What Is Religion?: The Unexplained Subject M Atter o F Religious Studies

M E T H O D AN D THEORY IN T H E STUDY METHOD
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OF R E L IG IO N 2 6 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6 R ELIG IO N
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What is Religion?
The Unexplained Subject M atter o f Religious Studies
Michael Berg under

w ts, University of Heidelberg, Kisselgasse 1, 69117 Heidelberg/Germany
michaeLbergunder@wts.uni-heidelberg.de
Abstract
Religious studies cannot agree on a common definition of its subject matter. To break
the impasse, important insights from recent discussions about post-foundational
political theory might be of some help. However, they can only be of benefit in con
versations about “religion” when the previous debate on the subject matter of religious
studies is framed slightly differently. This is done in the first part of the article. It is,
then, shown on closer inspection of past discussions on “religion” that a consensus-
capable, contemporary, everyday understanding of “religion,” here called Religion 2,
is assumed, though it remains unexplained and unreflected upon. The second part
of the article shows how Religion 2 can be newly conceptualized through the lens
of Ernesto Laclau’s political theory, combined with concepts from Judith Butler and
Michel Foucault, and how Religion 2 can be established as the historical subject mat
ter of religious studies. Though concrete historical reconstructions of Religion 2 always
remain contested, I argue that this does not prevent it from being generally accepted
as the subject matter of religious studies. The third part discusses the previous findings
in the light of postcolonial concerns about potential Eurocentrism in the concept of
“religion.” It is argued that Religion 2 has to be understood in a fully global perspective,
and, as a consequence, more research on the global religious history of the 19th and
20th centuries is urgently needed.
Translated from the German by Kenneth Fleming, as are previously untranslated quotations
from German or French. I also thankjorg Haustein, Rafael Klober and Ulrich Harlass for their
critical and constructive comments on previous versions of the article.
© K O N IN K L IJK E BR IL L NV, L E ID E N , 2 0 1 4 | D O I 1 0 .1 1 6 3 /1 5 7 0 0 6 8 2 -1 2 3 4 1 3 2 0
W H A T IS R E L I G I O N ? 247
Keywords
poststructuralism - Judith Butler - Ernesto Laclau - Benson Saler - Michel Foucault -

eurocentrism - western concept of religion - critical theory - postcolonialism -
definitions of religion - object of religious studies - historiography - discourse theory
Religious studies as "a study of religions academically legitimated in separate

departments in modern western research universities” (Martin/Wiebe 2012:
588) has “religion” as its self-declared object or subject matter. Defining “reli
gion” has been a major enterprise within the discipline right from the begin
ning, but, so far, without conclusive results. As Arthur L. Greil has put it: “It
seems safe to assert that no consensus on a definition of religion has been
reached and that no consensus is likely to be reached in the foreseeable future”
(Greil 2009:136). If it is unclear what “religion” is, then the question immedi
ately arises about the scope of religious studies. With no consensus on its object,
religious studies is challenged to provide a theoretical legitimation for its exis
tence as an independent academic discipline theoretically (Fitzgerald 2000).
As the debate appears to have reached an impasse, it might be useful to
look for alternative theoretical approaches. Critical theories based on post
structuralist and postcolonial approaches have already been broadly discussed
within religious studies (King 2013). However, their explanatory potential is
far from being fully explored. It will be argued that recent discussions about
post-foundational political theory by Ernesto Laclau, combined with certain
poststructuralist concepts of Judith Butler and Michel Foucault, enable a fresh
look at the object of religious studies. However, this is only possible, when
the debate about “religion” is framed slightly differently, which is done in the
first part of the article. The second part then suggests a theoretical framework
that establishes “religion” as the historical subject matter of religious studies.
The third part discusses the previous findings with regard to postcolonial con
cerns of potential Eurocentrism in the notion of “religion," and, in reply to this,
argues for a consistent global and historical perspective. The conclusion looks
very brietly at the potential consequences of these deliberations for empirical
research.
1 New Framing of an Old Debate
Previous debates have often conflated the search for definitions of the common
subject matter of religious studies with that for useful operational definitions
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248 B E RGUN DE R
of religion with regard to concrete empirical research questions. However, it

is helpful to differentiate between both perspectives, though they are closely
interrelated. The following discussion will solely focus on the first perspective.
There has been no lack of proposed solutions regarding the subject matter of
religious studies, with three main strategies having been pursued. Firstly, there
was and is the search for a scholarly definition of religion capable of com
manding a consensus, which could serve to determine the discipline’s subject
matter. Secondly, there are time and again voices, which have become louder,
that question if an explicit, definitive description of religion is needed in order
to constitute the discipline of religious studies. A third position demands the
complete forgoing of the concept of religion as an academic tool of analysis. It
pleads, as a consequence, for the dissolution of religious studies as an indepen
dent academic discipline. Although none of the three strategies have met with
anything near to a general acceptance within the discipline, there is, in my
view, something to learn when each of their stated arguments is more closely
considered. Revisiting these positions will show that they all, at least implicitly,
assume the existence of a specific kind of religion” that they don't explain nor
reflect upon any further. It will be argued that this unexplained “religion” is
the de facto subject matter of religious studies, and that it is time to consider
it more closely.
1.1 The Searchfo r a Definition of Religion Capable o f Consensus

Among the three strategies that have evolved to address the subject matter of
religious studies, the search for a definition of religion capable of command
ing a consensus is the most established. In every introduction to religious
studies the innumerable attempts to define “religion" are discussed, which are
mostly differentiated into essentialist and functionalist approaches. Alongside
this, there is a broad consensus in the research field that the classical defi
nitions of the past are not able to provide a basis today for the determina
tion of the discipline’s subject matter (McCutcheon 1997; McCutcheon 2001;
Dubuisson 2003; Fitzgerald 2007), regardless of sporadic, new proposals that
repeatedly move in this direction (e.g., Sundermeier 1999; Riesebrodt 2007;
Cox 2010).
1.1.1 Polythetic Definitions of Religion

In view of this unsatisfactory situation, increasingly in modern times, there
have been attempts at definitions of religion whose central features seek
to avoid being tied to normative theories, but rather move back to a formal
nominalism. Here, a new form of an essentialist definition of religion is to be
found, which avoids both the former philosophical-metaphysical foundations
M E T H O D AND T HEOR Y IN T H E STUDY OF R E L IG IO N 2 6 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

and most of the connected religious implications of the classic definitions.

An especially successful variant of this attempt to define anew is the polythetic
definition (Southwold 1978; Smith 1982:1-18; Wilson 1998; Saler 2000a; Kleine
2010). To date, the most comprehensive discussions of the research history and
conceptual elaboration of this approach have been provided by Benson Saler
(Saler 2000a; Saler 2008). Saler presents fifteen features of religion, in an addi
tive approach, that “consists of all the features that our cumulative scholarship
induces us to attribute to religion” (Saler 2008: 222). A key point is that not all
fifteen elements need apply to a phenomenon in order for it to be defined by
this designation of “religion.” Furthermore, the list is open, so that further ele
ments could be added from research, if so wished. The more elements that are
applicable, the more “typical” they are of this model of identified “religion.” For
Saler, then, religion is a graded category. Just as in a group of tall people there
are individuals of different size, or in a group of rich people there can be found
individuals of varying wealth, so there can be more or less of religion (Saler
2000a: xiii-xiv).
An example of such a polythetic definition is found in the biological praxis
of taxonomy, even though Wittgenstein’s talk of family resemblances, some
what mistakenly, is named as the origin (Needham 1975). The application of
this as an established formal method of classification in the natural sciences
is beyond question, though the criticism continually arises that casts doubts
as to if such an open definition can be helpful for concrete religious studies
research. Indeed, to my knowledge, there exists hardly any social-scientific or
historical research material in religion that attempts to productively make use
of a polythetic approach. A central problem is the lack of a clear demarcation
of what is not religion, because a graded category approach cannot provide
this (Lease 2000; Wiebe 2000).
The model displays a problem that features in all nominalist definitions.
While the older definitions were comprised of assumed basic characteristics
of religion, the nominalist definitions mostly only show that there are formal
possibilities, which are able to encompass such heterogeneous phenomena
like Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism in a definition. At this level of
the argument, however, it remains unexplained as to where the employed ele
ments receive their plausibility and, moreover, as to why it is at all meaningful
or necessary to pool these under a common category.
This basic arbitrariness and unexplained empirical reference of the defi
nition’s elements are, in polythetic approaches, averted mostly through the
establishment of certain prototypes. These prototypes are concrete exemplars
which, according to the judgment of the scholar, are considered especially
typical for the particular polythetic category. For Saler, “Judaism,” “Christianity”
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250 B E RGUNDER
and “Islam" serve as such exemplars which, in each case, satisfy all fifteen
elements. Even when Saler emphasises that it is not theoretically necessary,
these exemplars generate de facto the individual elements for the polythetic
definition, resulting in a structural circularity of the rationale.
Although “religion" is depicted here as a purely abstract and analytic-
polythetic category, it receives a specific empirical reference by means of the
prototype exemplars. This prevents a nominal arbitrariness in the defining of
religion. It is to be expected, then, that Saler would discuss and lay fully open
their construction.
Amazingly, it is exactly this that he does not do, rather the description of
the exemplars’ contents covers only a few pages and, in these, no secondary
literature of religious and historical significance is cited (Saler 200a: 208-212).
This is because Saler assumes a consensual understanding of religion that lies
concealed behind his prototypes, which is to be found in “western culture” and
in which “western" scholars of religious studies participate. This general and
self-evident understanding of religion, he holds, is at the same time so immedi
ate that it evades critical academic reflection.
It is remarkable, furthermore, that the detailed critical discussion of Saler
nowhere expressly criticises this central weakness of his approach, even where
it deals explicitly with his prototypes (Lease 2000:291; McCutcheon 2000:300-
301; Paden 2000: 307-308; Wiebe 2000: 318-319; Saler 2000b: 333). This postu
lated consensual understanding of religion from Saler, though, requires closer
analysis. It is a matter here, in my view, of the “unexplained religion” of reli
gious studies.
1.1.2 The “Unexplained Religion” of Religious Studies

As mentioned, for Saler “our most prototypical cases of religion” are “the
Western monotheisms,” by which are understood “Judaism," “Christianity” and
“Islam” (Saler 2000a: 225). The defined contents of these “Western monothe
isms” are directly assigned to the “western” anthropologist of religion and the
“western” scholar of religion as a part of the process of socialisation. This key
formative notion, together with that of a connected consensus of “many con
temporary academic students of religion,” brings Judaism and Christianity into
the stated prototypes, which provide the polythetic model with their empiri
cal reference (Saler 2000a: 199). Islam is added by Saler as a third prototypi
cal exemplar, since it is looked upon also as “fundamentally Western,” with its
“theologies,” “eschatologies” and “rituals,” as well as mentioned “personages,”
all standing in close relationship to Judaism and Christianity (Saler 2000a:
212). He combines these three prototypical exemplars together, then, as the
“Western monotheisms.”

