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Tag: Pluralism

A Response to “Responsible Research Practices,” Part 7: Methodological Pluralism

by Russell McCutcheon

This is an installment in an ongoing series on the American Academy of Religion’s recently released draft statement on research responsibilities. An index of the complete series (updated as each article is posted) can be found here. Hanabusa Itchō‘s (d. 1724) print of the well-known parable of the blindmen and the elephant seemed to me a fitting image to open this commentary on the sixth bullet point in this document. It reads: I won’t quibble as to why the word […]

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Like Mice in a Maze

by Russell McCutcheon

I’ve written on the parable of the blind men and the elephant before, as far back as Manufacturing Religion (1997), where I argued: The problem with the story of the blind men … is that the level of the narrative open to the listener is characterized by privileged access to the fact that there is indeed an elephant beyond the individual perceptions of the blind men…. [T]he story works only because, from the outset, we as listeners see the big […]

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“Firm Religious Beliefs”

by Russell McCutcheon

Did you catch the story, the other day, of the Canadian University in which religious identity and gender-inclusion ran straight into each other and the former seems to have prevailed? As reported in the newspaper, The Toronto Star, the story opens: A York University student who refused to do group work with women for religious reasons has sparked a human rights tug-of-war between a professor and campus administration. While the professor wanted to deny the student’s request, a university dean […]

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