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The Invention of World Religions: Or, How European Universalism Was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism
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Rating:  - The contributions are mainly historical
Masuzawa describes this book not as a criticism of contemporary religious studies but as an archaeology of texts throughout the 19th century that preceded these studies. The last text discussed is from 1923. The book proceeds like this:
A position is taken in some older texts that Christianity is the only universally true religion, while all other religions are doomed and limited in scope. Masuzawa's thesis is that the early 20th century's pluralistic notion of "world religions" was a continuation of the biases found in the older Christian-centric view, or, to be more exact, not those exact biases, but either their offshoots after they had been transformed to seek after a more general "European hegemony" or possibly independent biases of a similar nature.
The text investigates different movements in religious and cultural studies, where precedents for certain biased behaviors among Europeans are claimed. Again, whether they are intended to be seen as part of one lineage leading up to "world religions" or as independent developments is open.
Only the final chapter addresses the problem of pluralism hosting Eurocentrism in a study of the writing of one author, Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923), in which Masuzawa claims to spot license for bigotry inside the religious freedom granted in a pluralistic scenario.
One criticism might contrast the "worst-case" pluralism that Masuzawa sees in Troeltsch with how policies like multiculturalism have actually been implemented, which have only devalued European tradition.
Take away the spotty analysis and you have a reasonable contribution to the history of comparative religious studies. Especially useful is the history of the old sense of "world religion," that is, the view that some religions were proper for the whole world to adopt while others were limited. This should have edged the rating up to 3 stars, but it is so frustrating to see Masuzawa brush so close to pertinent points only to seem to feel an immediate need to force the subject matter into a conspiracy by scholars to assert European command. There is so quick of a rush to do this that it limits the analysis and feels intellectually degrading because of its transparency.
Some examples:
-She asserts that because F. Max Mueller categorized religions in terms of "revealed religions" (religions based on inspired teachings, like Christianity or Islam) and "natural religions" (like animism), "to call a religion 'revealed' amounts to claiming it is a true religion coming from above, in contradistinction to others that are 'natural' ... or mundanely and humanly manufactured, hence made up, 'false' religions." Really?
-Masuzawa thinks it is strange for Mueller's 50-volume "Sacred Books of the East" (1879-1910) to contain so many texts from Indo-European source languages (41 out of 50 volumes), and suggests this comes from Indo-European favoritism, but does not address the fact that the sacred texts in Sanskrit of Hinduism and Buddhism comprise an utterly huge corpus, and so logically such texts would be over-represented. But of course it must have been due to some kind of bias...
-Islam's recognition of Hindus as "people of the book" was an "ingenious" breakthrough even though it was done under imperialistic motivation, while the West's embrace of religious pluralism is a scheme to assert European hegemony.
Rating:  - Necessity is Still the Mother of Invention
Well, this is a good, thought-provoking book in a number of ways, but like so many other "Invention of" academic titles it promises way more than it ends up delivering. In this case, the invention of the category "world religion" is not really discussed and analyzed; rather, the book covers in much interesting detail the category's prehistory, as it were, including prior category conceptualizations and the confused (and confusing) welter of ideas supposedly leading up to the appearance of "world religions" in the early 20th century. Masuzawa acknowledges this in the introduction, but then this still begs the question why not actually tackle the "invention" itself (or change the title)? Also, the weakness of the "discourse analysis" method rears its ugly head here, in that, as she admits herself, she is unable to propose a better conceptual scheme and set of categories in place of "world religions"--this only leads me to suspect that the category is "hegemonic" because it is indeed a sound one that best helps us think about the phenomenon in question.
Unlike many such postmodern books that claim to use critical theory to supposedly debunk hegemonic concepts and ideologies, though, Masuzawa writes in a clear, crisp manner free of the usual barbaric jargon (most of the time). And instead of relying on an intricate cobweb of French critical theorists and other academic writers to patch together a tenuous politically strident sermon, she has certainly done extensive research in the primary sources (some of which are hard to find and obscure now) and bases her argument carefully on what she has dug up, including relevant citations quite to the point. This makes the book compelling and interesting despite its other drawbacks. The chapter on Max Muller is worth its weight in gold because of this, and the chapter on the evolving European awareness of "Buddhism" (yes, sigh, even this term gets a dose of deconstruction in this book) is likewise strong.
A sort of post-colonial political correctness infects the discussion of "Islam" (which doesn't get deconstructed, for that matter), however. European imperialism is always coded as aggressive and negative if in a subtle, understated manner, while the Muslim empire stretching from Spain to Indonesia is described in the most glowing of terms. Religious scholars who doubted Islam's status as a "world religion" because it converted infidels at sword point are taken to task by Masuzawa for prejudicially portraying Islam as virulent, when the violent nature of Islam's spread is well-attested as a historical fact plain and simple. While her analysis of the framework by which they explained this phenomenon is interesting and not without merit, it is weakened by this strained and stubborn refusal to consider the possibility that their characterizations of Buddhism as "peaceful" and Islam as "militant" might be due to more than just imperialist ideology and actually have some basis in empirical reality.
There were a host of other minor things I found either frustrating or fascinating about the book, but in general I can say that, despite my reservations about the author's method, she does lead anyone who studies "world religions" as a subject to consciously question, examine, and ponder their presuppositions and assumptions, and this is always and ever a valuable and necessary exercise.
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