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Religious studies, also known as the study of religion, is the scientific study of religion. There is no consensus on what qualifies as religion and its definition is highly contested. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing empirical , historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives.
- Anthropology Or Theology?
- Descriptive Or Normative?
- Comparison and Theory
- Religion and The Us Supreme Court
- The History of “Religion”
The academic study of religion is fundamentally an anthropological enterprise. That is, it is primarily concerned with studying people (anthropos is an ancient Greek term meaning “human being”; logos means “word” or a “rational, systematic discourse”), their beliefs, behaviors, and institutions, rather than assessing “the truth” or “truths” of thei...
Although the academic study of religion—sometimes called Comparative Religion, Religious Studies, the History of Religions, or even the Science of Religion—is concerned with judging such things as historical accuracy (e.g., Did a person named Siddhartha Gautama actually exist, and if so, when and where?) and descriptive accuracy (e.g., What do Musl...
Like virtually all scholarly disciplines in the modern university, the academic study of religion is a product of nineteenth-century Europe. Although influenced a great deal by European expansionism and colonialism (the study of religion is largely the product of Europeans encountering—through trade, exploration, and conquest—new beliefs and behavi...
Although the study of religion came to North American universities prior to World War I and, for a brief time, flourished at such schools as the University of Chicago, Penn, and Harvard, it was not until the late-1950s and early-1960s that Departments of Religious Studies were established in most public universities. In the U.S., the establishment ...
Perhaps you never thought about it before, but the very term “religion” has a history and it is not obvious just how we ought to define the term. Obviously, “religion” is an English term; therefore, we can ask, “Do non-English speakers have religions? Would an ancient Egyptian name something as ‘a religion’?” We know that our term “religion” has eq...
and universities. The academic study of religion as envisioned here is distinguished by several bounding criteria: 1. The academic study of religion must not depend upon or require of its researchers, teachers, or students any specific reli-gious belief or affiliation, race, culture, or gender. 2. The academic study of religion must be ...
The academic study of religion is an inherently interdisciplinary field, incorporating textual studies of the world's sacred texts, language studies, art, history, philosophy, anthropology, politics, economics, sociology, psychology, comparative literature and literary studies, cultural studies, gender and ethnic studies, legal studies, and other approaches in order to better understand ...
Oct 21, 2021 · The nonconfessional, academic field of religious studies (as it is often called, though it goes by other names as well, including the history of religions and comparative religion, even the science of religion) that has developed since those early introductory essays were published ostensibly spends a lot of time with “religion” and its attendant adjective and the various nouns it usually ...
Nov 22, 2022 · Religious studies, alternately known as the study of religion, is an academic field devoted to research into religious beliefs, behaviors, and institutions. It describes, compares, interprets, and explains religion, emphasizing systematic, historically based, and cross-cultural perspectives.
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study of religion, attempt to understand the various aspects of religion, especially through the use of other intellectual disciplines.. The study of religion emerged as a formal discipline during the 19th century, when the methods and approaches of history, philology, literary criticism, psychology, anthropology, sociology, economics, and other fields were brought to bear on the task of ...