Online Resources: Organizations

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• The American Academy of Religion
  "Founded in 1909, the AAR is the world's largest association of academics who research or teach topics related to religion."
• The Council of Societies for the Study of Religion
  "The Council of Societies for the Study of Religion (CSSR) is a federation of learned societies founded in the early 1970s. Its executive office is hosted by the Department of Religious Studies at Rice University. Its aim is to coordinate work among scholars who study religion, past and present. The Council therefore provides a forum for scholars to exchange ideas and information about religion and its study. The CSSR played this crucial role in the founding of the North American field in the early 1970s and continues to help scholars to share the results of their research, across differing specialties and approaches."
• The Society of Biblical Literature
  "The Society of Biblical Literature is the oldest and largest international scholarly membership organization in the field of biblical studies. Founded in 1880, the Society has grown to over 8,500 international members including teachers, students, religious leaders and individuals from all walks of life who share a mutual interest in the critical investigation of the Bible. The Society's mission to foster biblical scholarship is a simple, comprehensive statement that encompasses the Society's aspirations. Our vision is to offer members opportunities for mutual support, intellectual growth, and professional development."
• The Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy
  "SPEP is the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, a professional organization devoted to supporting philosophy inspired by continental European traditions. With a membership of over 2500 people, it is one of the largest American philosophical societies, and strives to encourage work not only in the philosophical traditions of phenomenology and existentialism, but also in all those areas commonly associated with 'continental philosophy,' such as animal studies, critical theory, cultural studies, deconstruction, environmental philosophy, feminism, German idealism, hermeneutics, philosophy of the Americas, post-colonialism, post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, queer theory and race theory. We foster discussion on all philosophical topics, from art and nature to politics and science, and in the classic philosophical disciplines of metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics. SPEP is actively committed to philosophical pluralism and to the support of historically under-represented groups in the philosophical profession."
• The Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology
  "The Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology seeks to promote inquiry at the intersection of philosophy and theology, through the study of phenomenology, deconstruction, feminism, Radical Orthodoxy, and related fields."
• The American Philosophical Association
  "The American Philosophical Association is the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States. Founded in 1900, its mission is to promote the exchange of ideas among philosophers, to encourage creative and scholarly activity in philosophy, to facilitate the professional work and teaching of philosophers, and to represent philosophy as a discipline. "
• The Society for Values in Higher Education
  "The Society for Values in Higher Education is a fellowship of teachers and others who care deeply about ethical issues - such as integrity, diversity, social justice and civic responsibility - facing higher education and the wider society. We believe that such values call for study, reflection, discussion, and action. We pursue these activities through publications, projects, regional gatherings, and an annual national meeting."
• American Studies Association
  "The American Studies Association is the nation's oldest and largest association devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and history."
• The International Institute for Hermeneutics
  "The International Institute for Hermeneutics facilitates the fusion of horizons of human meaning through historical, philosophical, and theological research. The IIH is founded upon the conviction that interdisciplinary, inter-religious, and inter-linguistic discussion must be at the forefront of the pluralistic university of the twenty first century. In pursuit of this goal, the IIH opens a forum for interdisciplinary and multi-lingual collaboration on hermeneutics, particularly, though not exclusively, in philosophy, theology, and comparative literature. Through seminars, lectures, conferences, and publishing, the IIH situates academic hermeneutic praxis, the concrete activity of interpreting texts, within the framework of general hermeneutic theory. Although primarily a research institute, the IIH has a view to the application of hermeneutics in teaching. Its mandate is to facilitate the uncovering and reflective analysis of the hermeneutic presuppositions and foundational disputes operating within the academy, inspire research in hermeneutics, and assist university departments in including hermeneutics in their pedagogy."
• Association of Asian Studies
  "The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) - the largest society of its kind, with approximately 7,000 members worldwide - is a scholarly, non-political, non-profit professional association open to all persons interested in Asia."
• American Oriental Society
  "The American Oriental Society is the oldest learned society in the United States devoted to a particular field of scholarship. The Society was founded in 1842, preceded only by such distinguished organizations of general scope as the American Philosophical Society (1743), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1780), and the American Antiquarian Society (1812). From the beginning its aims have been humanistic. The encouragement of basic research in the languages and literatures of Asia has always been central in its tradition. This tradition has come to include such subjects as philology, literary criticism, textual criticism, paleography, epigraphy, linguistics, biography, archaeology, and the history of the intellectual and imaginative aspects of Oriental civilizations, especially of philosophy, religion, folklore and art. The scope of the Society's purpose is not limited by temporal boundaries: All sincere students of man and his works in Asia, at whatever period of history are welcomed to membership."
• International Association of Buddhist Studies
  "The International Association of Buddhist Studies (IABS) is a learned society dedicated to promoting and suppporting scholarship in Buddhist Studies in a spirit of non-sectarian tolerance and with scientific research and communication as preeminent objectives."
• North American Association for the Study of Religion (NAASR)
  "The North American Association for the Study of Religion (NAASR) was initially formed in 1985 by E. Thomas Lawson, Luther H. Martin, and Donald Wiebe, to encourage the historical, comparative, structural, theoretical and cognitive approaches to the study of religion among North American scholars; to represent North American scholars of religion at the international level; and to sustain communication between North American scholars and their international colleagues engaged in the study of religion."
• International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR)
  "The International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR) is a worldwide body of national and regional associations for the academic study of religion"
• Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR)
  "The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion stimulates, promotes, and communicates social scientific research about religious institutions and experiences. Founded in 1949, SSSR fosters interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration among scholars from sociology, religious studies, psychology, political science, economics, international studies, gender studies, and many other fields. Its flagship publication, the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, is the most cited resource in the field."
• Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER)
  "The Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER) is a research division of the Center for Inquiry. Since its 1983 founding in Washington, DC, the Committee has worked to encourage humanistic, critical and non-parochial approaches to the study of religious traditions and institutions and to develop programs that promote the public understanding of religion in an international context. "

