Ƶ hosted the launch of on Tuesday 29th April 2026 at the Aga Khan Centre, London. Six pioneering scholars shared their reflections on a methodological revolution sometimes known as “Critical Religion,” engaging in a panel discussion on how categories such as “religion” and “the secular” shape public life, governance, and scholarship. A recording of the discussion will be available on the .
حرَّر هذا الكتابَ عضوُ هيئة التدريس في IIS الدكتور أليكس هينلي، وصدر عن دار نشر بلومزبري الأكاديمية، ويجمع مساهمات اثني عشر باحثاً من تخصصات الدراسات الدينية والأنثروبولوجيا وعلم الاجتماع والعلوم السياسية والتاريخ الحديث والتربية. وقد صُمِّم الكتاب ليكون مدخلاً ميسَّراً إلى الحقل المتعدد التخصصات المتنامي المعروف بـ"الدين النقدي"، إذ يطرح سؤالاً يبدو بسيطاً في ظاهره بيد أنه بالغ الأثر: ماذا يحدث حين نكفُّ عن التعامل مع "الدين" باعتباره مفهوماً بديهياً وكونياً، وننكبُّ عوضاً عن ذلك على دراسة كيفية بناء هذا المصطلح واستخدامه والجدل حوله؟
نبذة عن الفعالية
افتتح الدكتور هينلي الفعاليةَ مرحِّباً بالمشاركين في نقاش جمع بين العمق النظري والبُعد التطبيقي. ووصف الكتاب بأنه محاولة لجعل النظرية النقدية حول مفهوم "الدين" أكثر سهولةً وفهمًا، بما في ذلك لمن قد يكونون متشككين في أفكار قد تبدو شديدة التجريد. وهذا الدليل العملي ليس بالدرجة الأولى كتاباً نظرياً بقدر ما هو دليل إلى الممارسة القائمة على النظرية — لا للمتخصصين في الدراسات الدينية وحدهم، بل لكل من يتعامل مع مفاهيم كـ"الدين" أو "الإيمان" ونقائضها المسماة "العلمانية"، بما فيها "السياسة" و"الثقافة".
كان محور عرضه التمهيدي أن الكلمات تؤدي عملاً مهماً في العالم. فمفاهيم كـ"الدين" و"العلمانية"، كما أشار، كثيراً ما تبدو محايدة، غير أنها في الواقع تُصنِّف الناسَ والتقاليدَ والمؤسساتِ بطرق يمكن أن تُضفي الشرعية أو تسلبها، وأن تمنح النفوذ أو تسلبه. ولهذا السبب يحرص باحثو "الدين النقدي" في الغالب على وضع مصطلحات كـ"الدين" بين علامتَي اقتباس، تذكيراً بأن هذه المفاهيم ذات منشأ تاريخي وذات أثر بالغ، لا مجرد أوصاف شفافة للواقع.
Speaking in the context of an institution devoted to Islamic studies, Dr Henley drew attention to a familiar saying in many Muslim settings: “Islam is not merely a religion, but a way of life.” Taking that intuition seriously, he suggested, opens onto larger questions about whether the category “religion” adequately captures Muslim traditions, practices, and forms of life in all their complexity. Such questions are especially relevant for students of Islam, for whom modern Western distinctions between “religious” and “secular” may obscure more than they reveal.
This concern with cross-cultural understanding lies at the heart of A Practical Guide to Critical Religion. The volume offers a window into a scholarly movement that challenges the assumption that religion is a discrete thing that can be straightforwardly identified across cultures and historical periods. It invites readers to examine the changing uses and effects of the terms through which social worlds are organised. The aim is not simply deconstruction for its own sake, but more careful, reflexive, and productive scholarship.
The event’s discussion resonated with IIS’ ethos of encouraging critical yet empathetic approaches to the study of Islam that are methodologically rigorous, transdisciplinary, and globally attentive to Muslims’ diverse and changing historical contexts. A Practical Guide to Critical Religion speaks directly to this commitment by asking students and scholars to think carefully about the conceptual tools through which societies, traditions, and histories are described, both in academic analysis and in public discourse.
Outline of the book
The book is organised in three parts.
Part I offers Dr Henley’s own introduction to “Critical Religion,” outlining what is at stake in questioning the category “religion” and presenting a toolkit of potential approaches for readers new to the field.
Part II brings together reflections from three leading scholars associated with this intellectual shift — Aaron Hughes, Russell McCutcheon, and Timothy Fitzgerald — who give their own perspectives on what it means to be critical about categories and why it matters.
Part III presents seven case studies that show critical approaches in action. Drawn from diverse disciplines and fields of study, these cases range fromEast and West Asia to Europe and North America, and engage themes including governance, minority politics, indigeneity, education, gender, and public life. Together they demonstrate how critical theory can be applied to generate new insights in empirical research and in teaching.
Panel of authors
The launch event brought together six contributors and leading voices from universities around the UK and as far as Canada. Each speaker on the panel reflected on what “Critical Religion” means in their own work and fields.
Dr Alex Henley, the book’s editor, leads IIS’ flagship Graduate Programme in Islamic Studies and Humanities. His research focuses on “religion” as a changing category of practice and governance in the modern West Asia, especially in relation to leadership, institutionalisation, and sectarianisation.
, Research Associate at the Center for Critical Research on Religion and formerly Reader in Religion at the University of Stirling, is widely recognised for coining the term “Critical Religion.” His pioneering work has helped shape debates in the field for more than two decades, including a formative influence on Shahab Ahmed’s landmark book What is Islam? (2016).
, Professor at Shumei University and Principal of Chaucer College, is a sociologist whose work examines how modern categories of “religion” and “the secular” have been constructed and normalised in the Japanese context and in the academic discipline of sociology.
, Associate Professor at Leeds Trinity University and Honorary Secretary of the British Association for the Study of Religions, has written extensively on contemporary Paganism, Druidry, and indigeneity, and contributed perspectives rooted in anthropological and pedagogical practice.
, Visiting Fellow at the Open University and formerly Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, studies the effects of category formation on public life and cultural production, including the governance of “faith” in UK state institutions.
, Professor at the University of Ottawa, is known for her influential feminist scholarship and for developing “vestigial state theory,” which rethinks “religions” as entities operating within the sphere of modern statecraft.
