The study of religion in historical perspective

Abstract

The academic study of anything requires that those involved should consider at least three questions: why, what and how? The first demands that we examine our motive; the second makes us consider our material – what do we accept as admissible evidence? The third, and most difficult, level of inquiry is concerned with method: how do we deal with the material we have at hand? How do we organise it, and with what end in view (‘motive’ again)? A century ago, it was not uncommon to speak in this connection of ‘the science of religion’ (German: Religionswissenschaft) – a form of words no longer current in English. What has been identified as the foundation document carried the title Introduction to the Science of Religion (Friedrich Max Müller 1873). According to Müller, such a science of religion was to be ‘based on an impartial and truly scientific comparison of all, or at all events, of the most important religions of mankind’ (1873: 34). It was, then, to be impartial and scientific by the standards of the age and based on the best material available at the time.

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