The Realist Discursive Study of Religion

Abstract

Abstract Filip Rasmussen (2024) argues that the discursive study of religion is misunderstood when one assumes that it focuses only on discourse, ignoring material entities and forces. A discursive approach, he proposes, need not deny the existence or the effects of the material world, and so it is not in conflict with, for example, a critical realist approach to social theory that seeks to explain social behavior in terms of material mechanisms. Rasmussen’s synthesizing position gives us an opportunity to consider the relationship between the apparently rival theories of the discursive approach and critical realism – and, in particular, the relationship between discourse and the material realities in the world that do not depend on discourse for their existence or powers. My view is that Rasmussen is right and that a discursive approach combined with critical realism gives us the best account of forms of life, like religions, that combine discursive and nondiscursive elements. This paper therefore argues for the coherence of a realist discursive study of religion.