Peter Bernard Clarke (25 October 1940 – 24 June 2011) was a British scholar of religion and founding editor of the ''

Journal of Contemporary Religion The ''Journal of Contemporary Religion'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal which covers anthropological, sociological, psychological and philosophical aspects of religion. History and format The journal was established in 1985 as ''R ...

''.Biography
in

Debrett's Debrett's () is a British professional coaching company and publisher and authority on etiquette and behaviour, founded in 1769 with the publication of the first edition of ''The New Peerage''. The company takes its name from its founder, John ...

Academic career

Clarke served as professor emeritus of the History and Sociology of Religion at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

, having taught there from 1994 to 2003, the Director of the Centre for New Religions at King's College, and a professorial member of the Faculty of Theology at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

(since 2003); earlier in his career (1974–1978) he was Professor of African History at the

University of Ibadan The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public university located in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Initially founded as the University College Ibadan in 1948, it maintained its affiliation with the University of London. In 1962, it became an independe ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

. Clarke inaugurated a series of annual conferences on new religious movements at King's, which brought together academics from a variety of backgrounds. These conferences eventually evolved into the "INFORM" (Information Network Focus on Religious Movements) seminars. Clarke was the founding editor of the ''

'', established by the Centre for New Religions in 1985 (the journal appeared under the title ''Religion Today'' until 1995).Clarke, Peter Bernard. ''New Religions in Global Perspective: A Study of Religious Change in the Modern World'', Routledge 2006, p. 46, Clarke's research fields have spanned Islamic movements as well as new religions derived from African, African Brazilian and Japanese roots. His publications include ''Religion Defined and Explained'' 1993, with Peter Byrne), ''Japanese New Religions: In Global Perspective'' (2006, editor), ''New Religions in Global Perspective: A Study of Religious Change in the Modern World'', the ''Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements'' (2005, editor), and ''The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion'' (2008, editor); he is also the author and editor of another 20 books and 100 scholarly articles.

Definitions of religion

In ''Religion Defined and Explained'', co-written with Peter Byrne, Clarke advocated an elastic definition of religion based on "family resemblance": while religions have "a characteristic set of features", "there will be no single feature or set of features found in each and every example of religion", and "there will be no limits to be set in advance to the kind of characteristic features newly discovered or developing religions might be found to exemplify, nor will there be absolute limits to the additional features such new examples could add to the set". Clarke and Byrne argued that "the various examples of religion will then be related by a network of relationships rather than shared possession of necessary and sufficient conditions for membership of the class." Even so, based on the family resemblance, "one will be able to say of newly found examples whether they are religions or not." In discussing

Australian aboriginal Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

and African "primal religions" in a chapter of ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of World Religions'', Clarke asserted that terms such as "primal" or "traditional" religions are "controversial", as they are often "wrongly taken to refer to static, unchanging and primitive, or unsophisticated religions found in underdeveloped societies"; Clarke made clear that he was not using the terms in this way, but used them in the sense of "religions that have always been an integral part of the culture of a society", unlike religions "with global ambitions such as Christianity and Islam".

Death

Clarke died on 24 June 2011, due to complications arising from

deep-vein thrombosis Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a type of venous thrombosis involving the formation of a blood clot in a deep vein, most commonly in the legs or pelvis. A minority of DVTs occur in the arms. Symptoms can include pain, swelling, redness, and enl ...

. In view of his contributions to the field, a decision was made to retain his name as the editor of the ''Journal of Contemporary Religion'' until the end of the year 2011. The Sociology of Religion Study Group within the British Sociological Association renamed its 2012 postgraduate essay competition the 2012 Peter B. Clarke Memorial Prize.

References

External links

*
Home page
at the Oxford University website {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Peter B. 1940 births 2011 deaths 20th-century British social scientists 21st-century British social scientists Academics of King's College London Alumni of King's College London Alumni of SOAS University of London Alumni of the University of Oxford British sociologists Researchers of new religious movements and cults Sociologists of religion Academic staff of the University of Ibadan