In recent years there has been a renewed interest in textbooks, partly because they have maintained their position as an important genre. Not too many years ago - and perhaps currently as well - many considered textbooks outdated or archaic compared with technological advances such as the Internet and different kinds of educational software. Despite these changes, textbooks for school subjects and for academic studies continue to be in demand. Textbooks seem to constitute a genre in which established truths are conveyed, and may thus represent stable forces in a world of flux and rapid changes. Textbook Gods offers perspectives on representations of religion and religions in textbooks. The contributions emerge from different contexts, ranging from European countries, to North America, Japan and Australia.
Bengt-Ove Andreassen is Associated Professor at the Department of Education at University of Troms He is also guest scholar in religious studies at University of Bergen during 2011-2013. One of his areas for research is religion in education and how perspectives from the academic study of religion can be applied to develop education about religion in public schools. James R. Lewis is Professor at the University of Troms. His most recent books include Sacred Schisms (edited with Sarah Lewis, Cambridge University Press, 2009), Children of Jesus and Mary (with Nicolas Levine, Oxford University Press, 2010), Islamic Sects and Movements (Oxford University Press, forthcoming), Modern Satanism (with Asbjn Dyrendal and Jesper A. Petersen, Oxford University Press, forthcoming) and Introduction to New Religious Movements (with Danielle Kirby, Routledge, forthcoming). He is editor of the Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements.
"...all anthropologists with an interest in religion, and all religious studies scholars, should experience this book, and I hope that it inspires similar studies of the U.S., southern Europe, and the non-Western textbook industry." -- Jack David Eller, Anthropology Review Database

Bengt-Ove Andreassen

James R Lewis