Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

II. Perspectives
one, it allows strangers to know that a
For
belongs to a particular religious group,
person
to make assumptions about that person’s
and
Under what circumstances might
beliefs.
of religious groups want to emphasize
members
de-emphasize their religious identities? To
or
extent is what we know about religions
what
by their visible aspects?
influenced
Religion, power and the politics
II.4
knowledge
of
spread of religious knowledge is part
The
the histories of conquest, imperialism
of
colonialism. However, the relationship
and
our knowledge about religions and
between
histories is often less obvious, or even
these
erased. How have these political
deliberately
affected our collective knowledge
processes
religious practices? As a result of their
about
what might be misrepresented,
influence,
or altogether missing from
underrepresented
Empire of Religion, David Chidester explores
In
fundamental questions.
three
questions are part of academic debates
These
the relationship between knowledge
about
power in the context of religious studies.
and
explores religious knowledge
Chidester
in the context of power relations—
production
imperial and Indigenous. He shows
colonial,
newly converted Indigenous informants
how
with missionaries, and how foreign
worked
became “local experts”, to produce
travellers
and reports on Indigenous religions
surveys
the colonial administrators and imperial
for
These were the raw materials, says
theorists.
that gave birth to the discipline of
Chidester,
studies, which placed itself in a point
religious
time between an imagined primitive past of
in
belief and the future triumph of the
Indigenous
history of religious knowledge invites
This
to consider what questions we should be
us
about the knowledge coming from
asking
studies. What are the constraints
religious
limitations of academic knowledge about
and
and its supposed objectivity and
religion,
Which is a more reliable source of
neutrality?
about religion—academic study
knowledge
a secular lens, or religious authorities
through
leaders?
and
6
colonial civilizing project.
our understanding of religion?
How is knowledge about religion and religions
produced? How is that knowledge authenticated?
How is that knowledge circulated?
(Chidester 2003)
152