Theology and genealogies of religious studies

In its relatively short life, the discipline of religious studies has issued several challenges to theology. The currency of genealogical strategies in the study of religion changes the nature of the disciplinary contest because these strategies challenge both disciplines to account for their normative dimensions. In this article, I show how different scholars and theologians typically negotiate the relationship between theology and genealogies of religion by closing off historicist inquiries in directions that either reduce or preserve the analytic value of the discourses of religion. These two options (either/or) cross disciplinary boundaries and relativize matters of belief and unbelief. Drawing on Robert Orsi’s work, I argue for a third option, which opens the study of religion and theology to competing presences, and distinguishes, as Bruno Latour does, the procedures of multiplying networks of actors from composing a common world. This third option suggests a freer, more collaborative vision of academic life.