@article{discovery10087981, note = {This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.}, pages = {386--401}, number = {2}, journal = {Social Anthropology}, title = {Introduction for special section Crossing religious and ethnographic boundaries:the case for comparative reflection}, year = {2020}, editor = {A Maqsood and G Liberatore and L Fesenmyer}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, month = {May}, volume = {28}, issn = {1469-8676}, author = {Maqsood, A and Fesenmyer, L and Liberatore, G}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-8676.12779}, abstract = {This introduction to the special issue traces the development history of the sub-disciplines of the anthropologies of Christianity and Islam to suggest that these 'monistic' tendencies have obscured exploration and theorisation of inter-religious coexistence and encounters for people's lives and the societies in which they live. These sub-disciplinary boundaries have further led to an unintended 'provincialisation' of both geographical spaces and theoretical debates, and stalled the development of a theoretically robust anthropology of religion. This special issue argues for the value of comparative work on multi-religious encounters within particular contexts, as well as of thinking comparatively on a global scale, as a way to generate new questions and considerations in how we study religion. The final section offers a short overview of the contributions to the special issue.} }