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Jim Kanaris

Academic title(s): 

Associate Professor

Jim Kanaris
Contact Information
Address: 

3520 University Street, Room 300
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 2A7, Canada

Phone: 
514-398-2908
Fax number: 
514-398-6665
Email address: 
jim.kanaris [at] mcgill.ca
Degree(s): 

B.A. (Concordia)
M.A., Ph.D. (McGill)

Specialization: 

Philosophy of Religion, methodology, relationship of philosophy and theology, Continental thought, Bernard Lonergan

Biography: 

A native of Montreal, Jim Kanaris gained a B.A. in theology and philosophy from Concordia University in 1993. He continued his studies in philosophy of religion at 51吃瓜网(M.A. 1995, Ph.D. (Hon) 2000).聽Since 2000, Professor Kanaris聽teaches classes in the areas of theory and method, and聽philosophy of religion at McGill.

Courses: 

RELG 207. Introduction to the Study of Religions.

Credits: 3
Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts)
Terms offered: Winter 2026
View offerings for in Visual Schedule Builder.

Description

This course is an introduction to classic and contemporary approaches to the academic study of religions. This includes perspectives from philosophy, theology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, phenomenology, and feminism. Students are also exposed to applications of these perspectives from visiting scholars who treat some aspect of a religious tradition in light of current-day interests and events. The primary objective is to introduce students to the principal theories and methods that have shaped our understanding of religion, its various meanings as well as its roles and functions in society.
  • Restriction(s): Not open to students who have taken RELG 255.
  • Winter

Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.


RELG 456. Theories of Religion.

Credits: 3
Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts)
Terms offered: Fall 2025
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Description

The history of the academic study of religion from its beginnings in the 19th century until the present. Key texts by figures such as Max Muller, Sigmund Freud, Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, Mircea Eliade, Claude Levi-Strauss and Clifford Geertz will be studied.
  • Fall and Winter
  • Restriction: For Religious Studies Majors and Honours students or with permission of the Instructor.

Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.


RELG 535. Currents in Philosophy of Religion.

Credits: 3
Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts)
Terms offered: Winter 2026
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Description

This seminar brings to bear work of theorists of religion on the philosophy of religion and on theology. It features issues of method that overlap with stages in the study of religion common to both the social sciences and humanities.
  • Prerequisite: RELG 456 or RELG 555 or permission of instructor
  • Restrictions: Open to graduate students, final year honours undergraduates, and final year undergraduates with instructor permission.

Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.


RELG 555. Honours Seminar.

Credits: 3
Offered by: Religious Studies (Faculty of Arts)
This course is not offered this catalogue year.

Description

Current trends in the study of religion, including the approaches of critical theory, feminism, post-modernism, and post-colonialism.
  • Winter
  • Restriction: For Religious Studies Honours students or with permission of the Chair of the Religious Studies B.A. Committee

Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.


RELG 745. Understanding Religious Studies.

Credits: 3
Offered by: Religious Studies (Graduate Studies)
Terms offered: Fall 2025
View offerings for in Visual Schedule Builder.

Description

Interdisciplinary seminar on the concept of religious studies.
  • Restriction: This course is available only to students in Ph.D. 2 or higher

Most students use Visual Schedule Builder (VSB) to organize their schedules. VSB helps you plan class schedules, travel time, and more.

Current research: 

Research areas

Philosophy of Religious Studies
Methods in theology and religious studies
Philosophical and theological hermeneutics
Modernity/Postmodernity

Research interests and current work in progress

Professor Kanaris鈥檚 area of specialty is the thought of Canadian philosopher-theologian Bernard Lonergan (1904-84). He has published numerous books and articles on the topic, including the co-edited volume entitled (2004). He has also edited volumes of philosophy of religion such as (2013) and (2018), both based on symposia held at the School of Religious Studies.

His research interests center on broaching problematic methodological and epistemological issues that intersect with the study of 鈥渞eligion鈥�. In the area of religious studies per se, this translates into the interface of religion and the sciences, social and natural. In philosophy of religion the topic converges on an analysis of different thinking styles, analytic and continental.

Professor聽Kanaris mitigates these issues through a differentiated appreciation of knowledge acquisition located in self-critical reflexivity, which he calls 鈥渆necstasis鈥�. While facilitated by protracted study of Lonergan, this programmatic interest has evolved in conversation with the work of poststructuralist philosophers. A book-length treatment is currently at press entitled 鈥淭owards A Philosophy of Religious Studies: Enecstatic Explorations鈥� (State University of New York Press).

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