Conclusion

Much has been said in the last section of the difference between a theological approach to religion and an approach of disinterested scholarship. The point of view of the believer has likewise been distinguished from that of the non-participating observer of religion.

It may, for example, be very important for one who is a committed participant in a particular religion to adopt on occasion the stance of a disinterested observer of the religious scene. The fruits of others’ neutral scholarship may equally be of great importance to the participant. No one is any the better for being ignorant of the actual historical or sociological details ofhis own religion. To stand back from one’s own faith, to examine it and other faiths with disinterested scrutiny, may be of great importance in fully understanding what one believes and why one believes it. Scholarly enquiry into one’s own faith may be thd means of uncovering beliefs and assumptions about one’s religion that are best dismissed as prejudiced and harmful. Looking at the faiths of others may give one a new insight into one’s own, in revealing how people of different cultures have coped with common problems, such as suffering and death. It may be a powerful check to the parochialism which assumes that one’s own culture represents the experience of humanity as a whole.

For the kind of reason mentioned above much theol­ogy has in fact been engaged in scholarly historical and critical research. Much of the pioneering work in the West in the global study of religions was undertaken by theologians interested in discovering the facts of the relation­ship between Christianity and the larger religious life of mankind. The best theologians have understood that one cannot articulate one’s faith without understanding it.

As we reflect upon religion in the contemporary world it is with a heightened sense of the facts of the historical antiquity, and geographical variety and extent of human culture. More and more we will come to realise accordingly the truth of Max Mueller’s dictum of 100 years ago: he who knows one religion, knows none (Mueller, 1893: 13).

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Some of the material for this chapter is taken from an article by the author in The Scottish Journal of Religious Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1980), and is reproduced by kind permission of the editor.