deployed and developed as a concept in concert with emerging "modern" ideas about knowledge, "spirit," liberalism, etc. Carlson is a Heidegger scholar primarily. Lewis is a Hegel scholar. Cladis is more interested in the emergence of "the academic study of religion" at the turn of the 20th century (he wrote the forward to the Oxford edition of Durkheims Elementary Forms of Religious Life.) In any case, the focus in these kinds of tracks tends to be on philosophy.

2. Religion and Modernity as Secular Studies or Anti-Secularization Thesis Studies

This is itself a really broad category, so I'll break it down a little further. There is significant overlap between the two sub points, which is why I'm including them together under this larger heading.

2.a Modernity and State Power

I took a course at my institution titled "Religion and Modernity" that was co-taught by a religious studies prof and poli sci prof that I think captures this trend really well. It was focused completely on the ways in which "religion" is deployed as a category for disciplining colonized "savages" into liberal subjects of the democratic state. For example, part this disciplining could be defining religion in such a way that it excludes those groups that threaten the state's power as "superstition" or "cult" and, therefore, those groups are not protected under liberal democracy's "freedom of religion." An analysis of this necessarily includes a critique of "the secular" as a concept, i.e. as ultimately a product of Protestant Christianity, a critique that's been in fashion in religious studies for the last 25 years or so but is probably waning a bit. I think Jason Josephson-Storm's work on this is really interesting (though he doesn't advise doctoral students). The Invention of Religion in Japan takes the critique of secularism in some different directions. Winnie Sullivan at Indiana is another person who comes to mind doing this sort of work. Robert Orsi and Elizabeth Shakman Hurd at Northwestern also have interests here.

2.b. The Myth of the Secular

I seperated this from the previous category because here I think the focus is less on states and sovereignty and more on the discourses of academia and the emergence of academic disciplines as "secular." Cladis at Brown could probably also fit here. Josephson-Storm also belongs here with his second book The Myth of Disenchantment. The main argument in this line of thought is that contemporary academics tell themselves a story about the Enlightenment being the moment where we were emancipated from the chains of religion and became free to pursue purely secular lines of inquiry but that this story is actually false when you examine the lives and interests of the major champions of this narrative. Josephson-Storm's book, for example, is an intellectual history from about Francis Bacon to the mid-20th century that shows the deep ties to magical thinking, occult practices, etc. that engulfed these figures. People working here are sort of doing a mix of philosophy and intellectual history, discourse analysis, etc.

Of course within any of these you'll find people who are doing all kinds of different projects methodologically speaking. I have many friends in my program who would consider themselves historians or Americanists who are definitely doing projects that would fit in 2a. My program doesn't have a "religion and modernity" track--their presence in the department is a product of the faculty that we have or had when they were applying. Hope that helps.

[TigerByTheTail]

Hi JDD,

While I'm not familiar with any degrees out there right now specifically for Religion and Modernity, the University of Southern California used to have a three-tiered PhD program (since discontinued) involving, I think, sociology, philosophy, and religion. This tends toward my own interests in religion and postmodernism. I am presently completing an MA in Christian Apologetics (2019) and am considering pursuing an MA or MA/PhD in Philosophy. I see you've applied to various MDiv programs. This will certainly get you pointed in the right direction, just be aware you may lack the philosophical training to apply to a straight out philosophy PhD program afterwards. (You may study modernity as a component of your theology classes, particularly when studying church history, but you most likely will not be studying the structure of classical philosophical thought and how we came to be we are where we are today.)

Question. Where you would like to teach or do research—i.e., a secular or a religious institution—may impact your goals. Have you considered pursuing Philosophy of Religion as your PhD? Keep in mind that some MDivs offer areas concentration, such as in Christian Philosophy or apologetics, and those areas might transfer well into Phil. of Religion.

Check with the schools you are looking into for their recommendations. Don't be afraid to reach out to program directors or professors with similar interests as yours. (I've had positive responses and it has been even recommended to me.) So long as you keep your inquiry concise, a lot of professors will respond to emails. It's good for business, and it's good for the reputation of the school to recruit students interested in what they have to teach.

[JDD]

So it sounds like the concentration, at least in religious studies departments, is a catch all. Good to know and thanks for everyone's contributions. If any current PhD students happen to see this - please feel free to weigh in.