WHAT IS RE LI GI ON? 251
The main problem is that Saler neither directly substantiates this forma
tive notion further nor clearly states which concrete tradition of Judaism,
Christianity or Islam he has in mind. Even the talk of “Western monotheisms,”
from the viewpoint of religious studies, is far from undisputed (Bergunder
2006). Only in one place does he speak of “the ‘Judaism’ and ‘Christianity’
described in textbooks in comparative religion” without, however, citing an
actual work (Saler 2000a: 212). This reference, though, shows that he brings
togetherjudaism, Christianity and Islam in a specific comparative religion per
spective. They are subject to the natural selfiascription of “religion.” Yet, this is
anything but natural, because central currents in Judaism (e.g., Kohen & Susser
2000), Christianity (e.g., Kraemer 1947) and Islam (e.g., Qutb 1981) expressly
refuse to be “religion.”
Because the researcher acquires the substantive contents of the prototypi
cal “Western monotheisms” directly through the process of socialisation, they
are not connected back to actual historical and discursive mediating agen
cies. They, thereby, evade verifiability and historical critique. Indeed, in one
place, Saler writes that he wants his definition, with regards to the contents of
Judaism and Christianity, to be understood likewise as polythetic (Saler 2000a:
209), in order to escape the criticism of an inappropriate standardization
of these religions. Yet, he leaves it here with this statement, not naming the
concrete prototypes for his polythetic definition, although his own approach
makes this compellingly necessary. It seems that he relies again here on a
direct, pre-reflective plausibility for his remarks.
In short, a general, consensus-capable, contemporary “western” under
standing of religion is provided here, which exists within and outside the
scholarly community. It possesses “an historical reality in Western experi
ences" (Saler 2000a: 256) and, thus, claims a strong empirical reference. Saler,
though, does not examine this phenomenon empirically, but leaves it to the
direct experience of the researcher while, at the same time, claiming that it is
intersubjectively identical with the experience of other researchers. In view of
the central significance of this aspect for Saler’s approach, this lack of reflec
tion is astonishing.
It is fascinating that this general, yet unexplained, understanding of religion
is also continually drawn upon by classical definitions and their new formula
tions as a means of plausibility. Thus, at the beginning of the 20th century,
Buddhism was for William James a religion because it belonged to the “sys
tems of thought which the world usually calls religious” (James 1922: 31). In
reasoning for his definition’s criteria, he referred to “the usual associations of
the word ‘religion’ ” or what religion signifies “for common men” (James 1922:
37). Even James Leuba (Leuba 1912: 51)—from whom the legendary collation

252 BERGUNDER
of countless definitions of religion conies— in his critical discussion of the

different definitions of religion of his time, used the argum ent that “the
word ‘religion’ has, after all, a fairly well established m eaning” to which defi
nitions m ust be orientated. Similarly, in new definition proposals, which do
not proceed along a polythetic direction, this unexplained religion is used as a
means to argue plausibility (e.g., Riesebrodt 2007:116; Snoek 1999:328).
1.1.3 Explained and Unexplained Religion

It can be held that the previous definitions of religion, in particular the poly
thetic variant, know of two different kinds of “religion": explained and unex
plained. In w hat follows, these are described as “Religion 1” and “Religion 2.”The
“explained” Religion 1 is to be found in the explicit definitions of religion in the
field of religious studies and related academic disciplines. The “unexplained"
Religion 2, on the other hand, is a contemporary, everyday understanding of
religion. The praxis of defining shows, however, that Religion 2 is drawn on to
legitimate the plausibility of Religion 1. This is especially the case in polythetic
definitions of religion, where Religion 2 functions as a prototype. Religion 2
remains, nevertheless, largely unexplained and unexplored. However, in com
plete contrast to Religion 1, in regard to the features of its contents, it is widely
regarded as capable of consensus and goes largely undisputed.
The crucial point is that the unexplained, yet consensus-capable Religion 2
emerges in both the other main strategies that propose a solution to the ques
tion of the subject m atter in religious studies.
1.2 The Rejection o f an Explicit Definition o f Religion

The second main strategy bluntly questions the need for religious studies to
have its own defined subject matter. It denies, also, that any problem exists
with this. Representatives of this position are not always clearly identifiable
because, for the most part, they do not take part in debates about defining
the subject m atter of religious studies. W hen they do explicitly speak out,
then it is to say that just as literary scholars seldom define “literature,” schol
ars of music seldom “music,” and art historians seldom “art,” there exists no
real need for religious studies to determ ine a commonly agreeable definition
of “religion” (Kippenberg 1983; Tweed 2006: 29-33). This position, of course,
is intellectually unsatisfactory, because no academic discipline can easily
hold an open claim to an abnegation of reflection. Furthermore, it is notice
able that, in the other nam ed disciplines, there are very vigorous debates
about definitions of their subject matter; they, also, have not been able to
defer the question concerning a commonly acceptable definition of their
subject matter.
M E T H O D AND T HEORY IN T H E STUDY OF RE L I GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

Strictly speaking, the rejection of an explicit definition of the subject matter

does not challenge the fact that an academic discipline needs its own particu
lar subject matter. Rather, it contests that it must be explicitly defined from
within. This means, however, in consequence, nothing more than “religion,” as
well as “literature,” “music” and “art,” all come to learn of their subject matter
from outside their respective academic areas of research (Riipke 2007: 26-27).
Only in this way does the rejection of an explicit definition of the subject mat
ter become a plausible position in academic discourse.
The interesting point, therefore, is that those who plead that religious stud
ies does not need to define its subject matter, de facto from this assume that the
unexplained Religion 2 can depict a suitable subject matter for the discipline.
1.3 Dispensing with, the Concept o f Religion

A third segment of religious studies scholars want to explicitly dispense with
the concept of religion. This position, for example, has been vehemently rep
resented by Timothy Fitzgerald. “Religion,” he says, is “thoroughly imbued with
Judeo-Christian monotheistic associations and world religions ecumenism”
and inseparably bound to a Christian theological agenda (Fitzgerald 2000:
19). For this reason, “religion” is not meaningfully employable for other non-
Christian contexts. In the course of colonialism it was newly “invented” for the
colonised societies and then forced upon colonial cultures (Fitzgerald 2000:
8-9, 29-30). Fitzgerald pleads that “religion,” as an independent academic cat
egory, be forsaken and be integrated into the concept of culture. He does not
stand alone with this demand (Sabatucci 2000; Dubuisson 2003). Indeed, the
question arises as to why the discipline should hold on to a concept that only
spreads problems, and whose use supports the extremely dubious and irra
tional politicising of public knowledge (McCutcheon 1997; McCutcheon 2001).
As a consequence, this is connected with a rejection of religious studies as an
independent discipline (Fitzgerald 2000:19-20) and, so, the question about the
subject matter is no longer relevant.
This argument contains the positivist-inclining dictum that holds to the pos
sibility of the autonomy of religious studies to define its own subject matter,
i.e., attempting to define Religion 1 completely independently from Religion 2.
This approach—mostly implicitly presupposed— underlies, to a great extent,
the previously outlined discussions concerning the concept of religion. It is
raised, generally, with reference to the American scholar of religion, Jonathan
Z. Smith (Smith 1982: xi), who once wrote:
There is no data for religion. Religion is solely the creation of the scholar’s
study. It is created for the scholar’s analytic purposes by his imaginative
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254 BE RGUNDER
acts of comparison and generalization. Religion has no independent

existence apart from the academy.
The most fundamental objection against Fitzgerald’s proposal was the impli
cation that religious studies has autonom ous access to its subject matter. The
critics argued that it is beyond the power of religious studies to renounce a
concept of religion. Thus, David Chidester wrote:
After reviewing the history of their colonial production and reproduction

on contested frontiers, we might happily abandon religion and religions
as terms of analysis if we were not, as the result of that very history, stuck
with them. (Chidester 1996:259)
With a similar choice of words, Richard King argued
The idea that there are ‘religions’ out there in the real world is such an
embedded part of our social imaginary that it seems premature to talk of
abandoning the notion altogether. (King 2004:256-7)
In brief, these critics question if religious studies possesses autonomous

authority over its own subject m atter but argue that “religion is a word within
language whose use is not determ ined by scholarship but by the wider lin
guistic com m unity” (Flood 1999: 63). It is noteworthy that Timothy Fitzgerald
has apparently modified his position recently and also argued in exactly the
same direction: "the proper study of ‘religion’ is the category itself in its dis
cursive relationship to ‘state,’ ‘politics,’ ‘secular,’ ‘sacred,’ ‘profane,’ ‘civility,’ and
‘barbarity’ ” (Fitzgerald 2007: 312). Even Russell McCutcheon sometimes hints
at the importance of Religion 2. Of course, he is a strong advocate of Jonathan
Z. Smith’s approach and sees “religion” as “an aspect identified, for the pur
pose of our study, by the definition we as scholars choose to use, a definition
that suits our purposes and our curiosities” (McCutcheon 2007a: 71). However,
he describes the way of getting to a scholarly definition as a “work from the
ground up: to take contextually and historically specific words and the con
cepts they entail, and retool them for use in studying diverse historical and
geographic settings” (McCutcheon 2007a: 19), and he speaks of the need to
explore the “the history of ‘religion’ ’’ (McCutcheon 2007a: 15-19). With refer
ence to Tomoko Masuzawa, he can even suggest, that “we ought to consider
studying why naming part of the social world as religion has caught on so
widely among diverse hum an communities, each with their own prior systems
of self-designation, in just the past few hundred years” (McCutcheon 2007b:

976). This clearly acknowledges the importance of Religion 2 for getting to

Religion 1.
1.4 Unexplained Religion as the Undisclosed Subject Matter o f Religious

