Blackwell Reference Online

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[xxxiv] A German technical term for the academic Study of religions, apart from Theology. Originally introduced by Friedrich Max Müller (1823–1900), it established itself as an academic discipline in German universities by the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th. The English translation of the word was always under debate because the term Wissenschaft refers to both sciences and humanities. Max Müller himself used the English form ‘science of religion’ but was not followed in this; later, translations such as ‘comparative religion’ or History of religion(s) had more success. Germans, however, are rather unhappy with these more current translations because of their selectivity. Each of these is for them typical of one or another sub-discipline of Religionswissenschaft, which itself covers all of them. It is therefore common in German universities to subdivide Religionswissenschaft into two main branches, one, Religionsgeschichte (history of religions), dealing with history, the development and the doctrines of different religions in the past and present, while the other, usually called systematische Religionswissenschaft, is more concerned with systematizing and theorizing religious data. To this second branch belong sub-disciplines such as ‘ethnology of religions’, ‘geography of religions’, Phenomenology of religion, Psychology of religion, Sociology of religion ... log in or subscribe to read full text