Science and Engagement in the Study of Religion

Denzil Chetty is a scholar and faculty member at the University of South Africa (UNISA). His research interests span various areas, including Religious Studies, Sociology of Religion, and Religion and Politics. Chetty has contributed to academic literature through articles and books, covering topics such as religion and education, connectivism in technology-centred pedagogy in religious studies, digital Hinduism, online religious identities, and religion at the intersections of hegemony and power with a focus on Gramscian thought. Over the years, he has been awarded numerous prestigious awards for his academic contributions. Some notable accolades include the 2003 Abe Bailey Fellowship in the United Kingdom, the 2011 UNISA Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning, the 2014 Shanghai Open University African Visiting Scholar in China, and the 2015 UNISA Excellence Award in Teaching and Learning, recognising his valuable contributions to institutional knowledge. He holds a capacity development grant focusing on the African Digital Humanities, which seeks to advance African epistemology and decolonization within technology-mediated humanities.Satoko Fujiwara is Professor of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Tokyo. She has been serving as Secretary General of the International Association for the History of Religions since 2020. Her main focus is on theories in the study of religion with latest publications on the global history of the discipline and the IAHR. She has also published articles on how religions have been described in public school education.Katja Triplett is Associate Fellow at the Humanities Center of Advanced Studies "Multiple Secularities - Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities, " University of Leipzig. She is an affiliated Professor of the Study of Religions at Marburg University, where she curated the Religionskundliche Sammlung from 2007 to 2012. She received her Doctorate in the Study of Religions from Marburg University where she also studied Japanese Linguistics and Cultural Anthropology. Her main fields of interest are Buddhism, religion and medicine, and visual and material culture. She has published widely on Japanese religions. Among her recent publications is Buddhism and Medicine in Japan (De Gruyter, 2019).

• IntroductionDenzil Chetty, Satoko Fujiwara & Katja TriplettPhilosophical Responses1 IAHR, Globalization, and the Spaces for Objectivity, Values, and CommitmentsJeppe Sinding Jensen2 Normative Evaluation in the Global Study of ReligionsKevin SchilbrackChallenges3 Gender Studies as a Challenge and Chance for a Critical ReligionswissenschaftEdith Franke & Birgit Heller4 The Game of the Study of Religion and the Decolonial ChallengeAndrea RotaFraming5 How Not to Turn Diversity into DivisionSatoko Fujiwara6 Critical Decolonial PluralismDenzil ChettyIntegrated Approaches7 The Study of Religion and Its Value-RelationsGritt Klinkhammer8 Are Scientific Objectivity and Social Engagement Antithetical in Practice?Ann TavesAfterwordTim Jensen