Studies
From the debate on the abolition of the concept of religion, it is particularly
evident that religious studies cannot decree autonomously on its subject mat
ter. Religion 1remains, when it wants to be plausible, bound to Religion 2.
Classical definitions of religion are today discredited because they are
shaped by theological, philosophical or ideological interests, which reli
gious studies no longer wants to reify. The attempt to evade these implica
tions by seeking shelter in nominalist, polythetic approaches, in effect, leads
to Religion 2 acting as the prototype that makes definition criteria plausible.
Those who hold that religious studies does not require an explicit subject mat
ter to ground its discipline also implicitly assume that Religion 2 is its actual
object. Additionally, the discussion about the demand for a rejection of the
concept of religion has shown that religious studies remains firmly attached
to Religion 2.
Furthermore, it has become clear that Religion 2 remains largely unex
plained and unexplored in religious studies discussions. At the same time,
though, the possibility, in principle, of it providing a consensual definition and
its meaning for the designation of the subject matter of religious studies is
generally acknowledged.
Is the unexplained Religion 2 the undisclosed subject matter of religious
studies? This is exactly what Arthur Greil (2009) has recently claimed with
out, though, working it out in any detail. And this is what is suggested in this
article: Religion 2 determines the object of religious studies. Since it has, up
to this point, remained largely unexplained, there has been little discussion
within religious studies on how to conduct research on it. Religion 2 is not
described by means of an analytical definition but must be referred to, through
the contemporary understanding of "religion,” as a “historical” subject matter.
“Historical" is understood here as concerning a concrete and unique phenom
enon in space and time, and not simply in the general sense of “pertaining to
an event in the past.”The previously outlined discussion shows that the follow
ing three aspects demand comprehensive explanation in any future endeavour
to study Religion 2:
1. The historicising of “religion”: In the previous discussion, Religion 2 has

been roughly described as a contemporary, everyday understanding.
How can a reconstruction of this everyday understanding of “religion”

2 56 BERGUNDER
and its historical genesis be appropriately undertaken? This historicis-

ing of “religion” is, in my view, the most complex and difficult of the
three questions. The previous focus on Religion 1, as the only possibil
ity of defining the subject matter, was based on an academic theory
pledging that religious studies has full autonomy over its subject matter.
The critical discussion, concerning the concealed legitimising function
of Religion 2, has shown, though, that this is a fiction. This then points to
the need for a theoretical foundation in which historical subject matters
can be assigned to academic disciplines.
2. “Religion” and religious studies: The criticism that many of the past defini
tions of religion pursue their own religious self-interests— but also more
generally the previously described unexplained relationship between
Religion 1 and Religion 2— requires a reflection on the connection and
the possible interaction between “religion," religious self-interest, and
religious studies.
3. “Religion" beyond Eurocentrism: A reason for the lack of interest in
Religion 2 from religious studies is because it is seen as a supposedly
common “European” perception, which appears to stand diametri
cally opposed to the traditional, universal, and comparative concerns
of religious studies. Thus the question of Eurocentrism requires critical
reflection.
Different theoretical approaches are conceivable in order to deal with these

three aspects and to work out Religion 2 as the subject matter of religious
studies. The proposed conceptualisation that follows is not the only possible
theoretical approach in providing a comprehensive reflection of this problem
area. Whereas the previous working out of Religion 2 sought to be a consensus-
aimed reconstruction of the state of research, the following theoretical expli
cation of Religion 2 is understood as only one of many possible. However, its
suitability is proven only if it can satisfactory answer the three above aspects.
In my view, this is indispensable for any determination of Religion 2 as the
subject matter of religious studies.
The first two aspects are more theoretical, and will be dealt with in the next
chapter with reference to the philosophical approaches of Ernesto Laclau,
Judith Butler and Michel Foucault. The third aspect, as it relates to broader
historiographical and postcolonial debates, will be discussed separately in the
third part of the article.
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2 “Religion” as the Historical Subject Matter of Religious Studies
2.1 The Historicising o f “Religion”

It might not be self-evident why the historicising of “religion” should be a com
plex theoretical issue, as histories of ideas and concepts have been established
fields of research for a long time. But they are not undisputed. Their inherent
theoretical problems become especially relevant with regard to “religion."
To make this case, the following argument will be of two parts. Firstly, I will
explore the existing conceptual histories of “religion” and discuss their theo
retical and historiographical deficiencies. Secondly, I will go on to suggest a
“history of names” as an alternative that can overcome these deficiencies. The
theoretical foundations and practical implications of this alternative approach
will be worked out step by step.
2.1.1 History of the Concept

There are three modern, extensive investigations into the history of “religion"
published, and these are written in German and French. In common, they the-
matise the history of “religion" as a “conceptual history” and, at the same time,
come to similar results. Michel Despland, a Canadian theologian and philoso
pher of religion, in his depiction of the concept of religion from antiquity until
the 19th century, comes to the conclusion that a gradual conceptual clarifica
tion took place during this time. It reached its highpoint in the “first classics
of the philosophy of religion" (Despland 1979: 188)— Kant, Schleiermacher,
Schelling and Hegel—and this is where Despland also ends his own por
trayal. Equally, the German Protestant theologian, Falk Wagner, sees with the
“Enlightenment” and with “Herder, Schleiermacher and Hegel... a new foun
dation of the concept of religion, regarded as constitutive up to the present"
(Wagner 1991:16). This laid open a structure of “religious consciousness” that
was eventually taken up in a “theory of the absolute” (Wagner 1991:555-589).
The depictions of Despland and Wagner are greatly outshone, in terms of
their main points and philosophical concern, by the monumental four volume
work of the German Catholic theologian Ernst Feil, Religio: Die Geschichte
eines neuzeitlichen Grundbegriffs (1986-2007). Feil arrived at the conclu
sion that, in the European philosophy and theology of antiquity up to in the
18th century, the word “religion" (lat. religio), for the most part, stood for a con
cept that comprised a certain way of acting. This concept of religion depicted
“the scrupulous diligence..., to carry out those acts that were owed to a God
(as a superior) because of the cardinal virtue o f‘justitia’ ” (Feil 1986-2007: iv.14).
Besides this, he identified less specific ways of using “religion”; for example, as
a synonym for the four “laws” (lat. lex) or “sects” (lat. secta) of the Christians,

258 BE RGUNDER
Jews, Muslims, and Heathen. Similar to Despland and Wagner, he considered

the middle of the 18th century to represent “a significant break” (Feil 1986-2007:
iv.14). “Religion” now received a completely new understanding, becoming the
name of a “modern basic concept” (neuzeitlicher Grundbegriff) that has held
sway since the 19th century. Feil identified this with a Protestant theological
variant of an understanding of religion of inwardness (Feil 1986-2007:1.25-29),
attributed to Schleiermacher (Feil 1986-2007: iv.880). However, Feil brought
his description to an end with the 19th century. He presents no sources for
the period beyond the early 19th century, so the postulated dominance of his
“modern basic concept” of "religion” in modern times remains historically
unsubstantiated.
The marking of a modern turning point in the above three histories of
the “religion” concept is widely shared in religious studies (e.g., Smith 1963;
Harrison 1990; McCutcheon 1997; Feil 2000: Dubuisson 2003; Bergunder 2009;
Strouma 2010). However, at the same time, it is clear that no substantial his
torical proofs have been presented for viewing the religious developments of
the 19th and 20th centuries as only a footnote to the decisive courses taken
in the 18th and early 19th centuries. In such a perspective, the totally new
localisations, since the second-half of the 19th century, provided by natural
science, the discovery of the history of religions, and globalization in the con
text of colonialism, come hardly into view (Masuzawa 2005). This is also the
case with the rise of “spirituality” in the 20th century (Carrette and King 2005),
etc. “Religion,” with reference to the supposed “origin" of the modern concept
in the European context of the 18th and early 19th centuries, by definition, is
determined by particular European thinking. Accordingly, Feil held firmly: “In
other languages and cultures there is no fitting equivalent [for religion].” (Feil
1986-2007: iv.893).
Such an approach leads to a neglect of developments since the 19th century,
because it teleologically privileges the "origin.” For the historicising of a con
temporary everyday understanding of "religion,” such an approach is inap
propriate. The same applies to the tendency of this conceptual history to
refer foremost to philosophical texts and, de facto, to continue the practice
of the classical history of ideas to rely on privileged canonical sources (Drews,
Gerhard et al. 1985: 273-276; Schottler 1988:174). Also, the general ontology of
this conceptual history approach requires critical consideration. The continen
tal European history of the concept, towards which the three treatises orien
tate themselves, claims essentially to differentiate between word, concept and
the thing referred to (e.g., Koselleck 1989; Meier 1971). However, no theoretical
justification is given for this tripartite ontology. This insufficient philosophi
cal grounding has, rightly, been heavily criticised (Hoelscher 1979; Maset 2002:
M E T H O D AND THEORY IN T H E STUDY OF RE L IG IO N 2 6 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

161-202; Busse 2003). For “religion," the acceptance of this approach means that
the thing that comes to expression in the concept of religion can concretely be
named as the actual subject matter of the concept’s history. This leads eventu
ally, however, back again to analytical definitions of religion (Religion 1) as the
starting point of the conceptual history’s investigation. With this backdrop to
the above sketched theoretical discussion of religious studies, such a history of
the concept can never render a definition of Religion 2 as the historical subject
matter of religious studies. It should be pointed out that this conceptual his
tory approach (Begriffsgeschichte) is indeed a typical continental European
discipline. However, the Anglophone equivalent, the so-called Cambridge
School of Intellectual History (Bavaj 2010) contains, in similar vein, an unsat
isfactory theoretical foundation (Bevir 2009; Lane 2012), so it is not possible to
meaningfully fall hack upon this approach as a possible alternative. Moreover,
up to now, this school has written no monograph on the history of religion.
2.1.2 History of the Name

In this area of discussion, the need arises to explain comprehensively the theo
retical prerequisites for a meaningful definition of “religion” as the historical
subject matter of religious studies. It must be ensured that no encouragement
is given to any hidden teleology or privileging of the “origin.” At the same time,
it needs to be explained how a contemporary understanding is able to act as
the starting point of the historicising process. Finally, a comprehensive philos
ophy of language explanation is required, which can provide an alternative to
the assumption of the discussed conceptual history approach of differentiat
ing between word, concept and thing, because it, in the end, opens the door to
the re-essentialising of religion. A “naming history” of “religion," as put forward
below, can achieve all of this and more.
2.1.2.1 Difference and the System’s Limit

