Russell McCutcheon is one of the foremost proponents of what he calls “the critical study of religion,” that is, the shift to reflect critically on the concepts used in the academic study of religion, who invented them, and why. The critical study of religion leads to the realization that the concepts with which we think were invented by particular people, at a particular historical location, for a particular purpose. What are the philosophical implications of this? McCutcheon defends a debunking or non-realist answer and contrasts this with my realist approach, and he is right to do so. This paper argues that those involved in the critical study of religion therefore face a choice between a non-realist and a realist metaphysics, that McCutcheon’s arguments against realism fail, and that those who wish to offer any kind of materialist account in which religious social structures shape human agency and subjectivity should adopt a critical study of religion that is also realist.

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宗教研究的形而上学：Russell McCutcheon 的批判性阅读

罗素麦卡琴是他所谓的“宗教的批判性研究，”这是最重要的支持者之一，换档批判地反思宗教学术研究中使用的概念，是谁发明他们，以及为什么。宗教引线的批判性研究，以实现与我们认为的概念是由特定的人发明的，在特定的历史位置，针对特定用途。这有什么哲学意义？麦卡琴维护一个揭穿或非现实主义的答案和我的写实手法对比这一点，他是有权这样做。本文认为，那些参与宗教的批判性研究，因此面临着非现实主义和现实主义的形而上学之间的选择，那McCutcheon的对现实主义的论点失败，