Thinking "Religion": The Christian Past and Interreligious Future of Religious Studies and Theology

The category "religion" is a tripartite, emergent from Christian theology during modernity, as Christianity increased, transcended, and diminished, and persistent in contemporary religious studies and Christian theology. With the postmodern and postcolonial "return of religion": the tripartite category is located as a product of Eurocentric modern Christianity; Christianity is positioned as one religion among others; and religious studies engages religious traditions, including Christianity, in their particularities, rather than in terms of overarching (modernist) categories. Within Christian theology, while Christianity transcended persists in (pluralist) liberal theologies, religion is repudiated and (particularist) Christianity re-centered in its neo-orthodox strands. While the Eurocentic entwining of Christianity with western modernity unravels, Christianity re-centered looks to a Trinitarian core, differently appropriated in the diverse locations constituting World Christianity. The recent particularist focus of both religious studies and Christian theology opens a path toward greater cooperation between the two disciplines, beyond tensions arising from the Christian-infused tripartite.