The starting point is Derrida’s critique of the notion that our concepts are
based on an actual invariable reference, a reality outside the language sign
system in which they are expressed, in other words: the “thing” of conceptual
history. Through this, Derrida says, concepts are ascribed a “transcendental
signified” and a metaphysics is assumed whose actual character of reference
remains unclear and is simply claimed. The idealist-essentialist epistemology
that is necessary for this is questionable and the complexity of a discursive
production of the concept is neglected and underestimated. Derrida demands,
therefore, that the notion of such a transcendental signified, which allegedly
guarantees the meaning of the signifier, should be given up. At the same time,
however, it follows that “the absence of the transcendental signified extends

26o BE RGUNDER
the domain and the play of signification infinitely’’ (Derrida 1972: 354). The
meaning of linguistic signs comes no more from within themselves, but occurs
through the difference to other signs, which continues as an unending game
that is open and cannot form any fixed differential relations, since the signs
possess no centre due to differential referring.
However, it still remains unclear as to how certainties can be expressed
in the face of the differentiation of signs; and, at the same time, there exists
the logical problem that only from something specific can there be differen
tiation, because if all were difference then the difference would end being
different (Frank 1983: 550-558). This dilemma is connected to a basic assump
tion of poststructuralism, which goes back to the Cours de linguistique
generale, a work by Ferdinand de Saussure posthumously published in 1916.
Its concern was the foundation of structuralism in the philosophy of language.
The idea of the differentiality of signs goes back to Saussure, which is also con
stitutive for Derrida. Saussure postulated that the value of a sign was defined
through its difference to other signs. At the same time, however, he held that
this differentiality was given limits and structured through a language “sys
tem,” with “terms all acting in solidarity” (Saussure 1995:159 [231]). In contrast
to Saussure and structuralism, Derrida vehemently rejected the assumption of
such a system, because a limit would be imposed from outside the language.
Since this language system, according to Saussure, is the guarantor of fixing
meaning, there exists, through its loss, the described problem of how certain
ties can ever be shown in view of the differentiality of signs (Laclau 1996:52).
In answer, Derrida speaks mostly about the “trace” that is present throughout
the existing play of difference, because each current sign contains also the
characteristics of past relations with other signs (Lagemann 2001: 128-140).
Ernest Laclau, in part in working with Chantal Mouffe, has attempted to grasp
this problem comprehensively and systematically. Along with Saussure, he
accepts the necessity of a system’s limit on the fixing of meaning. Like Derrida,
however, he rejects any external determination of the discourse, as contained
in the assumption of a language system. Laclau holds that a discourse remains
always incompletable, but admits that a discourse without limits cannot be
described as a discourse, because “the very possibility of signification is the
system, and the very possibility of the system is the possibility of its limits”
(Laclau 1994:168).
Laclau concludes that the incompletable discourse strives always, at the
same time, for its limits:
The impossibility of an ultimate fixity of meaning implies that there have

to be partial fixations— otherwise, the very flow of differences would be
M E T H O D AND T HEORY IN T HE STUDY OF RE L I GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

W H A T IS R E L I G I O N ? 26l
impossible. Even in order to differ, to subvert meaning, there has to be a

meaning— Any discourse is constituted as an attem pt to dom inate the
field of discursivity, to arrest the flow of differences, to construct a centre.
(Laclau & Mouffe 2001:112)
Laclau bases his reflections here on the insights of the French psychoanalyst
Jacques Lacan, calling a discourse w ithout fixity of meaning a “discourse of the
psychotic” (Laclau & Mouffe 2001:112). Following Lacan, he speaks of “nodal
points,” which are always provisional and partial, but able to effect a specific
fixing of the discourse. These “nodal points," however, are not easy to grasp.
Due to the inconcludable nature of a discourse, it cannot designate its own
limits and, at the same time, there is also no possibility of demarcating limits
by means of a discursive exterior, because this is no more available after the
rejection of a transcendental signified (Laclau 1994: 168). Laclau represents,
therefore, the thesis that these limits can show up only as an “interruption” or
“breakdown” of the signifying processes:
Thus, we are left with the paradoxical situation that what constitutes the
condition of possibility of a signifying system— its limits— is also what
constitutes its condition of impossibility— a blockage of the continuous
expansion of the process of signification. (Laclau 1994:168)
In order to be able to designate system limits, in this sense, they must be antag
onistic or exclusive: for a simple difference cannot place boundaries around a
system of differences, because it cannot be unhinged from the unending play
of difference.
A certain challenge is depicted here to consider the drawing up of bound
aries as “interruption,” “breakdown,” or “subversion” of the unending play of
difference. Laclau does this by means of counterposing the logic of differ
ence, which asserts signification, with “the logic of the subversion of differ
ences,” which he characterises as a “logic of equivalence” (Laclau & Mouffe
2001:128-129; Laclau 1994:170-171). The “collapse” of the difference brings for
ward a “logic of equivalence,” which marks out a system limit of the discourse.
This logic of equivalence does not lead to a positive identity between signi-
fiers, because the signifiers that are made equivalent are and remain differ
ent from each other, and their differentiality cannot be abolished through the
logic of equivalence. Their differentiality does not allow that an im manent
limit of the system, which has been determ ined by the signification itself,
comes into being in a discourse. As said before, also an external system limit
can hardly be postulated, because this requires a “transcendental” signified.

262 B E RGUNDER
The denial of a transcendental signified, however, is the central thesis of this

philosophy of language. The return to a transcendental signified would be a
return to an essentialist fixing of meaning. The equivalence in this approach,
therefore, can only be depicted as “subverting the differential character” of the
signifiers (Laclau & Mouffe 2001:128). If, however, the equivalence setting of
all differences cannot take place on the basis of a general positive signified of
all participating signifiers— rather only through the “interruption” of the dif
ference— then, the question arises in a particular way as to how the necessary
system limit, which represents the prerequisite for every fixity of meaning, can
at all take place.
Laclau attempts, as mentioned, to solve the problem by postulating a sys
tem limit that is exclusive and antagonistic. It is this excluding limit that holds
together a discourse and makes possible the fixity of meaning. “It is only that
exclusion that grounds the system as such" (Laclau 1994: 169), because the
excluding limit ensures the produced equivalence. The crucial point is that
this exclusivity is a negative operation and so no positive signified, of all partic
ipating signifiers, is assumed. In reference to equivalence, Laclau speaks only
of a “principle of positivity” or, in allusion to Hegel, of a “pure being” (Laclau
1994:169-170). Similarly, “what is beyond the frontier of exclusion," he explains,
becomes merely a “pure negativity,” because “in order to be signifiers of the
excluded... the various excluded categories have to cancel their differences
through the formation of a chain of equivalences of that which the system
demonises in order to signify itself” (Laclau 1994:170). For the fixing of a dis
course, positive and negative equivalential chains collapse and form constant
oppositions so that the “production of meanings” takes place through “opposi
tion generating inclusion and exclusion mechanisms” (Nehring 2006:820).
2.1.2.2 Empty Signifier as the Key to a General Ontology o f Being

How, though, are these equivalential chains concretely held together?
According to Laclau, this happens through signifiers that have been emptied
of differentiality and, therefore, are described as “empty signifiers.” This “emp
tying” can happen with any signifier and, for this reason, there is no privileging
of particular signifiers as especially predestined for emptying. The formation
of empty signifiers is through and through a contingent occurrence. At the
same time, empty signifiers are “always constitutively inadequate” for their
task and so their durability is threatened, because the “emptying” of the sig
nifier never succeeds fully in holding together the chain of equivalence, and
its particular difference remains as a potential, threatening the stability of the
equivalential chain. In this way, every occasional fixing of a discourse through
M E T H O D AND THEO RY IN T H E STUDY OF R E LIG IO N 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

empty signifiers is “the result... of the unstable compromise between equiva

lence and difference” (Laclau 1994: 171), and remains thereby also contested
and contentious.
The point of this approach is that it dismisses every essentialist foundation
of a discourse’s limits without in principle, however, claiming illimitability,
arbitrariness or blurring of attributes of meaning. In every discourse, fixings
of meaning are necessarily undertaken all the time, which show clear limits
that exclude other meanings. These fixings of meaning or closing of the dis
course are necessary and in no way arbitrary! Yet, they are at the same time
contingent or, to say more precisely, their existence and demarcation are not
justified through an external reference or transcendental signified. This miss
ing external reference however, in view of the differentiality of the sign, makes
it in principle impossible to fix definitive meanings. Therefore, Laclau speaks
of a necessary but ultimately impossible closure of the discourse through
empty signifiers.
Laclau developed this formal model in order to overcome the economic
essentialism of Marxism and carry it over into a post-foundationalist political
theory (Marchart 2010). Not for nothing is this approach held within politi
cal studies “as one of the most influential contributions to political theory of
the present” (Nonhoff 2007: 7). In his writings, Laclau thematised his theory
exclusively in regard to its implications for political studies, appearing not to
interest himself more closely in its general ontological status. Hence, its use in
the area of religious studies needs to be justified. Oliver Marchart, however, has
correctly stressed that Laclau’s signification theory depicts, in a “strict philo
sophical” sense, a “theory of the constitution of being in its entirety” (Marchart
2010:214-216; Marchart 2007). Its particular attractiveness for reception in reli
gious studies is that it wants to be both a “political ontology” and “ontology
of power,” where every fixity of meaning is understood as part of a conflictive
social process of negotiation (Nehring 2006). In connection with this, it needs
to be clearly pointed out, as a consequence of this approach, that discourses
are understood as social practices having material effects and are not to be
misunderstood as something purely intellectual or pertaining to ideas. The
usual, but unsatisfactory, dichotomising into discursive and non-discursive,
into thought and reality, or into foundation and superstructure etc. is over
come in this concept of discourse. Indeed, language cannot function as a rep
resentative of something outside its self, but it does not naturally follow that
a world outside language is denied (Laclau & Mouffe 2001:108; Sarasin 2003:
100-121). Empty signifiers mark a social praxis. The fixing of a system of dif
ferences through an empty signifier is not a pure phenomenon of language;

