Bordering Religions: Concepts, Conflicts, and Conversations

Edited by Kathryn Kueny, Fordham University, Karen Pechilis, Drew University, and James T. Robinson, The University of Chicago Divinity School

This series invites innovative, multidisciplinary studies that take up the theme of bordering through critical analysis of religious practices, beliefs, images, rhetoric, and identities. Bordering implies a sealing off of what is contained within, a process that distinguishes what is “in” from what is “out,” what is “us” from “not us.” All boundaries are social constructs that presume coherent criteria for the distinctions drawn. For the religious, distinguishing themselves over and in relation to others is a central existential exercise. How humans articulate, ignore, transcend, or challenge their own borders and those of others provides unique insight into how the religious imagination undertakes constructing and reconstructing distinct individual and communal identities. To establish and maintain stable boundaries over the ever-shifting religious landscape attracts the ceaseless care and creativity of practitioners and believers.