Modern Religion, Modern Race

[I]n Modern Religion, Modern Race Vial makes a very important contribution to debates on how the study of religion needs to explore its past, and in particular the often ignored overlap between categories of race and religion. For those interested in seeing how white male Enlightenment thinkers helped to create such a mess, this book needs to be read and taught widely. * Malory Nye, Reading Religion * Theodore Vial has given us a wonderfully learned and rich treatment of race and religion in the German Idealist tradition. Long established as one of the leading Schleiermacher scholars in the English speaking world, Vial has done us an enormous service in this text. It not only brilliantly explains the thought of Schleiermacher, Herder, and Kant on race and religion, but he also gives us a beautiful genealogy that brings us to our present moment. His work complements and expands the seminal work of Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze and helps us see the racial architecture of modern religious studies. Yet what also commends this book is the clarity and precision with which Ted Vial writes. Generations of students will sing his praises for giving them a text that they will understand and remember. -Willie James Jennings, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies, Yale University Modern Religion, Modern Race is a smart, nuanced, and accessible study of the birth of the twin concepts of 'religion' and 'race' in the modern world. With historical sensitivity and philosophical acumen, Theodore Vial traces the simultaneous development of these two concepts and brings his analysis to bear upon the contemporary, and often violent, ways in which these ideas continue to shape our world. Readers have much to gain from this thoughtful study. -Leora Batnitzky, author of How Judaism Became a Religion: An Introduction to Modern Jewish Thought Theodore Vial's groundbreaking text on religion, race, and modernity is the most insightfully thought-out, clearly written, and invitingly compelling of all the recent publications on this subject. Clarity of argument represents clarity of thinking. And his, indeed, is a new voice in the field. He proves to us what we've all missed: the post-Kantian context and the decisiveness of language in how the West wedded race and religion. -Dwight N. Hopkins, author of Being Human: Race, Culture, and Religion Vial's book is pioneering in demonstrating the intimate link between the emergence of the idea of a generic phenomenon called 'religion' and the development of racial theory among some of the most influential philosophers of the modern era, including Kant, Hegel, Schleiermacher and Herder He challenges us to rethink other categories as well, such as gender, and to recognise that racism is stamped in our minds as well as our politics and economics. The book is daring and challenging, certain to be debated and disputed, for it is one of the most exciting and brilliant studies of religion and race of our era. * Susannah Heschel, Body and Religion * This book is a welcome contribution to the discussion about religion and race, which puts the sometimes fierce debates in historical perspective. * Arie L. Molendijk, NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion *