Paper short abstract:

In the contemporary study of religion it has become common to talk of concepts as tools that we use for the purposes of research. This is seen as a preferable and useful way how to think of the academic vocabulary. This paper intends to take a closer look at what this appears to actually mean.

Paper long abstract:

In the past few decades it has become common to talk of the words and terminology scholars use for the study of religion as conceptual tools. This development is analogous to the understanding and talk about concepts in other disciplines. Yet, in the context of the study of religion this is also clearly an attempt to avoid and overcome problems apparent in earlier study of religion scholarship where far too often concepts were assumed to be straightforward and problem-free conceptual references and depictions of realities. The more recent understanding of concepts as tools – thus not just as representational designations – has certainly been helpful, but it has not been completely free of issues either. In this presentation I intend present an analysis of this currently very attractive way of talking about concepts and I will offer an analysis of some of the more noteworthy issues that threaten to undermine this kind of thinking if not addressed properly. The most significant potential issue has to do with the idea of ‘usefulness’ in relation to conceptual tools. This idea is used to evaluate and determine whether one or another notion provides a tool for analysis or not and thus, in case of a negative assessment, is seen as grounds for the dismissal of the analysed notion. However, rarely is the criteria of usefulness actually discussed in detail. This omission clearly can become a problem. In the latter part of my paper I will highlight the importance of a proper criterion and discuss some of the ways how it could be possible to conceptualize the idea of usefulness in a more meaningful way. It will be argued that without a proper criterion the argument of usefulness risks becoming nothing more than a rhetorical tool for the dismissal of unwanted conceptualizations.