264 BE RGUN DER
rather, it penetrates “the entire material density of the multifarious institu

tions, rituals and practices through which a discursive formation is structured”
(Laclau & Mouffe 2001:109).
2.1.2.3 The Name Instead o f the Concept

The “empty signifier” can be directly taken up in service of a consistent and
non-essentialist historicising of “religion." Of particular interest is that a form
of fixing of meaning can be attributed to the “empty signifier" and this offers a
comprehensive alternative, in terms of philosophy of language, to the classical
triad of word, concept and thing, as in the conceptual history approach men
tioned. So, Laclau stated that “the empty signifier... cannot be a concept, for
the relation it establishes with the instances it regroups is not one of concep
tual subsumption” (Laclau 2006:108). Instead, the empty signifier is “a name”
(Laclau 2006:109). This name does not stand for a concept, because the equiv-
alential chain, which the empty signifier holds together, is heterogeneous and
is only defined through the negative antagonistic limit, not through common
descriptive features as determining circumstances. Following a correspond
ing interpretation of Slavoj Zizek, Laclau took over the anti-descriptivism of
Saul Kripke, where names do not refer to things that share their described
qualities (descriptivism). Instead, according to Kripke, the names of things are
ordered through a “primal baptism” (Zizek 2008: 95-144; Laclau 2005:101-110).
Anti-descriptivism, then, emancipates the signifiers from their bond to a signi
fied, because naming and describing are separated out. Zizek’s thesis is that
the defining of the name’s contents depicts the result of the name-giving; it is
“the retroactive effect of naming itself” (Laclau 2005:103). Thus, the naming is
a pure, present articulation that refers to nothing behind or in front of itself. It
is a newly created act, which does not express the proper usage of a linguistic
term. For that reason it is often denoted by the rhetorical figure of a catachre-
sis (lat. abusio), however, thereby denying that a “proper” usage of a linguistic
term is at all possible (Posselt 2005).
If the naming is not a linguistic wording of a conceptual content, which it
intersubjectively legitimates, then its intersubjective plausibility can only be
secured by means of people identifying with the name. Laclau speaks about
the naming creating a “people” and, thus, it is understood as a social act. This
is connected to the name as an empty signifier, which carries out a hegemonic
closure of the discourse by means of establishing an equivalential relation.
Each of the particular signifiers that are in an equivalential relation stands for
so-called “unsatisfied demands,”which are aggregated in the name as an empty
signifier. The driving force by which these unsatisfied demands strive towards

a common closure is heavily psychologised by Laclau. This is not unproblem

atic, but there is not the space here to discuss it further (Stavrakakis 2007).
For Laclau, naming is connected with a “radical investment,” which lends it
an affective character. This affect is based on an unfulfilled longing for the uni-
versalising of individual, unfulfilled demands (Laclau 2005:101-117). What he
eventually wants to make clear here is that naming is to be equated with iden
tity formation. There is no expression of social identities in the name; rather,
they are created in the name. Through naming, individuals receive their social
identity, become social subjects, and as a “people” are bound to a common iden
tity. The acting subjects are, then, the retroactive effect of naming and not their
prior cause. Thus, naming is constitutive for all social negotiation processes.
For this reason, it is for Laclau, to be equated with the political. Naming is asso
ciated with the exercise of power. The antagonism, which limits the equivalen-
tial chain, necessarily excludes another, categorically, and is thus a mechanism
of power (Marchart 2010:216): "The constitution of a social identity is an act of
power a n d ... identity as such is power” (Laclau 1990:31). The effects of power,
in this understanding, do not exteriorly define the discourse, but they are
something that must be revealed within the concrete discursive articulation.
The formation of equivalential chains through naming is, for Laclau, a com
plex process of struggle for political hegemony. Strictly speaking, it concerns
two empty signifiers, “one at each side of the antagonistic frontier” (Laclau
2006; 108). It follows, in theory, that it always concerns two “names”— one for
the positive and the other for the negative equivalential chain—although the
second name only describes the negative antagonism, whose demarcating
makes possible the positive equivalential chain. Furthermore, the same name
can become the empty signifier of different equivalential chains, and so, in
that sense, it may float freely (Laclau 2005:139-156).
Even though, at first, this depicts a purely formal and abstract model, it can
be of direct benefit for the use of the name “religion.” Talal Asad, in his much
discussed study about secularism, has brought to our attention that “the secu
lar” and “the religious" indeed do “overlap,” but that the one is not simply the
“opposite” of the other, both must be considered separately in their own right
(Asad 2003; 25). Unfortunately, he has not theoretically deepened this impor
tant thought. In Laclau’s model this would be immediately plausible. If “the
religious,” as an empty signifier, named the positive equivalential chain, and
“the secular,” the negative antagonistic limit of the exclusion, then it could be
reversed in a competing hegemonic closure. Then, “the secular” would form
the positive equivalential chain and “the religious” would be the purely nega
tive antagonistic limit. “The religious,” for its part, is only the negation of “the

266 BE RGUN DER
secular" and has, in this function, no positive meaning. The same signifiers,
then, have each a very different position in the fixing of meaning. “The reli
gious” and “the secular” would be free floating signifiers and not simply related
to each other as a contrasting pair as, for example, Fitzgerald claims (Fitzgerald
2007).
2.1.2.4 History o f the Name Instead of a History o f the Concept

Laclau’s concern is to show how political hegemony is produced, how the
political is necessarily registered in the social, and how every naming is a fun
damental political act, a discontinuous, newly-created and, at the same time,
contingent process, which carries out an actually impossible closure and, with
this, produces the social grouping and its identity. The political is here extri
cated from the narrowness of politics and is registered for society as a possible
course of action, without falling back into essentialist reasoning.
This political intention does not lie behind the deliberations on the histori-
cisation of “religion” described here. However, a promising option is to replace
the conceptual history with a history of the “name.” This is possible through
a change of perspective, in which the naming obtains a history. Up till now,
with Laclau, we can explain the name “religion” only in its discontinuous and
purely present formation, but not in terms of its continuity and history. Laclau
has slight interest in the historical dimension of his theory. It only appears
where he discusses the social in opposition to the political, and also when he
takes and reinterprets the concept pair of sedimentation/reactivation from
Edmund Husserl:
The way I am presenting the argument is that we live in a world of sedi

mented social practices. The moment of reactivation consists not in going
to an original founding moment, as in Husserl, but to an original contin
gent decision through which the social was instituted. This moment of
the institution of the social through contingent decisions is what I call
“the political” (Laclau in Worsham & Olson 1999:18).
While Laclau is principally interested in how the social can again become
political, the historical view addresses more the process through which the
political becomes settled in social affairs (sedimented) and obtains a socio-
institutional existence. Laclau gives only a few indications as to how he imag
ines this sedimentation process. He highlights the moment of objectivization
and the simultaneous concealment of the fact that this is about “fossilized
practices of power” (Marchart 2010:204):

Insofar as an act of institution has been successful, a “forgetting of the

origins” tends to occur; the system of possible alternatives tends to van
ish and the traces of the original contingency to fade. In this way, the
instituted tends to assume the form of a mere objective presence. This is
the m om ent of sedim entation. It is im portant to realize that this fading
entails a concealm ent (Laclau 1990:34).
It, however, has not yet been said how the sedim entation of the name, that
is its objectivization and historical formation, is to be more precisely imag
ined. Here, Judith Butler’s concept of “performativity” can offer some insight.
Butler shares with Laclau, to a great extent, the same poststructuralist basic
assumptions, which she has productively made use of in the area of gender
studies (Marchart 1998; Butler, Laclau et al. 2000; Distelhorst 2007). The nam
ing as “primal baptism” is a hegemonial but, at the same time, contingent act,
which is necessary to create meaning. This meaning exists, at first, only as a pure
presence in the articulation, and the only possibility of continuity, and with it
powerful historicity, is through a repetition of the same naming and its equival-
ential chain. This act of repetition, which is strictly speaking always a new cre
ation (it can never be identical with itself), is that which, according to Butler, is
sedimented. This “sedim ented iterability” effects “performativity.” Butler bor
rows the concept of performativity from the linguistic theory of Austin and
understands language generally as an act (Rolf 2009: 213-221), which is also
for Laclau a central concern. She receives Austin, however, through Derrida,
who linked the success of a speech act or performative utterance in that “its
form ulation... repeat a ‘coded’ or iterable statem ent” and is “identifiable in a
way as ‘citation’ ” (Derrida 1982: 326; Butler 1997: 51; Butler 2011:172). Derrida’s
thesis of iterability and citationality of linguistic signs led Butler to say that
“words engage in actions or constitute themselves a kind of ac tio n ... because
they draw upon and reengage conventions which have gained their power
precisely through a sedim ented iterability” (Butler 1995: 134; Kramer 2001:
251 A. 34). The performative force of the names can be deduced from
their citationality:
If a performative provisionally succeeds... then it is ... only because

the action echoes prior actions, and accumulates the force of authority
through the repetition or citation of a prior, authoritative set of practices
(Butler 2011:172).
With this a historicising of names and thus a naming history are conceivable:
M E T H O D AND THEORY IN T HE STUDY OF RELI GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

268 BERGUNDER
In this sense, no term or statement can function performatively without

the accumulating and dissimulating historicity of force. This view of per-
formativity implies that discourse has a history that not only precedes
but conditions its contemporary usages... Historicity is a term which
directly implies the constitutive character of history in discursive prac
tice, that is, a condition in which a "practice” could not exist apart from
the sedimentation of conventions by which it is produced and becomes
legible (Butler 2011:172,214 n. 7).
The citationality is concealed in the discourse and, through this, at the same
time, an objectivisation is achieved. In respect of this, performativity in Butler
connects seamlessly to Laclau. Butler, though, goes a step further, recognising
a process in the concealment and objectivisation through which, in discourse,
apparently unalterable material references are created—-signifiers—which
claim for themselves to refer to a real external. In this respect, performativity in
Butler explains how the notion of a transcendental signified comes about, the
critique of which is, as we saw above, the starting point of Derrida’s linguistic
philosophy. Butler argues:
Certain reiterative chains of discursive production are barely legible

as reiterations, for the effects they have materialized are those without
which no bearing in discourse can be taken. The power of discourse
to materialize its effects is thus consonant with the power of discourse to
circumscribe the domain of intelligibility (Butler 2011:139).
While the naming, as primal baptism, is a purely present hegemonic act,

the power dealings that come to expression therein reveal their social effect
through repetition, which sediments the names. The hegemonic closure,
which is bound with the primary baptism, is “secured” through the sedimented
name and materialises as a social “reality.” By this means, performative, power
ful names come into being that structure the social and act as reified, identifi-
catoiy, general terms. These general terms structure the social in such a way
that their contested character becomes obscure, and both their underlying
hegemonic closure and their excluding character are disguised.
Both Butler and Laclau strongly stress that sedimentation does not alter
the fact that the causative repetition depicts, in each case, a new creation or
catachresis. The repetition cannot possibly, therefore, be identical with itself
and, as re-signification, makes space for “transformation” (Butler 1997:150) or
generally for the political (Laclau). The social, according to Laclau, can never
entirely erase the political, which also applies the other way around.
M E T H O D AND T HEORY IN T H E STUDY OF RE LI GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

