ABSTRACT
Jonathan Z. Smith also proposed a classification of four forms of comparison: encyclopedic, morphological, evolutionary, and ethnographic. Smith noted that ethnographic comparison is based essentially on travelers' impressions Features are compared which strike the eye of the traveler; comparison functions primarily as a means for overcoming strangeness. Smith's pronouncements on the plight of comparison have been eagerly exploited by proponents of relativist agendas in support of relativism and constructionism, and he has been referred to as a voice of authority on these matters. Smith refers also to the work of Hans Penner, who has demonstrated how the ideas of Donald Davidson could be put to good use in a philosophically informed general study of religion and of religious semantics. It was to Jonathan Z. Smith's credit, then, that he stuck with the problems of comparative analysis and tried to solve them rather than abandon them.
