Vital new matters: the speculative turn in the study of religion and gender

Reid-Bowen, P (2011) 'Vital new matters: the speculative turn in the study of religion and gender.' Religion and Gender, 1 (1). pp. 44-65. ISSN 1878-5417

Abstract

This article provides an introduction to a new trend in continental philosophy, the turn toward metaphysics, realism and speculative philosophy. This stands in sharp contrast with the anitrealist and correlationist traditions that have held sway since Kant’s Copernican Revolution in 1781. It is claimed that the study of religion and gender has been shaped by the antirealist legacy of Kant, but there are good reasons for taking account of the new ‘speculative turn’. Two examples from the leading exponent of this turn, speculative realism, are introduced, and some provisional notes toward applying these to the gender-critical turn in the study of religion are considered. Research notes on the current state of the Goddess movement serve as a test case for the introduction of an object-oriented ontology into religious and gender studies.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	antirealism; metaphysics; speculative realism; object-oriented
Divisions:	School of Writing, Publishing and the Humanities
Date Deposited:	28 Jan 2013 13:43
Last Modified:	15 Aug 2021 09:33
URI / Page ID:	https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/id/eprint/822

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