A comprehensive non-essentialist model is thus provided, which can be

used to research the contemporary, everyday understanding of “religion” and
its history. “Religion," indeed, is always only comprehensible in a concrete
articulation, which cannot be identical with any antecedent, but at the same
time it is a sedimented name. Through the notion of sedimentation, a con
sistent historicising of “religion” is possible and necessary. As a sedimented
name, we encounter “religion” as a real, existing, materialised phenomenon
that profoundly structures the social (Meyer 2012). This materialisation makes
it intelligible as to why Religion 2, also in unexplained form, can display
such a powerful and convincing effect as the implicit subject matter of reli
gious studies.
2.1.2.5 Naming History as Genealogy

For the designation of religion as the historical subject matter of religious
studies, it is vital to provide the sedimented name “religion” with a history.
In principle, this can only mean a retracing of the particular repetitions that
have produced the sedimentation. This is precisely the concern of genealogy,
as developed by Michel Foucault, following from Nietzsche, it is not surpris
ing, then, that Laclau and Butler refer explicitly to this genealogical approach
when they bring forward historical arguments (Laclau & Mouffe 2001: 7-8;
Butler 1999: 9). For a naming history of “religion,” therefore, genealogy comes
into consideration.
The orientation towards genealogy with Foucault stands in connection with
his definitive break with structuralism’s thought forms, which are still recog
nisable in L’archeologie du savoir (1969). In reaction to the May 1968 protests
in Paris, Foucault broke completely with structuralism and became a theoreti
cian of power (Brieler 1998: 237-270). A central component of this new orien
tation was genealogy as a new understanding of history, which he expressed
(Foucault 1977) with reference to Nietzsche’s Zur Genealogie der Moral (1887).
Foucault sharply and polemically criticised the alleged contemporary praxis
of historiography: this "pursuit of the origin” as “the site of truth,” that means
“an attempt to capture the exact essence of things, their purest possibilities,
and their carefully protected identities, because this search assumes the exis
tence of immobile forms that precede the external world of accident and
succession” (Foucault 1977: 142-143). The genealogist wishes rather to dispel
“the chimeras of the origin” and detach it from its underlying metaphysics
(Foucault 1977:144). The genealogist “listens to history” and finds that things
have “no essence”:
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270 B E RGUNDER
What is found at the historical beginning of things is not the inviolable

identity of their origin; it is the dissension of other things. It is disparity
(Foucault 1977:142).
Foucault censures the search for the origin because it promises a unity and
continuity of history that historical events themselves, in their disparity, can
not fulfil.
Historiography should also refrain from searching for an aim or telos, nor
presume a development according to historical laws. Genealogy concen
trates itself on “the singularity of events outside of any monotonous finality”
(Foucault 1977:139). It starts from the contingency of all historical events: “The
forces operating in history... respond to haphazard conflicts. They do not man
ifest the successive forms of a primordial intention and their attraction is not
that of a conclusion, for they always appear through the singular randomness
of events” (Foucault 1977:154-155). Haphazard does not mean, though, arbi
trary, because the “haphazard conflicts” are not “a struggle amongst equals,”
but rather a struggle of “domination” (Foucault 1977:150).
Along with the rejection of an origin and the repudiation of any teleology or
laws in history, Foucault reproaches, thirdly, the ruling historical scholarship,
that it denies its constitutive perspectivity:
Historians take unusual pains to erase the elements in their work which
reveal their grounding in a particular time and place, their preferences
in a controversy— the unavoidable obstacles of their passion (Foucault
1977:156)-
In contrast, Foucault demands that a genealogy always takes, as its starting

point, the here and now of the historian as the genealogy of one’s own knowl
edge. A direct leap into the past is not possible, rather it concerns “a genealogy
of history as the vertical projection of its position” (Foucault 1977:157).
The consequences of a genealogical approach for the historicising of “reli
gion” are considerable. The entry point can only be the contemporary everyday
understanding of “religion,” and in no way any supposed “origin” or “forerun
ner” in the past. The genealogical definition reverses, then, the process of the
chronological timeline and goes from the present into the past! Yet, also in
the present, the name “religion” is available to us only in a concrete articula
tion, which only comprises a diachronic perspective in so far as it is, at the
same time, a “citation.” This citation can be traced back to its derivation which
then, however, must be examined as a concrete articulation in its own right. Its

repeatability gains the linguistic sign, according to Derrida, through its capac
ity to be decontextualized, that is to say, through its release from any defined
context (Kramer 2001: 250). The reason for the continuity of meaning through
sedimentation lies in this capacity for decontextualization. Therefore, any cita
tion traced back to its derivation has to be recontextualized in the context of
this derivation, whereby discontinuity automatically comes to light. Hence,
the question regarding the emphasis on continuity and discontinuity through
the genealogy remains inevitably controversial, and refers back to the unavoid
able present perspectivity of the genealogical operation. This means that the
historiographical statement of a sedimentation is itself also a hegemonic clo
sure, in as far as the stated continuity is a retroactive result of the naming.
Nevertheless, the establishment of continuity is in no way arbitrary or purely
subjective, because its plausibility must be able to directly relate to the histori
cal sources.
It should be emphasized that genealogy is a theory and not a method.
Foucault has repeatedly stressed that genealogy does not in any way mean a
break with the established methods of historical scholarship; on the contrary,
it “demands relentless erudition” (Foucault 1977:140; Brieler 1998: 600).
Nonetheless, for concrete historical work it is a challenge to translate the
theoretical issues of genealogy into methodologically feasible research ques
tions. Two problem areas appear to me to be of particular importance. On
the one hand, it is practically impossible to trace all repetitions historically,
which automatically demands an enlarged screening for the establishment of
historical dependencies. A concrete, methodological implementation of the
genealogical approach could be reached, for example, by describing the main,
continuous, observed repetitions of the name “religion”— i.e., “religion" as a
sedimented name— as a discursive network, which 1 have proposed in other
places (Bergunder 2010a; Bergunder 2010b). In such a methodological usage of
the genealogical approach, by means of a network model, it must remain clear,
however, that no ordering categories with a reference external to the discourse
are permitted an introduction.
A second, more important methodological compromise, which the imple
mentation of the genealogical approach demands, consists of bending to
“scriptural inversion.” This formulation was coined by Michel de Certeau, who
characterised the following problem:
The first constraint of [historiographical] discourse consists in prescrib

ing for beginnings what is in reality a point of arrival, and even what
would be a vanishing point in research. While the latter begins in the

272 B E RGUNDER
currency of a certain social place and a certain conceptual or institu

tional apparatus, the exposition follows a chronological order. It takes the
oldest point as its beginning. (De Certeau 1988: 86)
So long as it remains clear that genealogy, through its enquiry into historical
events from the present, proceeds back into the past, then it can, in concrete
academic research, yield to historiographical conventions in order to remain
readable and widely acceptable (Haustein 2011: 248-260). It will then, at least
at first, to a great extent, be written in “mirror writing” (De Certeau 1988: 87),
so that its depiction follows the chronological course and scriptural inversion.
From the reflections presented here, there ensue considerable conse
quences for the manner of conceptualising the academic subject matter of
religious studies. As already mentioned, the question of the balance between
continuity and discontinuity remains inevitably controversial, but the histori
cal establishment of sedimentation is not by chance, because it is bound to the
interpretation of historical sources. According to the current state of research,
it scarcely makes sense to ascribe to today’s name “religion” a sedimentation
before the middle of the 19th century. In that time, the nomenclature of “reli
gion” took place, which produced new equivalential chains in the face of the
challenges of natural science and the discovery of religious history, as well as
globalisation in the context of colonialism, and which the present sedimented
name of "religion” still describes (Bayly 2004; Beyer 2006). However, this is an
assertion that is purely based on the interpretation of the respective historical
sources by current scholarship; it is subject to change as future research might,
and most likely will, suggest different assessments regarding continuity and
discontinuity. This is in no way meant to establish the 19th century as a histori
cal watershed that essentially defined religion once and for all.
If, in this way, the historical subject matter of religious studies is established,
which the contemporary standing of the discussion only traces back to the
19th century, then the question naturally arises, in what sense can older histori
cal phenomena be the topic of religious studies? Religious history before the
19th century, of course, remains the subject matter of religious studies, since
the present day “religions” must be researched in terms of the total history in
which they present themselves today. Only then can the genealogical praxis
reveal its critical potential. However, the conceptual starting point of any his
tory of religion, be it the 20th or 2nd century, is always the present-day under
standing of “religion” and the contemporary context of research. Within the
proposed approach here, there is no direct journey into the past. With allow
ance for this, though, a study of the Upanishads or the Pali Canon, etc., remains
an indispensable part of religious studies.

