Expert religion : the politics of religious difference in an age of freedom and terror

Abstract

Based on her recently published book, Beyond Religious Freedom: The New Global Politics of Religion, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd’s paper is an attempt at disaggregating the category of religion. It distinguishes between forms of knowledge about religion (including constructs of religious extremism and religious freedom) authorized by experts (expert religion); religion as construed and authorized by governments and courts at home and abroad (official or governed religion); and the broader fields of spiritual practices, beliefs, and forms of belonging on the ground (lived or everyday religion) which are entangled with but not reducible to expert or official religion.