09/07/2025 08:30
- 10:45
HALL: Seminar Room 02
Proponent:
Bollini M.,
Favaretto G.
Chair:
Sabatini R.
Speaker:
Bollini M.,
Denzey Lewis N.,
Favaretto G.
This panel examines how the scholar's understanding of the historical nature of knowledge influences their work in the study of religion. The imperative to 'always historicize,' as famously urged by Fredric Jameson, has often encountered several obstacles in this context. Indeed, the Western episteme's inclination for universalistic and meta-historical concepts, coupled with the de-historicizing qualities often ascribed to its object, has made the task of historicization particularly complex for scholars of religion. The reflexive examination of the categories scholars employ then becomes essential. Without such reflexivity, one runs the risk of running into the contradiction of looking at historical materials through the lens of ahistorical theoretical frameworks and methodological tools. However, even though greater attention toward the historicity of our enterprise has been a common point of emphasis, what is to be historicized and how this should be done remain open questions that have been taken in an array of different directions. This panel provides a platform in which these diverse possibilities can be explored, showing how a reflexive stance on historicization can operate at multiple levels of inquiry, from questioning the most abstract and analytic categories to the examination of those concepts pertaining to specific historical contexts.
Hoping to foster a stimulating exchange on the challenges and opportunities surrounding the issue of historicization in the study of religion, we warmly invite participants across disciplines to engage in this conversation and explore its implications for contemporary scholarship.