Geo Widengren On Syncretism

Strictly speaking, I am not an historian of religion. Consequently, my contribution to the subject, unlike most other contributions, will not be based on textual studies, philological analysis, or even on recent archaeological findings. My interests are different. Trusting the truth of Thomas Kuhn's observations regarding the functions of paradigms in scientific research 1), and Pierre Thevanez' contention that revolutions in thought come more from methodological than from substantive innovations 2), I am interested in certain approaches to religious studies that have been fostered recently in Scandinavia, and particularly at Uppsala and Lund. Aspiring to become something of an historian of the history of religion, I am suggesting that much can be learned by studying the traditions of scholarship by which the field has been formed. In addition, being of Swedish descent on my mother's side, my interest in Scandinavian religious self-consciousness, whether

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