Work

Learning from the Navajo: Rethinking Religion for a Post-Colonial Era

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This address explores the importance of generating concepts from non-Euro-American religious spaces to understand religions worldwide. As an example, it shows how the Navajo concept of hózhǭ highlights the socially transformative role of experience in religious settings — something that Euro-American sociologies typically fail to grasp. It then argues that such insights are of universal rather than of parochial importance. A truly post-colonial sociology needs to put treat insights from all societies, cultures, and civilizations as potential sources of understanding.

Source: Philippine Association for the Sociology of Religion Journal

DOI: 10.63931/pasrj.31.8

Author: James Spickard

Institution: University of Redlands

Language: English

Topic: Study and Philosophy of Religion

Subfield: Philosophy

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

OpenAlex ID: W4411516640

FWCI:

Cites: 52

Cited by:

Related to: 10