The actual problem cases concern phenomena that no longer exist today,
yet traditionally belong to the scope of religious studies. These are primarily
the so-called "religions of antiquity.” Here, though, it can also be argued that
the “religions of antiquity are not only relevant as the historical background
for the understanding of early Christianity, but indeed also for the understand
ing of European religious history” (Berner 2000:31). The ancient world remains,
then, for this reason alone, the subject matter of religious studies, because in
the overall course of the history of Christianity it was repeatedly interpreted
anew, as it was in the course of the history of Islam, esotericism, etc. In this
way, the ancient world is historically bound to present-day “religions.”
It can appear, here, as if a great part of the discipline’s traditional histori
cal subject matter can only be included in religious studies by means of a
workaround. However, this is not in any sense the case, because the study of
history, from the viewpoint of genealogical praxis, is the necessary condition
for the possibility of the disclosure of contingency and with it for critique.
Religious studies, therefore, is dependent on an operating history of religion
of “relentless erudition" (Foucault). There can, on the other hand, be no return
to definitions of religion, which originally justified the discipline’s traditional
subject matter. Ever since these came in for criticism, an intense discussion has
taken place about the pre-modern research areas of religious studies. Concepts
like “religions of antiquity,” “ancient religions” etc. have been radically ques
tioned, for some time, within the discipline (Riipke 2001: 9-45; Nongbri 2008).
The genealogical approach offers, then, a solution for an existing controversy
and does not create a new one.
2.2 “Religion’’and Religious Studies

The approach discussed here, concerning the historicising of “religion,”
assumes that religious studies was and is an important authority of articula
tion for the sedimentation of “religion.” That religious studies is itself part of
the history of religions is nowadays a widely accepted notion within the disci
pline. The problem becomes acute, though, as to how the difference between
“religion,” religious self-interest, and religious studies is to be appropriately
conceived (Martin/Wiebe 2012).
The reference to religious studies as an institutionalised academic disci
pline and its application of generally recognised academic methods is not
enough. Even then, religious biases could inform research questions and
research objectives. As the result of the controversies over the phenomenol
ogy of religion, many academics in the discipline want to be sure that reli
gious studies does not deliberately pursue particular “religious” biases and, of
course, vice versa, not an "anti-religious” agenda. The escape into attempts at

274 B E RGUNDER
nominalist definitions, outlined at the beginning, can also be viewed in con

nection with this. It is, in a certain way, an attempt to avoid any normative
academic rationale. This does not represent a viable option, not only because
of its explanatory weaknesses; this nominalism also can’t avoid certain norma
tive assumptions concerning reality (ontology), even if these are not disclosed
or are denied.
In this situation, it is important to clarify the normativity of the genealogical
praxis with regard to its ontology and its general research interest. The former
occurs in the framework of the discussion about the empty signifiers, as the
key point of a general ontology of being, because the genealogy is grounded
in the same poststructuralist basic assumptions. At this point, it is essential to
formulate the focal interests of genealogy. These are not meant, here, to be the
general research interests of religious studies overall, but they only concern the
establishment of the historical subject matter of “religion" through genealogy.
The general research interest advocated here is historical and was grasped
by the late Foucault as a “permanent critique of our historical era” (Foucault
2007b: 109). That means that it entails “a critique of what we are saying, think
ing, and doing, through a historical ontology of ourselves" (Foucault 2007b: 113).
Historical ontology is “critical ontology” (Foucault 2007b: 118), that is why its
general interest exists in the “critique” itself: “Critique is the movement by which
the subject gives himself the right to question truth on its effects of power and
question power on its discourses of truth” (Foucault 2007a: 47). In his notion of
critique, Foucault sees himself in the tradition of Kant and his understanding
of the Enlightenment (Hemminger 2004). “What Kant was describing as the
Aufklarung [Enlightenment] is very much what I was trying... to describe as
critique” (Foucault 2007a: 48). The critique, for Foucault, is an Enlightenment
“ethos,” which questions the power structures of present society. Genealogy
criticises the fossilised and concealed power practices, which have become
sedimented in the social. It reveals its historical development and, with it, its
contingency (Foucault 2007b: 114). Contingency does not mean either “chance”
or "arbitrariness”; rather the insight that what is, is not of necessity so. With
this, the power and might of sedimented names are not contested, which as
materialised references claim a necessary existence. The unveiling genealogy
shows only that the sedimented names cannot honour this claim of necessity,
because other historical courses would have been theoretically possible, and
the supposed historical continuity and unity of the defined contents of names
are foremost a retroactive result of the present naming.
The extent to which Foucault wants to tie his concept of critique to Kant
is also clear in the way in which the genealogical programme is formulated in
allusion to Kant’s three critical questions: “What can I know?” 2. “What ought

I to do?” 3. “What may I hope?” (Kant 1979: 818 [A805]). Foucault places these
three questions in a genealogical version:
How are we constituted as subjects of our own knowledge? How are

we constituted as subjects who exercise or submit to power relations?
How are we constituted as moral subjects of our own actions? (Foucault
2007b: 117)
It concerns working out knowledge and power, which “in the context of inter
actions and multiple strategies induce... singularities, fixed according to their
condition of acceptability” (Foucault 2007a: 66). As with Laclau and Butler,
the demonstration of these contingencies leads, at the same time, to “a field
of possibles, of openings, indecisions, reversals and possible dislocations”
(Foucault 2007a: 66). Critique, in Foucault’s understanding, has nothing to do
with the advocacy of postmodern arbitrariness, nor does it stand for relativ
ism, because it does not have its own position out of which a relativity of truths
could be meaningfully claimed. The insight into contingency opens up space
merely for transformations. It could be said, with Judith Butler, that in the cri
tique “one looks both for the conditions by which the object field is consti
tuted, but also for the limits of those conditions, the moment where they point
up their contingency and their transformability” (Butler 2002:222).
For the historicising of “religion,” a general research interest, informed by
the Enlightenment, is marked out here, which clearly differentiates religious
studies from “religion.” The genealogical designation of "religion” as the sub
ject matter of religious studies is not a simple historical description in which
historical development is assumed to exist and, thus, potentially affirmed.
The identified critique here, concerning the interests of religious studies in
defining its subject matter, has nothing to do, on the other hand, with the con
ventional “anti-religion” critique. The latter criticises religion as irrationality,
superstition, etc., in favour of rationality, science, etc. Foucault’s critique is
directed in equal measure towards all forms of metaphysical certainty, includ
ing the certainty of the anti-religion critique (Mas 2012).
3 “Religion” beyond Eurocentrism
As already elaborated, there is a discussion in contemporary religious studies

as to what extent the concept of “religion” is applicable to non-western con
texts. Religion 2 is considered here mostly as “a western folk concept” (Greil
2009), also as a “European invention” (Hauftig & Scherer 2003), or simply as a
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276 B E RGUN DE R
“European concept of religion." In place of “European," the words “western,”

“Christian” or also “western Christian,” etc., can be found, which certainly does
not contribute to any clarity in the argument.
From a genealogical perspective this talk of a “western concept of reli
gion” makes little sense, because all over the world today, outside Europe
and in all non-European languages, an established use of “religion” is to be
found (Peterson & Walhof 2002). The talk of a “European" or “western” con
cept of religion, then, is not due to its present day usage, but because of the
historical claim that “religion” has its “origin” in the West. The “chimeras of the
origin” are ruling undisturbed. Part of the idea of a European origin of “reli
gion” is a European claim of ownership. The coupling of origin and owner
ship, within theory construction in religious studies, leads to a simply baffling
Eurocentrism when the authentic use of “religion” is considered as a pecu
liarly “European” or “western" matter. Non-Europeans, then, use a concept that
has its origins somewhere else and so it cannot be of their “own.” Their use
of “religion” estranges them from their “own” tradition and is then necessarily
“not-ownable,” so, it is inauthentic.
This controversy is to a high degree ideologically charged and invites ideo
logical responses. The genealogical approach, though, can in effect duck this
dispute, when it asks which connection exists between today’s global use of
"religion” and European history. The connection can be formulated as a purely
historical question. In order to properly answer this, religious studies can profit
from the results of other academic disciplines, especially in the fields of global
history, orientalism and postcolonialism. Out of this arises a historical constel
lation that can be briefly sketched. In order not to over complicate the por
trayal, scriptural inversion is permitted.
3.1 “Religion" and Global History

The British historian, Christopher A. Bayly (2004), some time ago, presented
a comprehensive outline of a global history. Connected to this is a particular
view of the long 19th century as decisive for setting the course of modernity
and a phase of the first globalisation. Bayly (2004:1-2) detects the “rise of global
uniformities” in the 19th century, related to a complex process of an “ambiva
lent relationship between the global and the local.” He gives plenty of space
to the question of religion and names the homogenization and standardiza
tion of “world religions” as one of the central phenomena of the 19th century.
Further global history sketches have since been published that also thematise
“religion” in a detailed way (Beyer 2006; Osterhammel 2009). It is noteworthy,
also within the global history approach there is an observable trend that con
siders “religion” as a “western” invention of the 18th- early 19th century, which
M E T H O D AN D THEORY IN T H E STUDY OF RE L IG IO N 2 6 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6
WHAT IS R E LIGION? 277
has been globalized in a second stage since the 19th century (Osterhammel
2009:1242).
3.2 The Orientalism Debate

This global history thesis encountered the central insight of the so-called ori
entalism debate, which claims that 19th-century colonialism forced western
knowledge upon colonised cultures and societies. The theoretical framework,
within which this is discussed, was formulated by the Palestinian-American
literary scholar Edward Said (Said 1994). Said presented the thesis that the
“Orient” is a monological product of western knowledge, constructed as a dis
course of alteration of one’s own culture and religion. The “Orient” was always
the “other,” and it was this distinction which served to guarantee one’s own
identity. In the course of 19th-century colonialism, this western construction
of the Orient was imposed upon the colonised, and they were forced to define
their identity within this framework. In Said’s approach, the cultural conse
quences of colonialism, in their full radicalness, could be engaged. The encoun
ter of the colonised with the colonial rulers was no “dialogue” between equals,
but rather a negotiation process within a discourse of power, in which the
positions of the speakers were unequal to the extreme. Said orientated himself
towards reflections from Foucault. The “speaking subjects” are, for Foucault,
subject to the rules and exclusion mechanisms of the ruling discourses. A “dis
cursive ‘policy’ ” (Foucault 1972:224) stands, to an extent, in service of colonial
power relationships and takes care that the colonised only receive subsidiary
articulation possibilities. When “religion” is understood as a part of western
knowledge about the “Orient,” then, in the progression of colonial power dis
course, it is also correspondingly forced upon the colonialized. At its core, this
approach resembles the global history viewpoint and both justify, to a certain
extent, the talk of “religion” as a European invention.
3.3 Postcolonialism
The orientalism debate prompted a wider discussion about how the role of the
colonised, within a colonial power discourse, is to be more precisely under
stood, since Edward Said did not enter further into this area. In regard to this,
the matter is mostly debated under the name of postcolonial studies or post
colonialism (Young 2001; Castro Varela & Dhawan 2005).
Postcolonialism also assumes that the colonised subjects are subjugated to
orientalism as part of western knowledge and, thus, do not possess any autono
mous prior subject-positions. Yet, as already explained, every fixing of meaning
is available only as a concrete articulation, and its durability or sedimentation
can only be guaranteed through the repetition of this articulation. Sedimented

