ABSTRACT
The study of religion is shaped by successive waves of critical and theoretical thought that redefine the subject and its practice in each historical period. The waves of phenomenology, feminism, structuralism and social construction have all shaped thinking about religion through the twentieth century. Some of these theoretical shifts cause threats to any desire to hold a simple correspondence theory of truth, where observation of the object of study is assumed to be neutral, direct and immediate – a form of rationalism. It is because of this radical questioning that many scholars of religion have shown ambivalence to theory and many wish to avoid the implications of the various waves of thinking. Theory, however, provides the unavoidable epistemological ground of any discipline. The situation is made even more complex in the study of religion because theoretical questions emerge through the multi-disciplinary formation of the subject. This means that theoretical shifts are embraced through the various changes in philosophy, sociology, psychology and anthropology, to mention a few areas, rather than through any coherent engagement within the study of religion.
