Colors of the Robe
Subtitle: Religion, Identity, and Difference
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Published: November 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9781570034671
Subjects: Buddhism; Philosophy of religion; Postmodernism; Social aspects; Religion - Commentaries / Reference; Religion; Sri Lanka; Sociology Of Religion; Comparative Religion; Buddhism - General; Religion and culture
First sentence: Today "culture" and "religion" have become the objects of a specific kind of disciplinary inquiry.
Description: "Poised to spark debate among scholars of religious studies and other disciplines, Colors of the Robe sheds new light on the Sri Lankan Buddhist universe of ethics and politics and, more important, suggests innovative directions for the global study of religion, identity, culture, politics, and violence.

In a volume that surpasses other studies in tracking, identifying, and locating Sri Lankan Buddhism in its sectarian, ethnic, cultural, social, and political constructions, Ananda Abeysekara lays down a challenge to postcolonial and postmodern theory. He argues that although criticisms have undermined the orientalist constructions of culture, they cannot help us understand, let alone theorize, the emergence of contemporary authoritative discourses that define distinctions involving religion and violence, identity and difference.

Supplanting that aim, Abeysekara illuminates the shifting configurations that characterize the relations connected with postcolonial religious identity and culture."--BOOK JACKET.