ABSTRACT
This chapter contains approaches to syncretism as a dynamic factor of religion. To Herman Gunkel, the cardinal principle of historical study was to accept historical antecedents and he became one of the prime scholars to use the term syncretism in order to stress the historicity of religions. Hendrik M. Vroom, philosopher of religion, views the dynamic factor from the logical categorization of the incompatibilities of syncretistic elements, whereas the antropologist Roger Bastide takes a socio-historical stand to explain the dynamics of syncretism. Van der Leeuw is famous for quoting the historian of religions, Joachim Wach, and his claim that every religion is to an extent a "syncretism" because of its previous history as processes of amalgamation. There is a precedence of religious phenomena over cultural phenomena that make his theory a matter for theology rather than for the study of religion. Save for that, his theory of syncretism does not become less interesting.
