Filling in the Cracks with Resin: A Response to John Burris' "text and Context in the Study of Religion"

Abstract

I am grateful to the editors of MTSR for inviting a reply to John Burris' recent article (2003). Because David Chidester's Savage Systems (1996) was published after the manuscript for Manufacturing Religion (1997) had been submitted to the press in late-1995, I am pleased that Burris juxtaposes these two books, for I think that they have some important things in common, not least of which is the manner in which both squarely place the study of religion into a geo-political context. Moreover, I think it sensible to identify the influence that some of Ivan Strenski's work had on my thinking at a formative stage in its development, notably his use of the in context method in his Four Theories of Myth in Twentieth-Century History (1987). But at some points Chidester and I diverge, I think, although not necessarily be cause I emphasize text whereas he emphasizes context, as Burris argues. And, because of the rather harsh criticisms that Strenski has leveled at the work of those who focus on the category religion— e.g., Gary Lease, Tim Fitzgerald, and myself—I think it unwise to place too much emphasis on those points where our works appear to converge, despite both of us being concerned with contextualizing theories and theorists of religion.1 And despite being flattered to find