Religion as a Subject of Academic Inquiry

The academic study of religion, commonly known as “religious studies” (or sometimes as “comparative religion” or “history of religions”) is a relatively recent development. Prior to the European Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, it rarely occurred to anyone to think of a religion as an entity that could be separated from other aspects of culture, and therefore as something that could be defined as a distinct category and studied as such.

William James defined religion as “the feelings, acts and experiences of individual men in their solitude.” This Orthodox Christian priest sits alone in the Amhara region of northwestern Ethiopia.

The academic study of religion is generally distinct from theology, the field of inquiry that focuses on considering the nature of the divine. Unlike religious studies, theology is an important example of doing and being religious, which naturally invites consideration of the supernatural and of the “truth” of religious claims. Religious studies, like most other academic pursuits, is to a large extent based on an approach to knowledge that depends on analysis of empirical data.

Religious affiliations of majority populations in the world today. Some countries have large populations of minority affiliations. In Germany, for example, there are nearly as many Catholics as Protestants.

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The Definitional Challenge

A natural outcome of the Enlightenment impulse toward categorically separating religion from other aspects of culture has been the attempt to produce a universal definition of the term. Scholars from various academic disciplines have struggled with this challenge without having produced a single definition that pleases everyone. Many theorists today dismiss the challenge as futile, and some even go so far as to argue that use of the term religion in academic study should be abandoned altogether because of its ambiguity and misleading inferences. Most scholars involved in religious studies, however, agree that they are studying basically the same subject, and for lack of a better term most are content with calling it “religion.”

The relevance of defining “religion” can be understood through an analogy that compares religions to houses. Embarking on a study of religions without concern over what, exactly, we are studying would be akin to setting off for foreign places to explore the nature of houses without first agreeing on what counts as a house.

Let’s consider some notable attempts to conceptualize “religion” while keeping in mind our “house” analogy. When exploring the more specific category “world religion,” it will be useful to think of a similarly more specific categoiy of house: a mansion, and more specifically, an old mansion that has undergone a long process of refurbishing. Although certainly considered a type of house, a mansion has many rooms that serve a wide variety of functions and styles. Imagine an old mansion that has kept the same foundation and basic structure over the years, but to which various inhabitants have made changes that have enabled the structure to survive into modem times. Our study of the world’s religions is an invitation to explore several extraordinary “old mansions.” Our tools of study—beginning with considerations of definition —are designed to help us make the most of our explorations, to take in fully the teachings, the histories, and the practices of the world’s religions.