The Study of Diaspora Religion

Teachers of religion have for decades emphasized the importance of the study of ‘world religions’, partly because of the subjects' own inherent importance, but also because of their relevance to Western society, especially in view of the fact that in recent years, as a result of migration, Hindus, Muslims and members of other religions live and worship in Western cities. Yet encyclopedias and introductory books continue to look at these religions solely in their old countries; any mention of them in the West has generally treated the Western groups as marginal to the main history and phenomenon of that religion. This section of the New Handbook (chapter 19, chapter 20, chapter 21, chapter 22, chapter 23, chapter 24, chapter 25) represents the first serious attempt to look at the Western forms of these religions as important in themselves and as showing something important about the Western societies they are found in, and to do so in a comparative international perspective. In recent years American universities have begun to engage in the study of black African, or Afro-Caribbean, religion, but these areas are rarely included in general introductions, are ignored by British universities, despite the size and significance of black groups in the UK, and are not (yet) part of the Australian scene. This section seeks to fill those lamentable gaps. Some preliminary remarks are necessary to explain the logic behind this new section of the book.