Oliver Freiberger, Considering Comparison: A Method for Religious Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019)
In Considering Comparisons, Oliver Freiberger reflects on what comparison means for the study of religion in and shows how comparison can be used as a method without falling into traps of decontextualization, essentialization, and universalization.
The book was the subject of an Author-Meets-Critics panel at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Dec. 8, 2020, convened by David Freidenreich. The panelists were Barbara Holdrege, Francis Clooney, Robert Smid, Catherine Cornille, Florence Pasche-Guignard, and Kathryn McClymond.
The journal Method & Theory in the Study of Religion organized a review symposium on Considering Comparison and Bruce Lincoln’s book Apples and Oranges (2018), published in vol. 32.4–5 (2020). The reviewers were Craig Prentiss, Leslie Dorrough Smith, Mitsutoshi Horii, Seth Schermerhorn, Rachel Gordan, Robert Yelle.
Freiberger was also was included in the same edition in response.
Read the articles here.
(with special attention to Oliver Freiberger, “Comparison Considered: Some Methodological Responses.” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 32.4–5 (2020): 495–508.)
Oliver Freiberger is Professor of Asian Studies and Religious Studies at the University of Texas.
