This Special Issue is both experimental and comparative. It appropriates diverse disciplinary idioms from the distinctive fields our authors inhabit to focus on the ever-recurrent theme of the individual and the study of religion. Here the familiar topics of belief , practice and identity come into conversation with each other from scholars in anthropology, sociology, African-American history, Asian religions, philosophy, religious studies, critical theory, and ancient history. This unashamedly eclectic venture demonstrates both the remarkable diversity enacted by the signifier, religious , and the dynamic potential of conversation between interesting scholars working on remarkably interesting topics.