The aims of this book are to examine the interface between religious studies, critical social theory and cultural theory and to argue for a discourse within religious studies which draws from, and contributes to, wider intellectual debates in the humanities and social sciences. In the context of postmodern criticism, the book seeks to address or revisit the central questions: what is it to understand religion in the contemporary world in which relativism and perspectivalism prevail and an overarching trans-cultural rationality has been severely critiqued?; can a deep understanding of religions be had only by those who live inside them? and what are the ethical issues involved in the intellectual practice of understanding an other? In response to these questions the book seeks to develop an argument linking "dialogue", "reflexivity" and "criticism" which takes seriously the intersubjective nature of research.

Author Biography

Gavin Flood is Academic Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and the author of An Introduction to Hinduism (CUP 2004).