Steven Sutcliffe BA MPhil PhD
Senior Lecturer; Study of Religion
New College
Mound Place
Edinburgh EH1 2LX
Biography
I teach and research in the areas of 'new age religion' and 'holistic spirituality', in the effects of the discourse and practice of 'religion' in contemporary culture and society, and on theory and method in the study of religion, including the history of its modern academic study.
I approach new age as a post-Christian phenomenon in comparative perspective, with a particular focus on European contexts.
I am also working on case studies in the discourse and practice of 'religion' and 'faith' in biography and in society, including an analysis of the Time for Reflection ritual in the Scottish Parliament.
My approach is interdisciplinary, combining historical, ethnographical and text-based analyses.
I am also interested in the explanatory potential of cognitive and biological theorising in interdisciplinary study.
I am interested in 'religion' as a problem for sociology of knowledge and philosophy of science, including the impact of subaltern and indigenous critiques of the category, and of Enlightenment and scientific defences of it.
Currently I am examining the development of these debates through the history of modern disciplinary formations of 'religious studies' since 1950.
External appointments
Membership of editorial and advisory boards for journals
- Zeitschrift für junge religionswissenschaft
- Journal of Alternative Spirituality and New Age Studies
- Religion
- Culture and Religion