Religion and Innovation: Charting the Territory

The chapter analyses how the vocabulary of innovation has been adopted and adapted by scholars of religion in their theorizing about transformations in the religious domain, such as the formation of new religious movements and ways in which religion has proved resilient to large-scale modernization and rationalization processes. Moreover, the paper proposes a heuristic distinction between three dimensions of the interrelations between religion and innovation. (a) Innovation in religion: how is innovation understood, experienced and practiced within religious traditions and communities? (b) Religion in innovation: how do religious traditions and communities contribute to innovation in various otherwise non-religious contexts? (c) The Religion of innovation: has the vocabulary of innovation itself become a vehicle for quasi-religious discourses? Combining this three-fold distinction with an analysis of the normative presuppositions of innovation-speak, the chapter concludes with suggestions for future research.