It’s always an enlightening and somewhat disquieting exercise to explore a book store and see how they categorize their books, particularly in the areas of social science and religion(s). How books are categorized says a lot about how we think (or think we should think, or are led to think) about the contents of those books. Does hagiography belong in the history, biography, or religion(s) section? Perhaps all three? Will some book stores arrange them differently, and why?
Today as I was setting to go out and enjoy some of the 17 hours and 22 minutes of daylight we have today, I glanced at the back cover of a book I’m using as background for my thesis. At the very top, in bold print, it reads,
PENGUIN RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY.
And directly below, a quote from the book, titled The Orthodox Church,
‘Orthodoxy claims to be universal’.
I wonder how the author, Timothy Ware, now Metropolitan Kallistos, auxiliary bishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, feels about this arrangement, the quote ‘Orthodoxy claims to be universal’ following directly after the classification ‘mythology’. What does it say about the publisher’s view of the subject that religion and mythology form a single category? Why religion and mythology, why are they apparently distinct within the category? What is the relationship between publisher, author, and reader, and does this categorization exert any sort of influence on the reader’s perceptions of the content or the author?
I’m not saying this is a bad category per se, and of course I realise that sometimes these arrangements are often the result of ‘pragmatic’ decisions, but the direction our ‘pragmatic’ decision-making takes says a lot about our priorities and values. Categories and systematizations are not neutral, not always even benign. It’s always worth stepping back and taking a second look at things we ordinarily take for granted.
Amazon.com: The Orthodox Church: New EditionImage may be NSFW.
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Image: back cover of The Orthodox Church by Timothy Ware. Credit: Daniel Favand
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
