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vestigial states

  • May 17, 2012
    A week with Professor Naomi Goldenberg

    At the end of last month, the Critical Religion Research Group at the University of Stirling, with which Ekklesia works in partnership, hosted Professor Naomi Goldenberg from the University of Ottawa.

  • April 26, 2012
    Thinking differently about religion

    Very frequently, discourse about religion - which, with the changes in perception taking place in the world over the past decade has come back onto the global and political agenda with great force - remains stuck in a series of un-enlightening polarities.

  • April 10, 2012
    Gender and the vestigial state of religion

    When governments are displaced they can persist within contemporary states as ‘religions’ that maintain their patriarchal origins and character, says Professor Naomi Goldenberg. Since women’s challenges to male domination have only met with some success in recent times within fairly contemporary forms of statecraft, if earlier states known as ‘religions’ are allowed too much authority over domains such as ‘the family’ or ‘the home,’ women will be the losers, she argues.

  • April 6, 2012
    On thinking of religions as vestigial states

    Religion scholar Professor Naomi Goldenberg, who is visiting Britain in April 2012, here outlines her hypothesis that religions can be productively thought of as 'vestigial states'. She considers this to be one way of de-essentialising, demystifying and deconstructing the category of 'religion'.