Preliminary Material / Slavica Jakelić and Lori Pearson -- Whither the Study of Religion? / Slavica Jakelić and Lori Pearson -- The Stubborn Persistence of Religion: Some Post-Secular Reflections / Friedrich Wilhelm Graf -- The Stubborn Persistence of Debates about Religion: A Response to Friedrich Wilhelm Graf / Peter Berger -- The Study of Religions in the Twentieth Century / Hans G. Kippenberg -- The History of Religions and the Study of Religions: A Response to Hans Kippenberg / Christoph Schwöbel -- Difference and Coherence in the Worldwide Study of Religions / Michael Pye -- Response to Michael Pye / Robert Cummings Neville -- Globalization and the Future Study of Religion / Bryan S. Turner -- Response to Bryan Turner / Adam B. Seligman -- The Proper Object of the Study of Religion: Why It Is Better to Know Some of the Questions Than All of the Answers / Ivan Strenski -- Problems, Questions, and Curiosities: A Response to Ivan Strenski / Elizabeth A. Castelli -- Diversity and the Study of Mysticism / Steven T. Katz -- Response to Steven Katz / Francis X. Clooney -- Engendering the Study of Religion / Elizabeth A. Clark -- Agency and Evidence in Feminist Studies of Religion: A Response to Elizabeth Clark / Amy Hollywood -- Detraditionalizing the Study of Religion / Paul Heelas -- Response to Paul Heelas / Ann Braude -- Retraditionalizing the Study of Religion: The Conflict of the Faculties: Theology and the Economy of the Sciences / John Milbank -- Theology or Religious Studies? The Future of Religious Studies: A Response to John Milbank / Paul Morris -- Ernst Troeltsch and the Future of the Study of Religion / Trutz Rendtorff -- Response to Trutz Rendtorff / Sarah Coakley -- Congress 2000: The Future of the Study of Religion Parallel Sessions and Panel Discussion / Sarah Coakley -- Index / Sarah Coakley -- Studies in the History of Religions Numen Book Series / Sarah Coakley.

This volume brings together diverse voices from various fields within religious and theological studies for a conversation about the proper objects, goals, and methods for the study of religion in the twenty-first century. It approaches these questions by way of the most recent contemporary challenges, debates, and developments in the field, and provides a forum in which contending perspectives are tested and contested by their proponents and opponents. Contributors address topics such as: the connection between the ‘normative’ and the ‘scientific’ approaches to the study of religion, the meaning of religion in a context of globalization, the relation between religious studies and religious traditions, the viability of comparative and cultural studies of religious phenomena, and the future of gender studies in religion.