The Objective Study of Religion and the Unique Quality of Religiousness
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20312331 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Frederick J Streng (Southern Methodist University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1970 |
| Volume | 6 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 209-219 |
| Publication date | 1970-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religious Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0034-4125 • E-ISSN: 1469-901X |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0034412500004534 |
| OpenAlex | W2020632529 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 4 |
The attempt to study religion objectively ( Religionswissenschaft ) has been part of the academic scene in the West for a century. Such men as F. Max Mueller, Edward Tylor, W. Brede Kristenson, Raffaele Peettazzoni, and Joachim Wach worked to develop such a truly scientific study of religion. They held that a study of religious data could reveal what religious life means for people who participate in it if methods are used which prevent a superimposition of the investigator's personal value judgments. At the same time, there has been the recognition by some scholars, including some of the above, that there is something about religious life that cannot be investigated by normal empirical methods. This sense of the uniqueness of religion is symbolised in Rudolf Otto's book The Idea of the Holy , where he maintains that in order to understand religion in its innermost core, an investigator must recognise ‘a unique “numinous” category of value and of a definitely “numinous” state of mind’. Our concern here is to examine one problem arising from the claim that religious life must be studied in terms of its own intention, or category of value; and yet studied through an inductive method which allows for the distinctive character of different historical expressions of religion
Aesthetics · Epistemology · Islam · Numinous · Order (exchange) · Religious experience · Religious life · Religious values · Sociology · Theology · Value (mathematics) · Mathematics · Philosophy · Psychology · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious Education and Schools · Religious studies · Study and Philosophy of Religion
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,08 |
| Citation span | 1975 - 1987 (13) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |