Religious Studies

Religious studies is the objective, multidisciplinary study of religion — its beliefs, practices, experiences, and institutions across traditions.

Scope

It covers comparative religion, the phenomenology and psychology of religion, religious texts and traditions, and theories of religion.

Core questions

• What is religion, and how can it be studied objectively?
• What is common and distinctive across religions?
• What is the nature of religious experience?
• How do religions function in human life?

Key concepts

• The sacred
• Comparative religion
• Religious experience
• Myth and ritual
• Phenomenology of religion
• Secularization

Key theories

Religious experience

James analysed the varieties and psychology of religious experience.

The sacred and the profane

Eliade analysed the sacred as a distinct mode of experience structuring religious life.

History

Religious studies developed as a secular, comparative discipline drawing on the psychology (James), phenomenology (Eliade), sociology, and anthropology of religion.

Debates

Insider versus outsider study of religion

Whether religion is best understood from within faith traditions or through detached analysis.

Key figures

• William James
• Mircea Eliade

Seminal works

• james-1902
• eliade-1957

Frequently asked questions

How does religious studies differ from theology?

Religious studies analyses religion objectively and comparatively from outside any faith commitment; theology reasons from within a tradition.