Positioning the Scholar

Indrek Peedu is a Lecturer of Religious Studies at the University of Tartu. He completed his PhD studies at the University of Tartu in 2019 for a thesis that received the 2020 ESSSAT Research Prize. He has previously also worked as an Associated Researcher at the Center for Religious Studies, Ruhr University Bochum. He is the current President of the Estonian Society for the Study of Religions. His main areas of research are method and theory in the study of religion, history of the study of religion, evolutionary and cognitive sciences of religion and the intellectual history of social, cultural and religious evolutionism. His previous publications include the edited volume Estonian Study of Religion: A Reader (University of Tartu Press, 2019) as well as numerous articles in many academic journals.

This book presents a systematic study of the issue of positioning in the scientific study of religion. The book discusses the wider context of positioning in the study of religion, highlights the epistemological and methodological presumptions as well as the implicit goals in play in the cognitive and evolutionary approaches. Particular focus is on the contemporary evolutionary, cognitive and behavioral study of religion and the issues of positioning in the context of these research approaches. Based on this it presents an in-depth analysis of the prevalent conceptualizations of the position of the scholar in the study of religion: methodological naturalism, methodological agnosticism, neutrality and the dialogical position. Furthermore, for the first time the relevance of both evolutionary epistemology and the underdetermination of scientific research is shown for the purposes of a full evaluation of the justifiability of particular epistemological arguments. Finally, directions forward in discussing and conceptualizing the position of the scholar in the study of religion are suggested. The book is expected to be of relevance and interest for scholars of religion interested in method and theory in the study of religion, evolutionary and cognitive study of religion and other related fields.