jaar-theory-and-method

Theory & Method (jaar-theory-and-method)

What most distinguishes a JAAR article from a specialist-journal article is **methodological

self-awareness. JAAR publishes not only studies of traditions but studies of the methods** by which

religion is explored, and it expects scholarship to be reflexive and non-confessional. This

skill makes your theory/method explicit and load-bearing.

When to trigger

• Stating the framework and method that drive the analysis
• A reviewer said the piece is "undertheorized," "naive about method," or "confessional"
• Using comparison and needing to justify the basis of comparison
• Reflecting on your own position and its effect on the analysis

Make theory and method explicit

1. Name the framework. Whether phenomenological, historical-critical, social-theoretical,

philosophical, feminist/postcolonial, cognitive, ritual-studies, etc. — say what lens you use and why

it fits the problem.

1. Method as argument. Show how the method produces the reading; don't apply a theory decoratively.

A JAAR article can make a methodological contribution (proposing or critiquing how we study X).

1. Reflexivity. Acknowledge your standpoint and its effects; distinguish description of believers'

claims from your analytic claims. Study religion about, not for, the tradition

(non-confessional) — represent insiders' views fairly without adopting them as your conclusions.

1. Comparison done responsibly. If comparing traditions/cases, justify the tertium comparationis

(the basis of comparison); avoid decontextualized analogy and the "world religions" essentialism the

field critiques.

1. Categories under scrutiny. Be alert to loaded categories (religion, myth, ritual, mysticism,

the secular) and use them critically.

Anti-patterns

• Theory name-dropped in the intro but absent from the analysis
• Confessional/apologetic argument presented as scholarship
• Comparison with no justified basis (apples-to-oranges essentialism)
• Using contested categories uncritically as if natural kinds
• No reflexivity — writing as if the scholar's position were nowhere

Output format

【Framework】the theory/method and why it fits
【Method-as-argument】how it produces the reading / any methodological contribution
【Reflexivity】standpoint acknowledged; analytic vs. believers' claims distinguished
【Comparison (if any)】basis of comparison justified?
【Categories】loaded terms used critically?
【Next】jaar-structure-and-exposition

Method-frame fit table

JAAR publishes across textual, historical, ethnographic, philosophical, and analytic-theological

approaches, and a referee for the AAR/Oxford University Press flagship expects the frame to fit the

problem and do real work. Match your lens to its move and risk.

| Frame | Characteristic move | Risk a JAAR reader watches for |

|-------|---------------------|--------------------------------|

| Phenomenological | Describe the structure of religious experience | Sliding into the believer's voice |

| Historical-critical | Situate texts/events in their formation | Antiquarianism with no field-level claim |

| Social-theoretical | Read religion as practice, power, institution | Reduction that explains the religion away |

| Feminist / postcolonial | Surface gender, empire, the category-maker | Critique asserted, not demonstrated |

| Comparative | Juxtapose to reveal a general insight | Decontextualized "world religions" essentialism |

The insider/outsider and non-confessional line

The reflexivity norm at JAAR has a sharp edge that trips theologically trained authors: the journal

studies religion about, not for, a tradition. Hold this line:

• Represent insiders' claims fairly — then mark where your analytic claim begins.
• A believer's truth-claim is data for your analysis, not a premise of it.
• Reflexivity is not confession: stating your standpoint clarifies its effect; it does not license

advocacy.

Worked vignette: justifying a comparison's basis

The comparative-offerings essay compares a Marian shrine and a Sufi dargah. A theorist-referee asks:

on what basis?

• **Name the tertium comparationis.** Not "both are religious," which essentializes, but a specified

shared structure — a transactional contract with a saintly intercessor — defined and defended as

the unit of comparison.

• Method as argument. The comparison is not decorative; it produces the recategorization claim

that neither case yields alone — a methodological contribution about how to study transactional

devotion.

• Reflexivity. The author, raised in one tradition, states that standpoint and shows how

cross-checking against the other case guards against reading it as the norm.

• Categories under scrutiny. "Popular piety," the residual bin both cases were filed under, is

dismantled rather than used as a natural kind.

Theory/method pushback → the fix

• "Undertheorized" → show how the method produces the reading.
• "Confessional" → re-draw the about/for line; bracket believers' truth-claims.
• "Apples-to-oranges comparison" → defend the tertium comparationis.

Hedged calibration: JAAR's openness to theological method is real but conditioned — it publishes

analytic, non-confessional theology of religion, not advocacy. The editorial boundary shifts and is

best confirmed against recent issues and the journal's current submission guidelines rather than

assumed from any single statement.

Supplementary resources

• [../../resources/external_tools.md](../../resources/external_tools.md) — theory/method references in the study of religion
• [../../resources/official-source-map.md](../../resources/official-source-map.md) — JAAR publishes studies of methodology; reflexive, non-confessional scope