The Collected Writings of Charles H. Long: Ellipsis

Description

Charles H. Long is one of the most influential and pioneering scholars in the study of religion from the past 50 years. This is the first comprehensive collection of his writings, edited by Long himself, and contains 38 pieces, including both published and previously unpublished articles, lectures, an interview, and two book reviews. The foreword is provided by Jennifer Reid, a former student of Long. The collection is divided into four thematic parts: America and the Study of Religion; Theory and Method in the Study of Religion; African American Religion in the United States; Kindling, Embers and Sparks. Long's introduction provides much-awaited insight into his reflections on his work, expanding on questions that remained unanswered in his classic and influential text, Significations: Signs, Symbols and Images in the Interpretation of Images (1986). In particular, the new introductory essay explores the significance of "ellipses", that which is omitted, the projected spaces of the Other in the study of religion. Considered the preeminent founder and advocate of the study of Black Religion, Long was exploring religion and colonialism and the importance of Afro-American religion as early as the 1960s and early 1970s, and this collection of his thinking - which moves across the formations of religious studies, African diasporic studies, and social and cultural theory - is a must-have addition for any institutional or personal library.

Charles H. Long was Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, USA. He was the author of Significations: Signs, Symbols, and Images in the Interpretation of Religion (1986). Over a long career, Long held professorial positions at the University of Chicago, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, and Syracuse University. In addition, he served as a visiting professor at Tsukuba University in Japan, the University of Queensland in Australia, and Capetown University in South Africa.

Those less familiar with Long's work will find The Collected Works of Charles Long to be an invaluable resource for undergraduate and graduate classes within American Religious History, Religious Studies, or African American Religious History. * Reading Religion * Throughout these thirty-eight essays (some unpublished), Long moves effortlessly from textured historical narrative to hermeneutics and back again, all in his unique voice. Simply put, this book is absolutely essential for anyone with a serious interest in questions of method and theory or the history of the discipline. * Reading Religion * A wonderfully complex, yet accessible, compendium of his own writings ... Long welcomes and engages the reader right from the start through a warm narrative that opens the book ... Fascinating and impressive ... [It] should earn an important place in the field of religious studies. The breadth of Long's knowledge about American religion and the readability of the text lends itself to becoming a volume of lasting importance. * Nova Religio * This publication brings forth some of the best and most powerful thought and writing by the great innovator Charles H. Long. It combines turning points, immersions and illuminations that make up the history of the history of religions a la Charles H. Long. It fulfils a promise Long made years ago to his students that he would give us a lively record of his ingenuity, commitments and insights. A gift! * David Carrasco, Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of the Study of Latin America, Harvard University, USA * This is the book I have been waiting for from Charles H. Long. In one volume, the reader is treated to the seminal work of Long over the course of his lengthy academic career as a historian of religion. Long's probing insights, the power of his imagery, his careful and persistent mining of fundamental questions to the drama of religion in human lives lays bare the rich terrain of human lives that are often obscured and unheeded. Long encourages us to expand our horizons as we mine the depths of our humanity. * Emilie M. Townes, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society, Vanderbilt University Divinity School, USA * This is the book for which academics have long waited-the collected writings of a beloved scholar who has inspired generations in the critical interpretation of religion, race, and the modern world. The theoretical insights of Charles H. Long's capacious intellect adorn every page of this text. Long is an intellectual reckoning made flesh, and he has now bequeathed to readers a legacy of brilliance in long-form. * Sylvester A. Johnson, Professor of Religion and Culture, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA * Charles H. Long is the veritable African-American doyen of critical Religious Studies. This well-selected collection wonderfully illustrates his intellectual strengths, showing how he has always been prepared to address even the hardest questions and also the grounding of his illustrious career in the University of Chicago. These essays reveal Long in his ceaseless quest to understand humanity's religious meanings, his common provocations about the troublesome expansion of 'civilizing' Europeans and its implications, as well as his continuing appreciation of Chicago. * Garry W Trompf, Emeritus Professor in the History of Ideas, University of Sydney, Australia * It has been a long time coming for scholars to take up this serious effort in all of its depth, variety, and splendour in forging an elliptical thinking inspired by the thought of Charles H. Long. * Black Theology *