Bourdieu on Religion: Imposing Faith and Legitimacy

One of the foremost intellectuals of our time, Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) has had a resounding impact on a wide range of scholarly disciplines, from linguistics, sociology, and education to art history, philosophy, and literary criticism. Scholars of religion, however, have been relatively slow to mine the theoretical riches that researchers in other fields have uncovered in Bourdieus theory of practice, surely in part because Bourdieu actually wrote little about religion. Lately, though, Bourdieu is commanding respect in religious studies as a social theorist of the stature and relevance of Durkheim, Marx, and Weber, whose own writings on religion are those that Bourdieu most admired. Through careful analysis of Bourdieus social theory in general and his writings on religion in particular, along with a summary of some emerging uses of Bourdieu in religious studies, in Bourdieu on Religion: Imposing Faith and Legitimacy Terry Rey introduces Bourdieu's theory of practice and demonstrates its range of utility to the study of religion. In light of Bourdieu's overarching aim to expose the sources of social inequalities, his work is shown to be especially apt for studies on the relationship between religion, class, and social power; religion, race, and ethnicity; and religion and colonial conquest.

Terry Rey is Associate Professor of Religion at Temple University.