Seite - 12 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Band 03/02

12 | Bärbel Beinhauer-Köhler www.jrfm.eu 2017, 3/2, 9–15 the emotional impact of media upon scholarly research as well as the different genres used in academic work. Reflection on our own perspectives and aware- ness of the recipients’ possible perceptions are necessary if our aims are to in- form and to make our methods transparent and suitable for what we want to express. the topic of religion adds another layer to the scenery. Working on religions, we are fully aware of the different emic and etic perspectives. scholars regularly adopt an intersubjective approach, but we work on topics that are normally highly subjective. Noting that a bird’s eye view may still be limited, Russell T. Mc- Cutcheon suggests we leave space for an inner perspective as well, for example in the form of direct quotations of “original voices”. he also asks us to consider what happens if the scholar working on religions has a religious faith. and we are also to reflect on how religions influence the cultures of the humanities.8 Orientalist Annemarie Schimmel (1922–2003) provides an example that runs counter to common contemporary theoretical and methodological positions. schimmel was a member of the German school of Verstehende Religionswis- senschaft, or religious studies of understanding, and adopted an interreligious approach. Working on Sufism, she came so close to Islam that she might have been Muslim herself. Many Muslims admire her work for this inner sympathy. even if the mainstream of contemporary religious studies does not want to follow her academic direction, where it is sometimes not possible to separate description from belief,9 from a didactic perspective her techniques of repre- sentation of religious content provides a surplus, in a marked comparison with a very rational presentation of facts. schimmel was able to convey and mediate an emotional dimension within mystical poetry. her approach, a product of her personality, combined the emic and the etic. about 30 years ago, the University of Göttingen’s ethnographic collection was the focus of a protest by australian aboriginals who wanted to stop a churinga, a sacred object, from being displayed as an illustration of their young men’s initiation rituals. this wooden piece represented the virility of the young men, a power threatened if the object was viewed by a woman. In this case the emic perspective caused an academic institution to change its mode of exhibi- tion. the churinga was returned to storage.10 this issue of JRFM contains three reflections on the theoretical and methodo- logical use of media in religious studies. In “Using Media to Teach Religious Studies: Reflections on Second-order Me- diatisation of religions”, Mirko roth addresses media in higher-education learn- 8 McCutcheon 1999. 9 Schimmel 1994. The book’s structure and argument lead its readers finally to a non-rational sphere where God can only be experienced. 10 Beinhauer-Köhler 2010, 129.