In The Politics of Religious Studies , Donald Wiebe takes on a debate that has been raging in universities across North America and Europe for some years now. The issue is whether to approach religion as a science, free from the dissemination of beliefs and evangelizing, or to study it as a form of faith and therefore draw lines between believers and nonbelievers. Wiebe persuasively argues the former, claiming that if taught in a university religion must be treated as a science, with all the objectivity and research that are brought to other subjects. He further maintains that the study of theology should take place in seminaries, which are the proper places for the pursuit of religion as a creed. Exploring the true meaning and role of an academic, Wiebe shows how by propagating religion, instructors are abandoning their academic task to 'explain everything and enjoin nothing'.
- ISBN10 0312238886
- ISBN13 9780312238889
- Publish Date 28 December 2000 (first published 15 December 1998)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 9 June 2016
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Palgrave Macmillan
- Edition 1999 ed.
- Format Paperback
- Pages 352
- Language English