Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-256) and index.

Pt. I Redescribing Religion as Something Ordinary Ch. 1 More Than a Shapeless Beast: Lumbering through the Academy with the Study of Religion 3 Ch. 2 Redescribing 'Religion' as Social Formation: Toward a Social Theory of Religion 21 Pt. II Dispatches from the Theory Wars Ch. 3 Writing a History of God: "Just the Same Game Wherever You Go" 43 Ch. 4 Explaining the Sacred: Theorizing on Religion in the Late Twentieth Century 57 Ch. 5 "We're All Stuck Somewhere": Taming Ethnocentrism and Transcultural Understandings 73 Ch. 6 The Economics of Spiritual Luxury: The Glittering Lobby and the World's Parliament of Religions 85 Ch. 7 "My Theory of the Brontosaurus ...": Postmodernism and "Theory" of Religion 103 Pt. III Culture Critics and Caretakers Ch. 8 A Default of Critical Intelligence? The Scholar of Religion as Public Intellectual 125 Ch. 9 Talking Past Each Other: The Issue of Public Intellectuals Revisited 145 Pt. IV Going Public: Teaching Theory Ch. 10 Our "Special Promise" as Teachers: Scholars of Religion and the Politics of Tolerance 155 Ch. 11 Redescribing "Religion and ..." Film: Teaching the Insider/Outsider Problem 179 Ch. 12 Methods and Theories in the Classroom: Teaching the Study of Myths and Rituals 201 Ch. 13 Theorizing in the Introductory Course: A Survey of Resources 217 Pt. V Afterword.