• The Martin Marty Center for the advanced study of religion (University of Chicago)
  "The Martin Marty Center is the institute for advanced research in all fields of the study of religion at the University of Chicago Divinity School. It provides facilities, staff, and financial support for research pursued by the Divinity School faculty, University of Chicago graduate students, and affiliated scholars from around the world. Through a variety of consultations, conferences, and publications, the Center brings scholarly perspectives to bear on religious questions facing the wider public, while encouraging scholars to situate their academic questions within a broader cultural frame of reference."
• Religious Studies Programs in Canada and the United States
  Compiled by Gene Thursby, University of Florida.
  
• Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs (Boston University)
  "CURA is a center for research, publication and education on one of the most strategic questions in the contemporary world: How does culture (in the sense of beliefs, values and lifestyles) affect economic and political developments world-wide? Since, in most of the world, religion is at the core of culture, CURA has paid special attention to the role of religion in world affairs. While CURA's agenda is of obvious academic interest, it touches increasingly on practical policy concerns. Thus CURA has sought to communicate its findings to government, the business community and the media."
• Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion (Emory Univeristy)
  "The Center for the Study of Law and Religion (CSLR) focuses its research and teaching on the fundamentals of faith, freedom, and the family - the three things for which people will die. By hosting international conferences on Christianity and democracy, religion and human rights, proselytism and pluralism, sex, marriage and family; by publishing more than 300 new volumes; by developing relationships with more than 1,600 scholars from around the world in dozens of disciplines; and by educating and launching dozens of joint degree students, the CSLR has had the privilege to help shape a major new discipline, now emulated by dozens of other universities around the world."
• Center for Religion and Media (New York University)
  "The Center's goal is to develop and broaden interdisciplinary and cross-cultural scholarship, pedagogy, and public knowledge of religion and media at New York University. While this project was conceived before September 11, that event and its aftermath have dramatized the need for understanding the spread of religious ideas and practices through a variety of media."
• Center for the Study of Religion (Princeton University)
  "The Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University is a major academic initiative that aims to encourage scholarly research, teaching, and public discussion about religion through diverse perspectives of the humanities and social sciences. "
• Center for Religion, the Professions and the Public (University of Missouri)
  "The Center on Religion & the Professions works to improve the religious literacy of professionals, to help them serve a diverse public."
• The Erasmus Institute (University of Notre Dame)
  "The Erasmus Institute exists to enhance the role of Catholic intellectual traditions in contemporary scholarship through programs including residential postdoctoral fellowships, summer seminars for undergraduates aspiring to graduate school, an annual lecture series, conferences, and publications. Established in 1997 and named after the 16th-century Catholic scholar and reformer, the Erasmus Institute furthers the University of Notre Dame's pursuit of the often unexpected implications of Catholic intellectual traditions for human learning."
• Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society (University of Pennsylvania)
  "Established within the School of Arts and Sciences (SAS) in 2004, the Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society (PRRUCS) is dedicated to enriching and institutionalizing undergraduate liberal arts lecture courses and seminars in which religion is a central, topical, or thematic focus; supporting empirical "faith-factor" research on religion, especially as it relates to U.S. urban communities and contemporary social problems; and disseminating widely significant policy-relevant research ideas and findings."
• Center for Research on Civic Culture (University of Southern California)
  "The Center for Religion and Civic Culture is a research unit of the USC College of Letters, Arts & Sciences. CRCC investigates the civic role of religion and collaborates with congregations, scholars, funders, and faith-based organizations. CRCC is a catalyst for interdisciplinary research and innovative partnerships in the community and at the University of Southern California."
• Center on Religion and Democracy (University of Virginia)
• Center for Studies on New Religions
  "An international network of associations of scholars working in the field of new religious movements," based in Torino, Italy. Contains good articles.
• Institute on Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS)
  "IRAS is a non-denominational, independent society with three purposes: 1. to promote creative efforts leading to the formulation, in the light of contemporary knowledge, of effective doctrines and practices for human welfare; 2. to formulate dynamic and positive relationships between the concepts developed by science and the goals and hopes of humanity expressed through religion; 3. to state human values and contemporary knowledge in such universal and valid terms that they may be understood by all peoples, whatever their cultural background and experience, and provide a basis for world-wide cooperation. "