278 BERGUNDER
western knowledge, within a colonial power discourse, is also dependent on

repetition in order to claim its continuity. Yet, as we have seen, no repetition is
identical with itself and, as a re-signification, it opens up space for transforma
tion (Butler) or, in general, for the political (Laclau). It is precisely here that
postcolonialism comes in. It is interested in the specific forms of reception of
western knowledge and understands these not merely as their identical adop
tion. Colonial discourses, therefore, are anything but monolithic or invariable;
rather they are of a polyphonic and unstable nature. They possess a consider
able dynamic, a substantial potential for transformation, and they can, in their
fragility, at the same time, articulate opposition (Bhabha 1994; Spivak 1994). It
is exactly this that postcolonialism wants to historically capture and, therefore,
is interested in the complete breadth of articulation of the colonised.
If all articulations in a discourse refer to each other, in so far as they are
“citations,” then, they are dependent on one another. From this, the claim can
be derived that global history must be comprehended as “entangled histories,”
since “the related entities are themselves in part a product of their entangle
ment” (Conrad & Randeria 2002: 17). The emphasis, here, is that the West,
through its “entanglement” with the colonies, did not experience an autono
mous history, rather its identity formation was “entangled” with the colonised.
The sedimentation of western knowledge is also dependent on the repetition
of the colonised. Even if western knowledge held a hegemonic position, it was
at the same time a product of “entanglement.”
3.4 Global “Religion”

This historical constellation can be described from a genealogical perspec
tive as follows. With the awareness of global history, the critique of orien
talism, and postcolonialism, it can be assumed that the present global use
of “religion,” with some plausibility, can be traced back to the late 19th and
early 20th centuries. Herein, there is continuity and discontinuity, as well as
a general mutual entanglement. In the age of colonialism, under the sign of
European-American supremacy, "western knowledge” was an unambiguous
reference in local identity formation processes, because it was thematised, at
the same time, as a “universal knowledge” (Chakrabarty 2000). With this inter
face, the thesis of a “European” or “western” understanding of religion can be
historically captured, without having to start from a prior, privileged European
“origin.” From those who assert a "European concept of religion,” it should be
requested that they refrain from leading the discussion abstractly, but rather
provide concrete sources of evidence in the above sketched historical constel
lation. The thesis of a “European concept of religion," then, is transferred into a

WHAT IS RELI GI ON? 279
concrete historical research project of religious studies and the varying evalu
ations are referred back to the different interpretations of historical sources.
4 Conclusion
Religious studies, up to now, could not agree on a common subject matter. In

past discussion, however, it has remained largely unnoticed that there exists
a potential point of agreement between the different positions. It was argued
that nearly all approaches, at least implicitly, refer to a contemporary, every
day understanding of religion as a legitimizing reference, which, at the same
time, remains largely unexplained and unreflected upon. This was called
“Religion 2," in contrast to “Religion 1” which stands for explicit definitions
of religion in the field of religious studies and related academic disciplines.
Religion 2 was suggested to be a suitable candidate for a consensus-capable
subject matter or object of religious studies. However, it is no small matter to
conceptualize Religion 2 appropriately. A comprehensive theoretical approach
is needed to address the three central issues involved. Firstly, it has to be shown
how Religion 2 can be historicised and how a historical subject matter can be
assigned to academic disciplines. Secondly, Religion 2 is being framed not
only inside but also outside academia, not least by the members of “religions”
themselves. If Religion 2 is also shaped by religious perspectives, the question
must be answered whether its establishment as the subject matter of religious
studies carries a religious bias into religious studies, which would affect the
established self-understanding of religious studies as an academic discipline.
Thirdly, as Religion 2 is often considered to be a “Western” concept, the ques
tion arises whether Religion 2, as the subject matter of religious studies, implies
a Eurocentric perspective.
The second part of this article suggested a theoretical approach that explic
itly responds to the first two points. With regard to the first point, it was shown
how the inherent short-comings of historicising Religion 2 via conceptual his
tory could he overcome with the help of philosophical insights from Ernesto
Laclau and Judith Butler. The history of Religion 2 is understood as a naming
history in the form of genealogy. The genealogical emphasis makes it possible
to link this approach to Michel Foucault’s understanding of “critique” as an
ethos that can inform the general research interest of an academic discipline,
which then relates to the second point. The third part of the article tackled the
third point concerning the question of Eurocentrism. The orientalism debate
and postcolonial studies provide a perspective to understand Religion 2 in a

28o BERGUNDER
global context and as part of a global discourse, thus overcoming the notion of
it being simply a Western concept.
The major practical point of the approach suggested here is that the only
way of ascertaining Religion 2 is through empirical research. Religion 2 is not
understood as an abstract theoretical concept but as a historical phenom
enon. The historical subject matter of religious studies, so conceptualised,
demands empirical research, wherein Religion 2 is traced from its historical
articulations. In this way, the theoretical approach translates into empirical
research questions that wait to be investigated. The establishment of Religion
2 is not another attempt to define religion where “nonspecialists start to doze”
and “scholars of religion, who’ve heard it all before, exhale a knowing sigh.
Not another (doomed) attempt to characterize religion!” (Tweed 2006: 29-30).
Differences about the precise characterization of the subject matter of “reli
gion” become concrete questions on the appropriate interpretation of histori
cal sources. To increase our understanding of Religion 2, more research in the
global religious history of the 19th and 20th centuries is urgently required.
This is a hitherto neglected field of religious studies, yet, according to current
research, it is to this time period that the sedimentation of “religion” can be
meaningfully traced back. This endeavour can profit from trends in the study of
modern Buddhism and Hinduism that increasingly apply a global perspective,
often explicitly examining the ways in which “religion” has been appropriated
since the 19th century (e.g., Pennington 2005; McMahan 2009;Josephson 2012;
Bergunder 2014).
As in all historical interpretation, the particular historical reconstructions
of Religion 2 will always remain contested. However, I argue that this does
not prevent it from being generally accepted as the subject matter of religious
studies.
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M E T H O D AN D THEORY IN T H E STUDY METHOD

Michael Berg under

poststructuralism - Judith Butler - Ernesto Laclau - Benson Saler - Michel Foucault -

Religious studies as "a study of religions academically legitimated in separate

1 New Framing of an Old Debate

M E T H O D AND T HEORY IN T HE STUDY OF RE LI GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

of religion with regard to concrete empirical research questions. However, it

1.1 The Searchfo r a Definition of Religion Capable o f Consensus

1.1.1 Polythetic Definitions of Religion

M E T H O D AND T HEOR Y IN T H E STUDY OF R E L IG IO N 2 6 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

and most of the connected religious implications of the classic definitions.

M E T H O D AND THEORY IN T HE STUDY OF RE LI GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

1.1.2 The “Unexplained Religion” of Religious Studies

M E T H O D AND THEORY IN T HE STUDY OF RE LI GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

M E T H O D AND THEORY IN T HE STUDY OF RE LI GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

of countless definitions of religion conies— in his critical discussion of the

1.1.3 Explained and Unexplained Religion

1.2 The Rejection o f an Explicit Definition o f Religion

M E T H O D AND T HEORY IN T H E STUDY OF RE L I GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

Strictly speaking, the rejection of an explicit definition of the subject matter

1.3 Dispensing with, the Concept o f Religion

M E T H O D AND THEORY IN T H E STUDY OF RE LI GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

acts of comparison and generalization. Religion has no independent

After reviewing the history of their colonial production and reproduction

With a similar choice of words, Richard King argued

In brief, these critics question if religious studies possesses autonomous

M E T H O D AND T HEORY IN T HE STUDY OF RE LI GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

976). This clearly acknowledges the importance of Religion 2 for getting to

1.4 Unexplained Religion as the Undisclosed Subject Matter o f Religious

1. The historicising of “religion”: In the previous discussion, Religion 2 has

M E T H O D AND THEORY IN T HE STUDY OF RE LI GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

and its historical genesis be appropriately undertaken? This historicis-

Different theoretical approaches are conceivable in order to deal with these

M E T H O D AND T HEORY IN T HE STUDY OF RE L I GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

2 “Religion” as the Historical Subject Matter of Religious Studies

2.1 The Historicising o f “Religion”

2.1.1 History of the Concept

M E T H O D AND T HEORY IN T HE STUDY OF RE LI GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

Jews, Muslims, and Heathen. Similar to Despland and Wagner, he considered

M E T H O D AND THEORY IN T H E STUDY OF RE L IG IO N 2 6 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

2.1.2 History of the Name

2.1.2.1 Difference and the System’s Limit

M E T H O D AND T HEORY IN T HE STUDY OF RE LI GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

The impossibility of an ultimate fixity of meaning implies that there have

M E T H O D AND T HEORY IN T HE STUDY OF RE L I GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

impossible. Even in order to differ, to subvert meaning, there has to be a

M E T H O D AND THEORY IN T HE STUDY OF RE LI GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

The denial of a transcendental signified, however, is the central thesis of this

2.1.2.2 Empty Signifier as the Key to a General Ontology o f Being

M E T H O D AND THEO RY IN T H E STUDY OF R E LIG IO N 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

empty signifiers is “the result... of the unstable compromise between equiva­

M E T H O D AND THEORY IN T HE STUDY OF RE LI GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

rather, it penetrates “the entire material density of the multifarious institu­

2.1.2.3 The Name Instead o f the Concept

M E T H O D AND T HEORY IN T HE STUDY OF RE LI GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

a common closure is heavily psychologised by Laclau. This is not unproblem­

M E T H O D AND T HEORY IN T HE STUDY OF RE LI GI ON 26 ( 2 0 1 4 ) 2 4 6 - 2 8 6

2.1.2.4 History o f the Name Instead of a History o f the Concept

The way I am presenting the argument is that we live in a world of sedi­

empty signifiers is “the result... of the unstable compromise between equiva

rather, it penetrates “the entire material density of the multifarious institu

a common closure is heavily psychologised by Laclau. This is not unproblem

The way I am presenting the argument is that we live in a world of sedi

The first constraint of [historiographical] discourse consists in prescrib

currency of a certain social place and a certain conceptual or institu

nominalist definitions, outlined at the beginning, can also be viewed in con