Significations: Signs, Symbols, and Images in the Interpretation of Religion
by Charles H. Long
Book Description:
Significations is a sustained criticism of several major
approaches (phenomenological, historical, theological) and pre-suppositions
(“shadows of the discipline”) which make up some of the work of religious
studies in the United States. Within this critical spirit, Long attempts (1) a
reevaluation of some of the basic issues forming the study of religion in
America; (2) an outline of a hermeneutics of conquest and colonialism generated
during the formation of the social and symbolic order called the “New
World;” and (3) a critique of the categories of civil religion, innocence, and
theology from the perspective of the black experience and the experience of
colonized peoples.
Charles H. Long speaks to the general meaning of religion in history and culture, and specifically about African religion in the Atlantic world, from a unique perspective. He participated in establishing the first curriculum for the study of religion at the University of Chicago. Through his teaching at the University of Chicago, the University of North Carolina, Duke University and Syracuse University, and a rich and distinguished list of publications, he has influenced three generations of Historians of Religion and African-American Studies.
Editorial Reviews:
 | "In exploring the meaning of
religious meanings, Charles Long has put us in touch with the religious
significance of our world by mapping its vast and unfathomable oceans, by
charting the relations of human contact and exchange, conquest and
colonization, materiality and opacity, representation and interpretation,
identity and difference, and many other features of modernity that have all
been mediated by vast bodies of water . . . has directed our attention to
global oceanic relations that have produced profound local effects,
especially in the formation of America. Significations is a
book for thinking with, thinking through, and thinking about thinking in the
study of religion." -David Chidester, Professor of Comparative Religion, University of Capetown |
| "Significations, a landmark in
the History of Religions, will remain a durable classic in the discipline
for a long time to come. The beauty of the book, in part, lies in
Charles Long's ability to draw immensely from African American and
Indigenous traditions and his personal experiences, to provide theoretical
insights into issues of meanings and significance of religion in our
contemporary world. This book is certainly one of the most original
and provocative texts in Religious Studies available to us today." -Jacob Olupona, Professor, African American and African Studies; Chair, Religious Studies Program, University of California, Davis. |