ABSTRACT

Orientalism and Religion offers us a timely discussion of the implications of contemporary post-colonial theory for the study of religion. Richard King examines the way in which notions such as mysticism, religion, Hinduism and Buddhism are taken for granted. He shows us how religion needs to be reinterpreted along the lines of cultural studies. Drawing on a variety of post-structuralist and post-colonial thinkers, such as Foucault, Gadamer, Said, and Spivak, King provides us with a challenging series of reflections on the nature of Religious Studies and Indology.

chapter |6 pages

Introduction

Changing the subject

chapter 1|28 pages

The power of definition

A genealogy of the idea of ‘the mystical'

chapter 2|27 pages

Disciplining religion

chapter 6|25 pages

‘Mystic Hinduism'

Vedānta and the politics of representation

chapter 8|26 pages

The politics of privatization

Indian religion and the study of mysticism

chapter 9|32 pages

Beyond Orientalism?

Religion and comparativism in a postcolonial era