Classical Approaches to the Study of Religion : Aims, Methods, and Theories of Research 1-2

2 Volumes. Text in English. 742 and 332 pp. Dust jacket has some spots and stains, one tear on the rear. Volume 1 : Introduction and Anthology Volume 2 : Bibliography This two-volume study treats what may be called the classics for any study of religion: works by scholars of the past who, each in his own field, laid the foundations for further research on religion in literature and history, sociology and anthropology, psychology and phenomenology. In Volume One, an introductory essay gives an outline of the main orientations to be found in the study of religion over the past hundred years. This is followed by an anthology which contains texts by 41 scholars of the period, in which they speak of their aims, methods and theories of research. The scholarly study of religion requires much patient work on texts, monuments and artifacts from the past; it also requires fieldwork elsewhere and at home; it demands an open eye for present-day reorientations within and outside the major world religions. Behind such studies there are hypotheses and theories, assumptions and presuppositions, which constitute their methodological framework, their possibilities and their limitations. Any further elaboration and reflection on the results of the concrete investigations will have to take into account both the factual findings and the methods by which these discoveries were made. At present the study of religion has become a recognized field of research on religious expressions, their context and their meaning, in scholarly and human terms; in the period under consideration, by and large, it still was an adventure to submit religion to rational inquiry. In a book like this, it at once becomes apparent to what extent present-day research on religion is indebted to the work of former generations and where new departures have been taken. For those doing research on religion or being introduced to this area of studies, this publication will serve as an introduction to the history of the disciplines concerned, a reader in the methodology of the study of religion, a documentary source book and an indispensable bibliographical manual.…