ABSTRACT
Historical and comparative approaches to the study of religion were formative to the origins of religious studies and remain important today despite a withering critique of both by postmodern theorists. The two are linked together in our survey for various reasons. Each can refer to methods in the study of religion, but both the “history of religion” and “comparative religion” have been used as more general terms synonymous with the relatively new discipline of religious studies. These terms were used to distinguish the academic study of religion from traditional theological and philosophical studies. Comparative religion highlighted how this academic study of religion encompasses traditions, texts, myths, and rituals beyond Christianity, and uses comparison to categorize, abstract, and distill religious types, recurrent themes, and the diverse expressions of what may be more unified, or at least meaningfully related, religious modes. Similarly, the history of religion called for examining each religion’s history and the relationship among religions and between religion and other aspects of society aided by the historian’s questions, research methods, insights, and standards.
