Christian Imaginations of the Religious Other A History of Religionization

“Professor Moyaert is one of the world’s best scholars of Comparative Theology. In this magisterial new work, she helps scholars of religion to better learn how religious images, whether drawn with pictures or words, are crucial to how we understand ourselves and each other.”
—Amir Hussain, President, American Academy of Religion

“Breathtaking in scope and detail, Moyaert offers an original history of the ways Christians have projected distorted images of their religious ‘others,’ with devastating material consequences. Her illuminating story of the past is a searchlight for our present.”
—Jeannine Hill Fletcher - Professor of Theology, Fordham University

A comprehensive account of the creation of Christian normativity and the categorization of religious “others”

In Christian Imaginations of the Religious Other, Marianne Moyaert explores the genealogy of religionization, the ways Christians throughout history named, categorized, essentialized, and governed non-Christians in a broad range of socio-political contexts. With a longue durée approach, this innovative volume critically analyzes the complex intersections of patterns of religionization and offers original insights into changes in Christian normativity and attitudes toward non-Christian “otherness.”

Incorporating contemporary research and the most recent issues in the field, the author surveys religionization in different eras, examines legal regulations and disciplinary practices, discusses the roles of racialization, sexualization, and ethnicization in the unequal treatment of Christianity’s others, and much more. Throughout the text, readers are encouraged to connect the lasting effects of religionization with their perception, interpretation, and discourse with the religious “other” in their everyday lives.

Explores how Christians created, used, and adapted religionized categories of non-Christians through the centuries

Christian Imaginations of the Religious Other traces the genealogy of religionization, the various ways Christians throughout history have created a sense of religious normativity while simultaneously producing various categories of non-Christian "otherness." Covering a broad expanse of processes, practices, and socio-political contexts, this innovative volume analyzes the complex intersections of patterns of religionization in different eras while investigating their entanglements with racialization, sexualization, and ethnicization.

With a readable and accessible style, Marianne Moyaert offers a nuanced and well-balanced critical analysis of how and why Christianity’s otherswere named, categorized, essentialized, and governed by those exemplifying Christian normativity in Western European society. The author takes a longue durée approach — a long-term perspective on history that extends past human memory and the archaeological record — that integrates different case studies and a variety of ecclesial, theological, and literary documents. Throughout the text, Moyaert demonstrates how religionization shaped the ways Christians classified people, organized Christian societies, interacted with different Christian and non-Christian groups, and more.

• Surveys the relationship between shifts in Christian normativity and the way non-Christians are imagined
• Helps readers connect the lasting effects of patterns of religionization with their everyday experiences
• Discusses the role of Christian expansion in the differential and unequal treatment of Christianity’s others
• Examines legal regulations and disciplinary practices that were established to define the boundaries between Christians and non-Christians
• Incorporates a wide range of scholarly resources, cutting-edge research, and the most recent insights and issues in the field
• Includes textboxes with helpful summaries, illustrations, and commentary in each chapter

Christian Imaginations of the Religious Other: A History of Religionization is an excellent textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses ininterreligious studies, comparative theology, theological approaches to religious diversity, Christian-Jewish-Muslim relations, race and religion, and theorizing religion.

"Professor Moyaert is one of the world’s best scholars of comparative theology. In this magisterial new work, she helps scholars of religion to better learn how religious images, whether drawn with pictures or words, are crucial to how we understand ourselves and each other." - Amir Hussain, President, American Academy of Religion

"Breathtaking in scope and detail, Moyaert offers an original history of the ways Christians have projected distorted images of their religious ‘others,’ with devastating material consequences. Her illuminating story of the past is a searchlight for our present." - Jeannine Hill Fletcher, Professor of Theology, Fordham University

"Christian Imaginations is a superb study of the role that Western political programs play in the historical construction of identity boundaries. Analytically erudite and socially committed, Moyaert’s book powerfully interrogates what counts as religion making this text a must-read for anyone interested in interreligious studies." - Santiago Slabodsky, Florence and Robert Kaufman Professor in Jewish Studies, Hofstra University

"Raising the historical formation of religious identities to the level of contemporary treatments of gender and racialization, Christian Imaginations of the Religious Other is essential reading for students of religion." - Michelle Voss, Professor of Theology and Past Principal, Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto

"Crafting a Western European mosaic of religionization's turbulent history, Moyaert unveils how religious identities are constructed, hierarchies function, and their relevance for engaging diverse societies today worldwide." - Hans Gustafson, Adjunct Professor of Theology, University of St. Thomas