Unsettling Man in Europe: Wynter and the Race–Religion Constellation

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I will provide specific comments and then a more general reflection on the article:

line 23 - there is a jump between the first and third sentences. 

line 53 - referring to Wynter's work as brilliant is inappropriate

There are some issues with the structure of the introduction that should be reworked.  In the current version, the first few pages a quite disjointed jumping from very brief descriptions of Wynter's work to the authors argument in ways that are difficult to follow. For the most part the introductory section does follow a good, readable structure. However, to organize the introduction (and the remainder of the paper) in a manner more in line with the argument being presented, the author may wish to start with their interest in the concept of dehumanization and state that the paper will evaluate how Wynter's work on race can help with the development of an understanding of the relationship between dehumanization and religion. Doing so would allow the author to work around the at times difficult attempt to stretch notions of race and racism in transhistorical and intercultural analyses. 

It would also be useful for the author to engage in a discussion with the many others who have argued both positively and negatively about the universalist nature of Christianity. In doing so, it might be necessary to indicate which Christianity (historical, liturgical, practical, cultural, etc) they are describing. Do all versions of Christianity fit with the exclusionary picture of religious racism or is that term falsely universalizing certain historical Christianities? Where do European heretics fit into the pre-1492 'Enemies of Christ'?

Again, I think the author's strongest arguments are those that use the concept of dehumanization to argue against a clear, easy distinction of religious and racial codes. 

Overall, this is a very well written paper that is perhaps overly deferential to Wynter when the author's own argument is much more persuasive.

Author Response

Thank you for the suggestions on how to re-structure the introduction. I have made some changes as suggested.

Thank you for making it clear that I need to better define what I mean by Christianity and also to distinguish it from lived religion. I will make this explicit.

This is already answered in the tex, line 480 onwards

Reviewer 2 Report

This article is excellent. This is one of those rare cases where it is basically ready to publish as written. I have one concern/recommendation that should be a minor fix, but I strongly encourage the author to address it. While the terminology of "religious racism" is completely appropriate in this article and well-explained (particularly when discussed as 'religious' racism), it is important to note that this phrase has already been developed to refer to discrimination and violence against African diaspora religions. This phrase originates among Africana religious communities in Brazil and the bulk of this scholarship is in Portuguese; however, there have been several publications that have used this phrase in English language scholarship in the past few years as well, particularly to refer to the widespread attacks against Afro-Brazilian religious communities in the 21st century. If the author is able to read Portuguese, I strongly suggest that they read some of the scholarship on "racismo religioso" because there are a multitude of reasons that scholars and activists have given for the use of this term and some of them might be very fruitful for the author to think about to make this work even richer. If the author cannot read Portuguese, it is worth taking a look at some of the resources in English about the use of the term in this context, if for no other reason than to give a nod to the pre-existence of this term and to clarify whether the author believes that "religious racism" in this concept is the same phenomenon or not.  There is a roundtable on "religious racism in Brazil" in the Journal of Africana Religions (2021) that might be a good place to start. 

Author Response

Thank you for your positive review.

Thank you very much for pointing me towards the origins of this term, I will check the English suggestions and ask a Brazilian scholar I work with to help me with the Portuguese suggestions.

We have looked into it and winter's use pre-dates this literature but also has a different meaning (pre-modern and pre-colonisation of Africa, connected to Europe, islam etc), that being said, the Brazilian scholar I asked is going to try to explore how these might intersect or connect. I added a footnote to say this.